

Ask HN: How to keep doing research work if not enrolled in any PhD program? - AnupSavvy

Probably the best option would be to get into labs like IBM research, HP or Microsoft research lab but most of the time I have seen they take Phd candidates. Due to some reasons I am not in a position to go for Phd but I am interested in some work that encourages research work and publications.
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blhack
Do you mean get hired, or do you mean keep doing research?

Consider Alexander Shulgin:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Shulgin#Life_and_care...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Shulgin#Life_and_career)

A bit of a hero in the bio-chemistry world. He was working at DOW chemical,
and when he was assigned to a project that he wasn't interested in, he quit,
and continued doing research and publishing from his house.

There is a lot of research to be done in the fields of computational
linguistics and machine learning. Get yourself a coffee maker, and start
hacking. You might eventually need to save up for some nice cuda gear, but
there is no reason that you can't research from your garage.

~~~
polyfractal
While Shulgin was certainly a very cool fellow and did exceptional research,
he also had a pretty unique situation. Being friends with the head of the DEA
he was able to get a DEA license to work on scheduled compounds.

Your average Joe won't have those kind of connections, or even access to
current literature, which rather limits you to certain fields (i.e. not
anything biology, chemistry or probably physics).

~~~
blhack
OP isn't asking about doing things that would be normally regulated by the
DEA.

I'm just using Shulgin as an example of somebody who went "screw it" and kept
researching things on their own.

~~~
polyfractal
Yeah, fair point. And hey, this guy built a mass-spec in his garage, so a lot
can be done in a non-academic environment:

[http://benkrasnow.blogspot.com/2011/03/diy-scanning-
electron...](http://benkrasnow.blogspot.com/2011/03/diy-scanning-electron-
microscope.html)

~~~
polyfractal
Whoops, I meant an electron microscope, not a mass spec!

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iqster
You can get hired at all these places without a PhD. Your job title may not be
"Researcher" though. At MSR, there is a category called "RSDE-Research
Software Design Engineer", and at IBM Research, there is a related position.
Your focus in these roles is to support the research activity of the lab. For
some, this might mean writing grunt code. For most, this means being a part of
the research team, doing actual research, getting your name on papers, etc.
How do you get one of these jobs? Keep a lookout on HR web pages. Believe it
or not, these positions do open up from time to time. You have to be a strong
developer - very independent, as no one is usually there to hold your hand.

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kakali
There are also government and commercial jobs for research engineers that
don't require a PhD. You play as second fiddle but you still get time to work
on improving algorithms or coming up with your own. Willow Garage has a job
opening that you might look at: <http://www.willowgarage.com/jobs/research-
engineer>

~~~
AnupSavvy
Many thanks!!!

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khandelwal
You can also get hired at a research group in a university without a PhD (as a
full-time developer for example). The pay is not competitive with industry,
but you get to work on interesting problems. I do this at Penn State.

~~~
AnupSavvy
:) true. Hence I work full-time on a research funded job at Cornell
University.

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04ldd
you can start doing independent research as has been suggested. you need to
believe in yourself, however, and trust that the plan will pan out in the end.
maybe it won't but did you have something to lose?

edit: also a valid set of questions might be: are you after recognition or
personal intellectual growth? why do you think that organizations like IBM is
the place for you? DO you need somebody else to guide you or maybe share the
research experience?

~~~
AnupSavvy
I need money to survive. Just by doing research on my own I won't get paid.
Doing Phd helps because most of the time one gets to work on interesting stuff
and get paid by grants. Work at a good place like IBM ( and any other company
which provides research based work ) would help me achieve both ( money and
good work ). I can try and do routine software work for some company and carry
out interesting projects in free time but it will have some limitations. At
this stage of my life I cannot sit and do just research. I need someone to pay
me for my living.

