
Seeking help moving from academia (Econ prof, Math PhD) to industry (Data Sci.) - davidmayerf
Hi, My name is David. I am Mathematics PhD ( received my Bachelor&#x27;s and Master&#x27;s degree from Oxford and my doctoral degree from UNAM in Mexico) and I am currently an Economics professor. Over the last couple of years, I have become increasingly interested in Data Science and Machine Learning and I would like to make the transition to industry work. I have spent most of my professional career as an academic, and would really appreciate any advice on making this transition!
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qwrusz
Hi David,

I made a similar move to industry work many years ago. My advice is to clarify
what interests you, as data science and machine learning are huge fields. Also
"machine learning" is still hard to pin down what that even means these days.
If you're willing to start off in a data science role without a heavy machine
learning aspect to it, that's very easy; there's tons of companies (startups
like Uber and more mature companies like Facebook) that have entire nap rooms
of data scientists with PhD's working there and some super interesting data to
work with.

If there is a specific area of data science and/or machine learning or other
work going on that interests you that you come across, email a PhD at the
company doing this work. Many of these people still publish papers at
conferences or at the very least have blogs describing what they are working
on. Find a company that's doing work that interests you and email the
researcher. Don't go through HR. Email the person directly and ask to chat. I
found PhD's working in industry to be very receptive to talk to someone
qualified and with an interest in the work as they have likely been in your
shoes before. Go from there. GL!

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davidmayerf
Thanks for your reply! It is very down to earth and to the point.

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rchaud
A friend recently recommended the 7-week tuition-free Data Science intensive
program at Insight Data Science
([http://insightdatascience.com/](http://insightdatascience.com/)).

The program is specifically for PhDs who are in your position, aka moving from
academia to industry. I believe the course is available in Boston, New York
and remotely (not 100% sure of the latter).

I'm in a similar boat. I studied Economics in undergrad, but I only have a
Masters (in an unrelated field) so I didn't meet the critieria.

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jonhurlock
First step apply. With that background, you have a high chance of getting a
job straight off.

The problem you may face, is you will need to know how to program in a
'production' environment. So were as in academia you can be a single person
running code, in industry, you will have multiple people utilise and check
your code. It will have to be robust and scalable. So you may need to brush up
on programming skills, though you could be great from the start.

Something I've seen with Academics, is that whilst they are great at solving
detailed problems, they sometimes fail to present the impact of their work in
a business context, or what they can offer and how it solves business
problems, rather than just "interesting" problems.

My advice would be to apply and see what comes back, and get feedback from the
people you apply to.

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davidmayerf
Thanks! That is more or less what I am doing

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Rainymood
Interesting! How did you go from Math PhD to econ professor? I doubt you just
applied to some econ tenure position. Please elaborate, I am very curious
about your history!

The reason I am asking this is because I'm enrolled in an econ PhD myself
(spec. in advanced econometrics) and I am extremely interested in machine
learning and data science. I am constantly looking for ways to combine the two
in interesting ways. It's nice to meet someone like-minded.

~~~
davidmayerf
Send me your e-mail, I'll get in touch. I hope to keep on doing Econ with
machine learning whatever happens. I did just apply to an econ tenure
position, but it was not in the US.

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Rainymood
I am not entirely sure how to private message someone on HN so I will
temporarily put my email in my profile.

~~~
davidmayerf
Thanks, got it, I'll write soon

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pjmorris
Can you find an industry collaborator to work with on a research project? I'd
wager someone in your department is willing to bend your ear about
interdisciplinary collaborations. Finding (or proposing) something
interesting, then applying data science techniques could yield learning,
funding, and publications. Rinse and repeat until you've got the skills you
want or the new job you want.

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maxmoo
can i have your old job? i've been in industry for last couple of years after
finishing my phd, and my job feels futile and meaningless (btw yes i'm good at
solving "business problems", but i feel pretty depressed/terrified if this is
going to be my lasting contribution to the world)

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davidmayerf
Is your PhD in Economics? Maybe there would be a place for you where I work.

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pravenj
Could collaborate on a project that I am contemplating as well as testing out
bits and pieces. One thing though I probably am located very far from you and
the project would be more of a research project. If interested a few rounds of
emails might become a path to follow.

~~~
davidmayerf
Write me at david.shindo@gmail.com

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itamarst
Beyond other suggestions there's things like
[http://insightdatascience.com/](http://insightdatascience.com/), which is
specifically aimed at PhDs.

~~~
davidmayerf
Great suggestion!

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pgroot
just do what you want to do the best you can do, and learn as you go. mistakes
happen and you learn from them. There are plenty of academics who have moved
to industry in your field, may be they can chime in. but you should just
apply, and go from there.

~~~
davidmayerf
OK, great, that is what I am trying!

