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| | Ask HN: What next after PhD in physics? | |
2 points by _mjk on Oct 4, 2017 | hide | past | favorite | 5 comments
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| Hi HN!
I am about to finish my PhD in experimental physics next year (Europe), and I am thinking about what to do next.
I would like to get into CS, but I have no formal education. However, I am used to work in terminals, only have linux machines around me, know my way around git, have done a lot of data analysis and modelling in julia / python (setting up own packages, some testing included), and just started out with ruby / rails to realize an project of my own.
Ideally the next job would be in an English-speaking country (anywhere is fine). Since I do not have any experience / certificate to show off for CS, I thought doing a PostDoc might be a good idea. Well, is it? Should I rather look for an internship / first position?
Happy to hear your thoughts! _mjk |
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As for practitioner, I think you could jump right into a "data science" kind of role. Python is particularly good for that. Maybe also something with embedded systems.
I am not so sure how to switch fields for research. I was discouraged from doing that back in the day.
For background, I got a PhD in theoretical physics at Cornell in 1998. I did a postdoc for 1 year in Dresden, Germany. In school I did as much as I could in Java. I quit physics, went home and bought a farm close to Ithaca (my wife grew up 40 miles away.) She teaches kids to ride horses and since then I have done programming at Cornell, companies in the Ithaca area, remote, as a consultant, etc. I became the black sheep of my research group and I have gone through phases of intense soul-searching from time to time, but I am still here.