2013 CRA-W
Graduate Cohort Workshop
PhD Industry
Career Paths
Maryam Kamvar Garrett (Google)
Suju Rajan (Yahoo!)
Amanda Stent (AT&T)
Outline
 Introductions and career journeys
 Careers in industry
 Making the choice: Research or non-research?
 An engineer in industry
 A researcher in industry
 Preparing for a career in industry
 Transitioning
 Becoming a technical leader
 Networking and collaboration
 Resources
Questions
How many different career paths can one
have in industry?
Maryam Kamvar Garrett
Suju Rajan
• Education:
– PhD in Electrical & Computer Engineering, UT Austin
– BE in Electronics & Communications Engineering,
University of Madras, India
• Research interests
– Machine Learning, Data/Web Mining, Information
Retrieval
• Work:
– Sr. Manager leading a team performing applied research
on Personalization & Content Science
Amanda Stent
• Computational linguist working on dialog systems,
natural language generation, assistive technology
1. Principal Member of Technical Staff, AT&T Labs –
Research
2. Associate/Assistant Professor, Computer Science,
Stony Brook University
3. Postdoc, AT&T Labs – Research
4. PhD student, Computer Science, University of
Rochester
• Also: married, taekwondo student, pianist, EMT in
training
Careers in Industry
• Software or hardware or services
companies
• Start-ups
• Research labs
• Govt. agencies
• Non-IT companies
– High finance, healthcare, legal, …
How many of you have worked at a non-IT
company?
Making the Choice
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Industry-quality coder vs. prototyping?
Deep technical support, debugging and testing?
Well-defined goals and project deliverables?
Patenting and/or publishing?
Working on deep research problems?
Be your own boss (to an extent)?
Want to go to academia later?
Impact to company product roadmap?
Pace of career growth?
Who has done an informational interview?
An Engineer in Industry
• Participates in the design, test, implementation,
and/or support of software applications, products
and solutions
– Design, code, unit test
– Quality Assurance: Functional Test, System Test,
Regression
– Performance: measurement, analysis, change
– Deep technical support and debugging
– Tools development
• Contributes to Intellectual Property
– Patents and papers
• Contributes to employer’s bottom-line
– Supports the sales process and ongoing customer
satisfaction
– Proactively pleases customers
How many of you worked in CS or IT before
going to graduate school?
A Researcher in Industry
• Proactive leader in the creation of new and innovative
products and services (applied research)
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–
–
–
Task definition
Design: requirements specification
Tools development
Collaboration with product development teams
• Participates in foundational inventions (basic research)
– Task definition
– Tools and prototypes
• Contributes to Intellectual Property
– Patents and papers
• Contributes to employer’s bottom-line
– Proactively develops new and innovative products and services
– Seeks productive partnerships with other business units and
external collaborators
Preparing for a Career in
Industry
• Internships
– Try out a corporate culture, job type, industry
– Establish connections
• Experience counts a lot!
– Work on real-world relevant problems
– Technical skills need to be up-to-date and fluent
• Build your professional network, make yourself
visible
– Build a list of references
– Keep your web presence up-to-date
Have you done an internship?
Transitioning
Academia
Industry
 Active publishing in top tier
conferences
 Active collaborations with
academia
 Establish visibility in
research community
 Must build “real” systems
 Up-to-date technical skills
 Understand business
roadmaps
 Establish visibility in
industry, startups
How many of you hope to work both in academia
and in industry?
Becoming a Technical Leader
• Technical depth and breadth
– Your “brand”: what do you want to be known for?
• Credentials
– Vita, patents, publications, awards
• Communications skills
– Correct, concise, clear, match form and style to occasion
• Basic skills
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–
–
–
“Business” sense – understanding the broad goals
Prioritization and time management
Analytic and negotiation skills
Learn to lead without power
• A good character
– Trustworthy, committed, positive, self-aware, empowered
– Recognize everyone’s contributions
• Avoid derailment
Becoming a Technical Leader
Who comes to mind when you think “technical
leader”?
How are you different from or similar to that
person?
Networking is Important
• Networking is important
– Visibility, research
– Mentors, team members
• Contribute to your network
• Making professional connections
– Not a substitute for doing quality work
• Collaborate with academia
– Funding, internships, joint projects/publications
• Partner with business groups within the company
– Technology transfer
Networking is Important
Do you belong to an online professional network?
Do you have a mentor?
Do you mentor someone else?
Resources
• Cracking the Coding Interview, Gayle Laakmann McDowell, 2011
• How To Be a Star at Work: 9 Breakthrough Strategies You Need
to Succeed, Robert E. Kelley, 1998
• Ask For It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to
Get What They Really Want, Linda Babcock & Sara Laschever, 2008
• First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers
Do Differently, Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, 1999
• Networking Like a Pro: Turning Contacts into Connections, Ivan
Misner, David Alexander, Brian Hilliard, 2010
• Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and
Reap Big Results, Morten Hansen, 2009
• Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger
Fisher, William Ury & Bruce Patton, 1991
• Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office, Lois Frankel, 2010