Academic vs. Industrial Research Jobs

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Academic vs. Industrial Research Jobs

• Jennifer Rexford

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My Story

• Princeton EE undergrad, UMichgan EECS grad school
• PhD on hardware support for communication in
  parallel machines
• Four summers working at ATT in the research lab
• Two before grad school, and two during grad
  school
• Grant from ATT Research during graduate school
• Job search at end of grad school
• Interviewed for a mixture of academic and
  industry jobs
• Ultimately, decided I preferred an industrial
  research job
• Nine years at ATT Research
• Same department where I had been a summer intern
• Enjoyed having real data, doing tech transfer,
  working with peers
• Ten months at Princeton, and counting
• Making the transition to academic life

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Choosing Industry Over Academia

• Strategic aspects
• Wanted to switch research areas, to data
  networking
• Thought industrial experience would enhance
  research and teaching
• Personal taste and experience
• Enjoyed tech transfer and working on real-world
  problems
• Wanted to focus exclusively on research work for
  a few years
• Knew I really liked ATT from my summer job
  experiences
• Balancing trade-offs
• But, I also wanted to do research, stay
  professionally active, mentor students, teach,
  and everything else academics do
• Found I could do these in industry, in different
  proportions and ways
• though, with extra effort (and negotiation) to
  make room for it
• This balance is arguably harder to strike in
  industry labs today

4
Choosing Academia Over Industry

• Personal growth
• Ready to take on a new set of professional
  challenges
• Felt ready to (try to) juggle a wider range of
  responsibilities
• Feeling a little too comfortable in the
  technical work I was doing
• Shift in research direction
• Wanted to step back to do more clean slate
  research, building on the operational perspective
  from ATT
• Wanted ultimately to branch into some other
  research topics, and make connections across
  disciplines
• Interaction with students
• Found I was happiest in the summers, when
  students were around
• Wanted more of an opportunity for teaching
• Balancing trade-offs
• Striving to keep my research grounded in reality,
  with extra effort

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What Does Industry Look For?

• Hard question to answer
• Differs across research groups, and non-research
  industry jobs
• Some common elements
• Subject-matter expertise
• Knowledge of an important technology or problem
  area (e.g., a particular protocol)
• Problem focus rather than technique focus
• Emphasis on formulating and solving problems,
  moreso than applying a particular technique (the
  nail, not the hammer)
• though having your own special hammer is good,
  too!
• Willingness to jump right in
• Talk to practitioners, write code, collaborate
  with others, be a hub node, share your
  expertise,

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Advice for Deciding What You Want

• Getting to know your own personal taste
• What kinds of problems you like to solve?
• What part of solving a problem most excites you?
• Working alone? Managing a group? Working with
  peers?
• Focusing on one thing vs. juggling many things?
• Keeping your options open
• Selecting an interesting and important research
  problem
• Worrying about whether you are working on the
  right problem
• Acquiring domain knowledge, skills, and practical
  perspective
• Interacting with industry, through collaboration
  and internships
• Resist ranking either type of job over the other
• Ultimately, the specifics of the place matter a
  lot
• Some industry job may be better for you than some
  academic job
• and vice versa no need to form a total
  ordering in advance

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Internships at Industrial Labs

• Working with new people on new problems
• Valuable complement to your PhD research
• Figuring out what you like
• Gives you a sense of whether you like industrial
  work
• and whether you like that particular company
• Gives you an in for a full-time job later
• Try before you buy, for you and the company
• Enhances your thesis research
• Access to interesting problems, domain knowledge,
  and real data
• Opportunity to see your ideas applied in practice
• Building your resume
• Work experience and domain knowledge
• Publications with other researchers

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Job Questions Research Area

• What government agencies would you target for
  funding your research?
• What companies would use your research? Any
  small companies?
• In what conferences/journals would you publish
  your work? How do these conferences/journals
  differ in the type of papers they publish?
• Who are your "competitors" at other schools?
• Is it possible for academic researchers to make
  significant contributions to your field, or are
  industrial technology and resources necessary?

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Job Questions The Department

• What would you consider as the weaknesses in our
  department?
• Who here would you consider as potential
  collaborators?
• Who would you consider as potential mentors in
  the department?
• Which of our courses are you qualified to teach?
• Which of our courses are you most interested in
  teaching?

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Job Questions Teaching

• Given that existing technologies and tools will
  be obsolete in a few years, what should we teach
  our students?
• How would you approach developing a curriculum
  from scratch?
• What is your teaching philosophy?
• What do you think about having undergraduates
  serve as TAs?
• If an undergraduate wanted to work with you, what
  type of project would you give them?

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Job Questions Research Plan

• What start-up funds/facilities would you need to
  establish your research?
• How would you organize/manage your research
  group?
• How many graduate students would you like to have
  in your group?
• Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten
  years?
• What would be possible titles for the first
  three PhD thesis projects in your research group?
• What new courses would you create on your
  research area?

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Job Questions Philosophical

• How did you decide what school to attend for your
  PhD?
• How did you choose your thesis topic?
• What would you consider as your biggest weakness
  in starting a faculty position?
• If you start having difficulty juggling the
  combination of research, teaching, advising, and
  proposal-writing, what would you do to fix the
  problem?
• Do you have entrepreneurial aspirations?
• Who would you most like to emulate?
• What are your non-technical interests?
• What factors will determine which
  academic/research position is most attractive to
  you?