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Ask HN: Advice for an academic looking for a career change?

7 points by clintonc ↗ HN
I earned a Ph.D. in mathematics a few years ago and have been teaching mathematics at institutions of higher learning ever since. I have become dispirited with the industry and have decided to seek non-academic employment. (The horror!) I have always loved technology and programming, so I am wondering if the tech sector is still open to me.

The facts:

* I have been programming a long time; I've used C, C++, Java, Python, Javascript, and MATLAB seriously, and some others non-seriously.

* I use Linux all the time, and administer a Linux server as part of my service to the college.

* As an undergrad and Ph.D. student, I took a bunch of computer science courses (including courses on distributed, parallel, and grid computing).

* Man, I'm great with TeX.

* My mathematics field is not terribly computer-sciency or otherwise applied. However, I've taught the gamut of the undergraduate mathematics curriculum, and I would like to think that I have a pretty broad knowledge of mathematics.

To you, I ask the following:

* Do you know someone who has walked this path?

* What would you think if my application came across your desk?

* How can I make myself attractive to potential employers?

6 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 11.8 ms ] thread
tostitos1979
I'm trying to do this now. My Phd is in CS, however. Some friends looked at my CV and gave me comments .. wow ... quite the eye opener. Some suggestions that helped me:

1) Remove the royal "we". You need to be very specific about what you did on projects.

2) Have a skills section. I found this profoundly disturbing as I feel I can work with a very large variety of programming languages/frameworks.

3) Remove papers or just have notable papers. These go at the end of your resume.

4) Keep your resume short! 1-2 pages

5) Don't sell yourself short. Many good academics jokingly talk smack about the PhD. At the end of the day, not every Tom, Dick or Harry could have earned one of these (especially from a notable University). Build up on the self-esteem if you are a burned out academic.

I got a few interviews from a few big companies but I decided to try my luck with startups. Lets see how it turns out for me. Best of luck to you!

ASpring
These are great points.

The overarching theme here is that an academic CV != a resume. They are completely different animals and no HR employee wants to read 5 pages of citations of your published papers.

_dps
I'm a former professor, now startup founder, and I know many people who have followed similar paths. Email me (see my profile), ideally with a copy of your CV, if you'd like to chat in detail :-)
tostitos1979
I googled you and was pretty impressed by how you managed to switch from a traditional academic career to that of a founder. Any tips for how you managed to build up a successful consulting practice early on? Specifically, how did you go about finding paying customers?

Thanks!

_dps
I suspect this thread is dead but if you're still watching it I'd be happy to take it up over email :) (see my profile and shoot me a quick note).
phantom_oracle
Coding isn't your only career path you can consider.

As a mathematician, you could pretty much go into a large array of fields.

I've heard of many PhD physicists being the rockstars of the financial trading markets.

Don't restrict yourself to just coding and tech firms, if you got the skills, try applying anywhere within reasonable bounds. You may find another career more rewarding.