Wednesday, July 20, 2005
wht i'm goin to do?
Today till the 4 in the morning I have been working on the paper submission and still there are 2-3 days to go....now i sat down to write something in my blog....well my is kida lethargic....very bored with te researh stuff...waitin for the job....
Yesterday I read pam's blog.....he gave a research report on why one shld join a job rather than doin research......These days i started to think on what I should do in my life...wht is it that I want to achieve somethig in my life .... My father indirectly directs me to prepare for Civils but I dont think I can work with so much of dedication for 2 years. It is too terible trauma. Usully ppl perfect with experience but my experience of intermediate in Ramaiah is preventing me from taking such streneous work....Well in life to achieve something we have to work very hard. But the subjects which I should take for Civils never interested me. So in a way I'm avoiding preparing for civils. My interests are in doing an MBA from top colleges of the world. Recently I have heard about some top colleges in SPAIN. I enquired and found that they are excellent colleges. I dont know why but I dont like to go to US for an MBA. It might be because nostalagic feeling I developed over years reg US. So I will not go to US to make my livings. Even if I goI will return very early. My aim is to settle in India with very good salary, very good reputation, one house and a car. I want a simple and a beautiful wife (matured too).... So I think I would better do an international MBA to satisfy my professional urges and egos. So as soon I start goin for job in TCS I would just prepare for GMAT and I'm determined to join in any of the top 50 MBA colleges in the World........
Yesterday I read pam's blog.....he gave a research report on why one shld join a job rather than doin research......These days i started to think on what I should do in my life...wht is it that I want to achieve somethig in my life .... My father indirectly directs me to prepare for Civils but I dont think I can work with so much of dedication for 2 years. It is too terible trauma. Usully ppl perfect with experience but my experience of intermediate in Ramaiah is preventing me from taking such streneous work....Well in life to achieve something we have to work very hard. But the subjects which I should take for Civils never interested me. So in a way I'm avoiding preparing for civils. My interests are in doing an MBA from top colleges of the world. Recently I have heard about some top colleges in SPAIN. I enquired and found that they are excellent colleges. I dont know why but I dont like to go to US for an MBA. It might be because nostalagic feeling I developed over years reg US. So I will not go to US to make my livings. Even if I goI will return very early. My aim is to settle in India with very good salary, very good reputation, one house and a car. I want a simple and a beautiful wife (matured too).... So I think I would better do an international MBA to satisfy my professional urges and egos. So as soon I start goin for job in TCS I would just prepare for GMAT and I'm determined to join in any of the top 50 MBA colleges in the World........
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
PAMMY writes ON JOB AND RESEARCH
THIS IS AN ARTICLE WRITTEN BY PRATAP.....LIKED IT SO KEEPING IT IN MY BLOG
Why did I choose to do a job over going to US for higher studies?
I am writing this post for my own satisfaction rather than for people to learn something from it. Of late I am being troubled by questions from different people asking me as to why I chose to do a job rather than pursuing higher studies. I would like to come to a logical conclusion by the end of this post as to why doing a job immediately after B.Tech is lot more helpful to a person in planning his future than studying further. This discussion is nothing but the general confrontation in any fresh graduate's mind. I think I have made my choice long back (Say 1 year back) and am a bit stubborn about changing it. So, why does a job entice me more than a MS or a Ph.D? Is it the money? Is it the thing about early settlement in life that a job promises? Have I lost interest with studies altogether? or Have I grown too complacent to pursue studies further? Those are the things which people have in their mind when they ask me that question "Why did you prefer job over studying further?". I think it is for none of the above stated reasons that I prefer to do a job rather than study further. Let us see some points in greater detail... Why do most people do research?
The explanation to this can be summed up as follows...
1. We are pursuing our own interests (ideas) rather than being under someone else's influence (i.e. Working on some crap suggested to us by a project manager etc).
2. I will have better prospects after Ph.D rather than what I would get just after settling with a B.Tech. (Say a research position in IBM T.J. Watson Research Center). And this position would be held in greater esteem.
3. People with average academic scores are doing jobs, so, if I do the same job I will doing injustice to myself. What is the difference between me and that average candidate? (Ego problems)
4. A Ph.D would get me aid in a US university faster than a Masters.
5. I would like to end up in US and will try to get a green card and settle there. For this a Ph.D is better.
6. I am good at studies and the logical extension to that would be to end up doing a Ph.D.
7. My Professor has suggested me that I would be better off doing research than a non-technical or non-research oriented job. Since he talks for my own good, I will do research.
8. My Professor (or someone else) told me that since I am good at technical details I would have better future research side than the other side.
9. A Ph.D or a research job is something where I am being paid to do whatever I would like to do.
10. Academic life is cool without tensions.
11. This field is more interesting to me and I would like to seriously contribute something to this field and earn a permanent name for myself in my chosen area.
12. I want to become a professor and teach students. I would like to be identified as a great thinker in the society.
Now those were some of the reasons which I have seen people give me or seem to find for themselves to do research and Ph.D. From those explanations which I could get, only the 11th and 12th points seem to be the most logical and correct explanations for doing research or Ph.D. The reason why the others are illogical are...
1. Any Professor would never (I say never) advise his student to do a job. Take this for granted. He/She would always advise you to do research. This is because he likes that job and he tries to rub his interests on you.
2. A Professor if he has a research lab would always think of ways to make the lab better, and to make it better he needs better researchers (good and bright students). So, if he finds the spark in you, he will never try to leave you.
3. And again, this thing about research ==> No boring and non-intellectual work is something I would reject as fully wrong. A Ph.D does involve huge amounts of non-intellectual work.
a. First of all, after B.Tech most of them cannot even decide which area is good for them to work on.
b. Even if you choose an area, you will end up working on the problems suggested to you by your guide (true in 90% of the cases). What is so intellectual with a Ph.D. if you cannot even decide what you would like to work on.
c. Along with your own thesis, you will be made to work on various others jobs simultaneously (whatever your guide suggests you to do...). You generally become a readily available cheap labor for your professor doing all sorts of works in addition to what is really relevant to your work.
d. Students pursuing a Ph.D, most of them do not even know what kind of practical value their work really holds out there in the real world. People work on huge theoritical formulae, write big thesis documents etc etc, but how many of them really come out as successful products?
e. A student pursuing a Ph.D really does not and will never understand the practical value of his work. Because, most of the problems are suggested by the guide, he has to believe his guide's words and assume that the work really has some practical value. This I say is nothing but keeping blind faith in some mentor.
f. Some students I have seen trust and develop a bond with their guides to the extent that they start believing that whatever his guide tells him is for his (the student's own good). How can one justify this? To me as far as I have experienced in the lab, any guide works for his own benefit rather than for the student's own benefit. A professor (guide) is as goal oriented as any other project manager in a big company. This sentence is true (as far as I have seen and understood). g. Also believing a professor's ideas or any other person's ideas about your career shows nothing but your inability to make decisions for yourself.
h. Some papers submitted in conferences really look so cheap that you would really feel whether there is really any intellectual element in it.
4. Academic life looks cool to many people, because there is really no control on you. You are free to sleep, play, watch movies etc. All that becomes past time once you join a job. So, people think all this will remain the same if they stay back in colleges. So, Campus life is cool... But, is this statement really so? After B.Tech, most of your friends leave. You will be all alone. Also, if students do enjoy so much then when will they finish their thesis? So, after B.Tech campus life is not really so enjoyable as it was. It really turns out to be boring.
5. Most of them think research means less tension and more of self satisfaction . But is this really true? Most of them really lack concentration and determination. If that person chooses research as his career then he will be doing nothing but spoiling his/her career. Also, sometimes it does happen that people do not come up with great ideas, then for them the period ahead will be terrible (Until they produce a paper). So, is this job really without tensions and deadlines?
6. After a certain point of time, none of the so called researchers really do any research. Their jobs become more of managerial and teaching stuff.
7. Also this thing about people ending up with better prospects after Ph.D than after B.Tech is bullshit. What do people term as "better prospects"? Is it money? Is it satisfaction? or Is it something else? Research is like any other profession. So, if you have interest in doing research it will give you satisfaction and money. Otherwise, it as boring as any other job. And same is the case with any other normal job.
8. If a person does not come up with proper work in 3 to 4 years of study for Ph.D. It will with all possibility go on for another 3 to 4 years. So, what does this mean? That person has literally ruined his career (Is it not?).
9.Also people without even proper exposure to these jobs in companies tend to have biased thinking about the kind of work they will have to do. Someone tells them that a job is boring and they take it for granted. They do not even want to test it out for themselves, to see whether it is really so boring.
10. Though in the beginning research looks interesting, over a period of time you do research only because your livelihood depends on it (Not because of interest, this is true is most of the cases). I may not be able to support this with examples.
Some ideas I have about choosing research as a career...
1. Do research only when you are really interested with the subject.
2. Do it only when you think you can really contribute something to that you are working in.
3. Do not ever do research for the sake that someone suggested it to you. (Will be the biggest mistake you will ever commit in your life)
4. Do not ever use research or Ph.D as means to achieve secondary goals. E.g.: Going to USA, Getting funds etc.
The reason for this is, a career will be more interesting if you have interest in the work at hand. If you choose that career for some other purpose your future will look disgusting and boring to you. Then what about job? Yes, I do agree that after B.Tech all the students who get placed, do some stupid kind of jobs. Say testing etc. But, most of them think that it is the final destination that they will ever get to. They do not look 4 to 5 years ahead of where they are right now. Any company out there will definitely recognize you if you work properly. Your work will change depending on the interest you show in your career. If you really perform well, the work you do also becomes challenging year after year. Also, with (work) experience you will come to know atleast a bit about the practical value of the subjects you have learnt. This will definitely help you later to make better choices afterwards in choosing the areas for Masters or Ph.D. Also, 1 to 2 years of job will definitely show us whether we are really comfortable doing a job or should we go back to campuses to do research. Work experience always counts as a positive entity. So, leaving a job for research is always safer compared to the way round. Doing research (Ph.D.) for 1 year, getting dejected and then coming back will have a huge negative impact on your future. So, working in companies for 1 to 2 years after B.Tech will definitely tell us which career will give us satisfaction. Also we would have a better perspective towards the work we are doing (Say the research work). A job also does focus on your all round perspective like communication skills, team spirit etc which are not of so much importance in research. So, a job in a company would also give you oppurtunities to look into other aspects of your personality other than just intelligence. By shifting your presence from a university to a company will also give you a feel of the corporate world which would be different from what is in the university. Staying back in a campus (to do research) will definitely not give you this experience and there will be no change of environment around you. This I feel does not and will never give you a chance to see your other side like how you can fit into groups, how good are you in interacting with others etc. So, working for 1 to 2 years before planning on masters or Ph.D is much better a choice compared to diving full speed into Ph.D right after B.Tech. I would like to end with a note about the characteristics of the people who tend to do research. Most of them who stay back in campuses, generally becomes introverts (Not true always). This is because throughout their period of study their work environment lacks proper communication between individuals (Most of the Ph.D. work is invidual oriented rather than group oriented). Due, to this most of them (researchers) do lack some amount of team spirit. Most of them become kind of stubborn and unyielding. Egos develop to the maximum. (Also not true always). Most of them seem cut off from the external world around them. So, a person with such attitudes now, can safely opt for research than a job right after B.Tech
Why did I choose to do a job over going to US for higher studies?
I am writing this post for my own satisfaction rather than for people to learn something from it. Of late I am being troubled by questions from different people asking me as to why I chose to do a job rather than pursuing higher studies. I would like to come to a logical conclusion by the end of this post as to why doing a job immediately after B.Tech is lot more helpful to a person in planning his future than studying further. This discussion is nothing but the general confrontation in any fresh graduate's mind. I think I have made my choice long back (Say 1 year back) and am a bit stubborn about changing it. So, why does a job entice me more than a MS or a Ph.D? Is it the money? Is it the thing about early settlement in life that a job promises? Have I lost interest with studies altogether? or Have I grown too complacent to pursue studies further? Those are the things which people have in their mind when they ask me that question "Why did you prefer job over studying further?". I think it is for none of the above stated reasons that I prefer to do a job rather than study further. Let us see some points in greater detail... Why do most people do research?
The explanation to this can be summed up as follows...
1. We are pursuing our own interests (ideas) rather than being under someone else's influence (i.e. Working on some crap suggested to us by a project manager etc).
2. I will have better prospects after Ph.D rather than what I would get just after settling with a B.Tech. (Say a research position in IBM T.J. Watson Research Center). And this position would be held in greater esteem.
3. People with average academic scores are doing jobs, so, if I do the same job I will doing injustice to myself. What is the difference between me and that average candidate? (Ego problems)
4. A Ph.D would get me aid in a US university faster than a Masters.
5. I would like to end up in US and will try to get a green card and settle there. For this a Ph.D is better.
6. I am good at studies and the logical extension to that would be to end up doing a Ph.D.
7. My Professor has suggested me that I would be better off doing research than a non-technical or non-research oriented job. Since he talks for my own good, I will do research.
8. My Professor (or someone else) told me that since I am good at technical details I would have better future research side than the other side.
9. A Ph.D or a research job is something where I am being paid to do whatever I would like to do.
10. Academic life is cool without tensions.
11. This field is more interesting to me and I would like to seriously contribute something to this field and earn a permanent name for myself in my chosen area.
12. I want to become a professor and teach students. I would like to be identified as a great thinker in the society.
Now those were some of the reasons which I have seen people give me or seem to find for themselves to do research and Ph.D. From those explanations which I could get, only the 11th and 12th points seem to be the most logical and correct explanations for doing research or Ph.D. The reason why the others are illogical are...
1. Any Professor would never (I say never) advise his student to do a job. Take this for granted. He/She would always advise you to do research. This is because he likes that job and he tries to rub his interests on you.
2. A Professor if he has a research lab would always think of ways to make the lab better, and to make it better he needs better researchers (good and bright students). So, if he finds the spark in you, he will never try to leave you.
3. And again, this thing about research ==> No boring and non-intellectual work is something I would reject as fully wrong. A Ph.D does involve huge amounts of non-intellectual work.
a. First of all, after B.Tech most of them cannot even decide which area is good for them to work on.
b. Even if you choose an area, you will end up working on the problems suggested to you by your guide (true in 90% of the cases). What is so intellectual with a Ph.D. if you cannot even decide what you would like to work on.
c. Along with your own thesis, you will be made to work on various others jobs simultaneously (whatever your guide suggests you to do...). You generally become a readily available cheap labor for your professor doing all sorts of works in addition to what is really relevant to your work.
d. Students pursuing a Ph.D, most of them do not even know what kind of practical value their work really holds out there in the real world. People work on huge theoritical formulae, write big thesis documents etc etc, but how many of them really come out as successful products?
e. A student pursuing a Ph.D really does not and will never understand the practical value of his work. Because, most of the problems are suggested by the guide, he has to believe his guide's words and assume that the work really has some practical value. This I say is nothing but keeping blind faith in some mentor.
f. Some students I have seen trust and develop a bond with their guides to the extent that they start believing that whatever his guide tells him is for his (the student's own good). How can one justify this? To me as far as I have experienced in the lab, any guide works for his own benefit rather than for the student's own benefit. A professor (guide) is as goal oriented as any other project manager in a big company. This sentence is true (as far as I have seen and understood). g. Also believing a professor's ideas or any other person's ideas about your career shows nothing but your inability to make decisions for yourself.
h. Some papers submitted in conferences really look so cheap that you would really feel whether there is really any intellectual element in it.
4. Academic life looks cool to many people, because there is really no control on you. You are free to sleep, play, watch movies etc. All that becomes past time once you join a job. So, people think all this will remain the same if they stay back in colleges. So, Campus life is cool... But, is this statement really so? After B.Tech, most of your friends leave. You will be all alone. Also, if students do enjoy so much then when will they finish their thesis? So, after B.Tech campus life is not really so enjoyable as it was. It really turns out to be boring.
5. Most of them think research means less tension and more of self satisfaction . But is this really true? Most of them really lack concentration and determination. If that person chooses research as his career then he will be doing nothing but spoiling his/her career. Also, sometimes it does happen that people do not come up with great ideas, then for them the period ahead will be terrible (Until they produce a paper). So, is this job really without tensions and deadlines?
6. After a certain point of time, none of the so called researchers really do any research. Their jobs become more of managerial and teaching stuff.
7. Also this thing about people ending up with better prospects after Ph.D than after B.Tech is bullshit. What do people term as "better prospects"? Is it money? Is it satisfaction? or Is it something else? Research is like any other profession. So, if you have interest in doing research it will give you satisfaction and money. Otherwise, it as boring as any other job. And same is the case with any other normal job.
8. If a person does not come up with proper work in 3 to 4 years of study for Ph.D. It will with all possibility go on for another 3 to 4 years. So, what does this mean? That person has literally ruined his career (Is it not?).
9.Also people without even proper exposure to these jobs in companies tend to have biased thinking about the kind of work they will have to do. Someone tells them that a job is boring and they take it for granted. They do not even want to test it out for themselves, to see whether it is really so boring.
10. Though in the beginning research looks interesting, over a period of time you do research only because your livelihood depends on it (Not because of interest, this is true is most of the cases). I may not be able to support this with examples.
Some ideas I have about choosing research as a career...
1. Do research only when you are really interested with the subject.
2. Do it only when you think you can really contribute something to that you are working in.
3. Do not ever do research for the sake that someone suggested it to you. (Will be the biggest mistake you will ever commit in your life)
4. Do not ever use research or Ph.D as means to achieve secondary goals. E.g.: Going to USA, Getting funds etc.
The reason for this is, a career will be more interesting if you have interest in the work at hand. If you choose that career for some other purpose your future will look disgusting and boring to you. Then what about job? Yes, I do agree that after B.Tech all the students who get placed, do some stupid kind of jobs. Say testing etc. But, most of them think that it is the final destination that they will ever get to. They do not look 4 to 5 years ahead of where they are right now. Any company out there will definitely recognize you if you work properly. Your work will change depending on the interest you show in your career. If you really perform well, the work you do also becomes challenging year after year. Also, with (work) experience you will come to know atleast a bit about the practical value of the subjects you have learnt. This will definitely help you later to make better choices afterwards in choosing the areas for Masters or Ph.D. Also, 1 to 2 years of job will definitely show us whether we are really comfortable doing a job or should we go back to campuses to do research. Work experience always counts as a positive entity. So, leaving a job for research is always safer compared to the way round. Doing research (Ph.D.) for 1 year, getting dejected and then coming back will have a huge negative impact on your future. So, working in companies for 1 to 2 years after B.Tech will definitely tell us which career will give us satisfaction. Also we would have a better perspective towards the work we are doing (Say the research work). A job also does focus on your all round perspective like communication skills, team spirit etc which are not of so much importance in research. So, a job in a company would also give you oppurtunities to look into other aspects of your personality other than just intelligence. By shifting your presence from a university to a company will also give you a feel of the corporate world which would be different from what is in the university. Staying back in a campus (to do research) will definitely not give you this experience and there will be no change of environment around you. This I feel does not and will never give you a chance to see your other side like how you can fit into groups, how good are you in interacting with others etc. So, working for 1 to 2 years before planning on masters or Ph.D is much better a choice compared to diving full speed into Ph.D right after B.Tech. I would like to end with a note about the characteristics of the people who tend to do research. Most of them who stay back in campuses, generally becomes introverts (Not true always). This is because throughout their period of study their work environment lacks proper communication between individuals (Most of the Ph.D. work is invidual oriented rather than group oriented). Due, to this most of them (researchers) do lack some amount of team spirit. Most of them become kind of stubborn and unyielding. Egos develop to the maximum. (Also not true always). Most of them seem cut off from the external world around them. So, a person with such attitudes now, can safely opt for research than a job right after B.Tech
