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Comment by cadeira | Hacker News Reader

This is a good addition. Did you do a PhD in Math as well? My idea is to pursue a PhD in CS, but have a very theoretical bent. I was concerned since essentially I am studying pure math, under the CS department I'd have similar prospects as a Math PhD. But my aim is to set myself up for industry skills upon graduation, so I'll ensure I beef up my software and leetcode skills as Kevin recommended.

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I am a maths PhD researcher in a CS department, just like you describe. In a few short words, my recommendation would be that you do the PhD for its own sake, not as a tool to get a higher-paying job or to learn for an industry job. If you want the latter, you're better off elsewhere, plus you will probably be miserable in a PhD. Be sure that you get into it for the sake of doing research in a field you like (even though it surely will net you numerous other benefits) because if you don't then you will not enjoy your time and also probably be at a disadvantage compared to not doing a PhD.

Myself I'm not particularly worried about maximising income or whatever. I like what I'm studying and researching, and I'm paid enough to live a comfortable life at least for now. I could honestly do this for the rest of my life (which is what an academia career is, I suppose), but if I ever get fed up with it I also know I have loads of doors open everywhere, which is certainly a comforting thought.

Agreed. I’d be doing the PhD for its own sake.

Also another thing other people have mentioned: do not go into debt to fund your PhD, you should be able to get a scholarship/stipend to pay for tuition and living expenses. By your username I infer you're an EU citizen. If this is the case then this gives you loads of opportunities throughout Europe on the same terms as nationals, which means that you have many excellent universities usually with good funding opportunities (though in 9 days that will be the UK out of that set, sadly; I myself got in last year still in time :p).

Best of luck!

Mine was CS with a stats twist, yes. Fortunately the stats component put me in good stead for industry work.

I'd say TCS and pure math are about equivalent in terms of the career opportunties they offer.

Something I forgot to mention: under no circumstances should you self-fund a PhD. Make sure you have a stipend to keep food on the table. Self-funding magnifies the risks I've described tenfold.

This is a realistic perspective of what grad school is like in the average-to-bad case. I could identify with parts of it:

http://nautil.us/issue/56/perspective/what-does-any-of-this-...

> under no circumstances should you self-fund a PhD

Second this. I was told before starting "If you have to pay to do a PhD you're doing it wrong." This may not apply to fields like Literature, but it most certainly applies to Math and CS.

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