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A Career in Computer Science. Jon Crowcroft , http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jac22 http:// www.cl.cam.ac.uk /~jac22/ zen-lab.txt. Q Set. What opportunities for jobs are you aware of at your organization or from your past experience?
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A Career in Computer Science Jon Crowcroft, http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jac22 http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jac22/zen-lab.txt
Q Set • What opportunities for jobs are you aware of at your organization or from your past experience? • What type of skills and experience (e.g. an internship, teaching) have you found most valuable for your career? • What is the most important piece of advice that was useful to you in making your career choices? • What do you wish you knew before you started building a computing career, but didn't.
Job Opportunities (Q1) • Don’t ask me – I never applied for a job • But note, CS departments are hiring • In US and UK (e.g. ucl ) • Most people agree there’s a tech bubble • So take care if you move to industry
Balance (Q2) • Teaching • Essential for learning and inspiring new Masters/ PhDs • Research • Have too many ideas – filter later • Admin • Grant proposal writing IS a discipline • Service to the community • TPCs/Editors – learn the problem space/gap analysis • Give seminars – get visible, get feedback
Be picky but also promiscuous (Q3) • Firsts REALLY REALLY matter • Your first internship – go somewhere great for hard pb • Your first postdoc posn • Be a small fish in a big pond – get exposed to cool stuff in spades • Your first academic position • Go somewhere where teaching and admin are balanced • And people aren’t to scared of the REF
Be picky but…. • Your first PhD student • Is your best advertisement • Your first RA • Is lever with which you can move the moon (don’t stand on them though • Any industry work • May get you easier money (internships v. good) • Once you’ve got the hang of it, • Get as many as you can sensibly • For me, max of 3 phds per year (i.e. 9-12 total) and 3 RAs is most could ever cope with • Compute cost - need research income of 300k pa.
Relevance • In CS, being relevant is easy • People claim (in theory) that they can’t see how their work has an impact coz their work takes 10 years to get used • People claim (in practice) having an impact reduces them to working for industry, coz people out there use our stuff…. • Other subject disciplines would love to have our problems • Have fun!!! (Q4)