2019 PhD Student Orientation John Ousterhout Director of Graduate Studies Welcome to Stanford! We’re excited that you chose to come to Stanford, and we’re looking forward to working with you. PhD students are largely responsible for both the results and the energy of the department.

PhD Student Orientation Your Career The next year The next 5 years The next 50 years You are about to make the biggest transition of your career: the difference between last year and this year is much larger than any other previous transition. September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

PhD Student Orientation The Next Year September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

It’s All About Rotations Job #1: find the right advisor The Curse of the Open Door Are you in the right subfield? Most important overall factor for success as a graduate student Advisors guide students through the transition to research (no class for this) How to choose projects, carry them out, present the results, and behave professionally Other topics: choosing a career, general life issues September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

PhD Student Orientation About Rotations Rotations allow students and faculty to get to know each other Students drive the process You approach faculty, ask to rotate Plan ahead! It’s a market: Faculty evaluate students during rotations Students evaluate faculty during rotations Some students (and faculty) are more popular Not everyone gets their first choice (students or faculty) Before rotations: align based on a 15-minute meeting September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

PhD Student Orientation Evaluating Faculty Things to think about: Research interests: faculty will spend more time on projects they are excited about Compatible style: how much do you enjoy talking with them? Hands-on vs. hands-off How much time do they spend with students? Talk to their existing students: How often do you meet with XXX? For how long? Greatest strengths and weaknesses? Talk to senior students: What do you know now that you wish you’d known during your first year? It’s worth extra work: know what you are getting yourself into September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

PhD Student Orientation Rotation Advice Rotate only with faculty you can potentially align with, until you have at least one firm offer that you are happy with Ask beforehand: “How many new students do you expect to take this year?” “How many students will be rotating with you?” “How many of your slots have you already committed?” Ask afterwards: “How did I do? What parts were you least happy with?” “Are you prepared to offer me an RAship now? If not, when will you make the decision, and how will you make it?” An evasive or heavily qualified answer probably means “no” September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

Rotation Advice, cont’d Take rotations seriously Don’t take more than one class at a time Take initiative, get involved Put yourself in harm’s way Do something concrete (don’t be picky; any activity is good) Work with other students Serve as apprentice to a senior student Be realistic Probably can’t write a paper in a quarter Learn about an area, a professor, and a style of doing research Start thinking researchy ideas Make connections with other students and faculty September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

PhD Student Orientation The Next 5 Years How should you think about your life as a PhD student? September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

PhD Student Orientation A New Level You have always been the best; excelling has been easy… No more! The people around you are very very good. The problems will be much harder. Some people go through a confidence crisis… don’t! Your admission was not a mistake. You may need to develop new work habits: your first idea is no longer good enough If things are easy, you’re not attacking a hard enough problem September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

You Must Drive Yourself In the past, you could just do what you were told… No more! Few deadlines to structure your work Your advisor can help, but only so much It’s easy to waste a lot of time By the time you graduate you must be able to: Set your own agenda Decide what’s important Manage your time efficiently Motivate yourself (e.g. create deadlines, force yourself to meet them) Suggestion: always be working on something Typical students waste about one year September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

PhD Student Orientation Depth vs. Breadth Breadth Ultimate goal is depth: Explore narrow topic in tremendous detail World’s leading expert But, can’t go directly there Depth PhD September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

Depth vs. Breadth, cont’d Courses Breadth is essential: Learn about problems Learn about techniques Get ideas Initial years: more breadth Later years: increasing depth Depth Read Papers PhD Other Projects September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

PhD Student Orientation Go Deep Unique opportunity to study something in extreme depth: Explore every nook and cranny Answer all the questions, not just the easy ones Don’t just staple 3 papers together Hard to be really deep in a conference paper (12 page limit) 3 shallow works ≠ deep (Maybe OK if they build on each other) Deep study → deep understanding How the pieces contribute to the whole Details matter September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

A PhD is Just the Beginning Your PhD probably won’t be the most important work of your career Most important thing for the next 5 years: Prepare yourself to do great work over the next 50 years Knowledge Experience Techniques Mindset You need to do, but how much you learn is even more important September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

PhD Student Orientation The Next 50 Years September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

PhD Student Orientation There’s Not Much Room on a Tombstone Work on a small number of things, do truly great work Focus on what’s important, not what’s easy You’re here because you have extraordinary potential; don’t waste it September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

PhD Student Orientation Impact Success ≈ # papers? # papers September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

Counting Papers → Mediocrity The tyranny of conference deadlines Deadline-driven research Size the work to fit the time until the next submission deadline Don’t do long (deep) projects Once the paper is accepted, stop working on it (work on the next paper instead) Excuses: I need a lot of papers so I can get a good job I need a lot of papers so I can get tenure My students need a lot of papers so they can get jobs There’s never a good time to start doing the important stuff… so start now. September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

PhD Student Orientation Impact Papers are a means to an end: impact What is impact? Changing the way people think or behave An open-source software package used by thousands (millions?) A paper that becomes standard reading in a graduate course An idea that forms the basis for a large body of future work An idea that leads to a new Silicon Valley startup Teaching students in a class How to achieve impact: Time Focus Depth Luck! Having impact is deeply satisfying Over my 40-year career, there are 5 projects that I think have had high impact (VLSI tools, Tcl, LFS, Homa, APOSD) September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

PhD Student Orientation Conclusion You have the potential to do extraordinary, high-impact work Life goal: maximize the single greatest thing you do You are moving up to a new level: Great people to work with, learn from Really hard problems This year: find the right advisor, get settled in a research group The rest of your PhD: Create a base of skills, techniques, experience Be extremely deep in your PhD research The rest of your career: Keep thinking and working deeply Do things that are really important September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation

PhD Student Orientation Questions/Comments? September 19, 2019 PhD Student Orientation