A Primer on Jobs in Industry Nitin Jindal Department of Computer Science University of Illinois at Chicago

Overview My Experience Different Types of Jobs in Industry Interview Process and Application requirements Post Interview

About me – 5 th Year PhD in Computer Science – Data Mining, Web Mining, Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing – Wanted job in Industry

My Job search experience Started looking for a job in January The process took 3 months – From applying for a job to getting one Applied for both research and software engineering positions Interviewed for two research and three software engineering positions

Research Related Job Research Scientist – Similar to academic research – Easy to switch back to Academia – Ex: Research Scientist at Google Research, Yahoo Research and Microsoft Research Post Doc Researcher – Ex: IBM, Microsoft Research, etc Research Engineer –Team dependent –Publishing papers –team dependent –Your role in the team –Ex: –Research Software Design Engineer (RSDE) at Microsoft –Scientist at Yahoo Labs, –Research Engineer in a Google Researchh Team Job Application depends on (in that order): 1) direct contacts (person you know before, internships, conferences) 2) advisor’s connections, 3) referral, 4) university, 5) direct application

Software Engineering Different Roles – Software Engineer Two roles: Development and Testing MS and BS software engineers mostly do coding PhD software engineers are do design – Software Engineer in Test – Program Manager Least coding, more management, interacting with clients, drawing user specifications and other non-technical parts of software development cycle Apply directly, via advisor or via UIC recruiting website

How and Where to look for Jobs Advisor, Friends and other Contacts Message Boards – Kdnuggets, dbworld, indeed.com, etc Websites of – Research Labs (ex: PARC, NEC, ANL) – Companies (ex: Google, Microsoft, HP, IBM, Apple, etc) Recruiters – Useful for non CS jobs (like hedge funds), startups, etc – Companies/People who recruit for other companies – How to find them? People who work in silicon valley generally know one or two such recruiters

Interview Process Initial Phone Screen – One, two and up to three phone interviews Full Time Interview Research position – Resume is different from academic one – Presentation on your research – 6-7 technical interviews Algorithm and design questions, questions on research Software Engineering position – 5-6 technical rounds One round is a discussion on your research and CV – Some interviews are a lot more tougher than the others Depends on the team and the position you are applying

Interview Questions Research – open ended questions – A lot of Qs on your research area – Some algorithm design and programming language specific Qs Software Engineer – A lot of Algorithm design questions – Some programming language specific Qs – Expect tough Qs based on fundamental concepts like probability, combinatorics, sorting, etc Some Qs depend on your background – If background in theoretical research, expect more coding questions like “reverse a string in C” – If background in applied research, expect theoretical questions like on probability theory

Preparing for an Interview Different Strategies work for different people Based on my personal experience – practice the interview questions available online You will be surprised with how many Qs you have seen before – brush up concepts in your research area – Most Algorithm design Qs are based on simple fundamental concepts Not much need to study complex algorithms like string matching, graphs, etc

Things to Remember During an Interview When asked a question – Take few seconds to do back of the envelope calculations What if you get stuck in a question – Never have dead air for more than few seconds. That is not useful – Ask the interviewer for a hint – Try to solve a sub-problem first Take a break between interviews – Recharges your batteries, helps you shed of mistakes in the previous interview Questions for Interviewers – Only opportunity to know more about the company/job Examples: Difference b/w MS and PhD engineers, flexibility, type of projects you will do, flexibility in switching b/w research and product teams, first 6-12 months of a new hire, etc

Picking a Right Team The team that you join in a company is very important Case Study: Microsoft – Bing Search or SQL Server Team PropertyBing SearchSQL Server Learning Opportunities Career Growth Financial Reward (bonuses, salary) Job Security Future Upside

Picking a right team (contd.) Case Study: Google – Google gives highest bonuses in industry Which Google teams would get the best bonus? – The one which makes most money – ADSENSE, ADWORDS

Salary Glassdoor.com has very accurate estimates of average salary – Also good source for reviews and interview questions Three components of a salary – Base salary – Signing bonus – Relocation package/bonus – Equity Stocks Units, Restricted Stock Units, Stock Options

Negotiating for a salary Depends on how well you did in your interview Base salary is the most important component – Bonus and pay increase depends on the base salary – Base salary rarely changes, but you will get more stocks, bonus, etc – Recruiters are most reluctant to negotiate base salary Cash in hand is the least important component – Signing bonus, relocation, etc – Comes with up to 40% taxes Ideal scenario: Ask for best possible base salary even if it comes at expense of equity and signing bonus

Negotiating for a Salary (contd.) Can negotiate only ONCE – Best to negotiate when you also have an offer from at least one more company You need Leverage – Offer from a rival company – Perform well in the interviews Google usually does not negotiate, Microsoft and Yahoo do

Misc. Websites I used to study for interviews – Glassdoor.com interviews – Topcoder tutorial ex&module=Static ex&module=Static – Wikipedia for sorting, probability, etc – Slides of the data mining course for my research – 40-google-interview-questions.html 40-google-interview-questions.html

Thank You