Are there programming jobs for Math PhD's? | Hacker News Reader

Are there programming jobs for Math PhD's?

2 pointsshaneoaddo3 comments

A friend in my network graduated with a PhD in Math and wants to work in Tech as a programmer.

Looking at his CV below, would anybody hire him?

Schools BSc in Mathematics (CS minor) - 4.0 GPA Cambridge University -MSc Maths (Topology) - Merit Oxford University - PhD in Maths

Work Experience Alan Turing Institute - Research Associate in Computer Vision for 1 year. Software developer - 9 months in total

Good knowledge: Python, C++, PHP.

Question, is he hireable for any of the big tech firms? or startups as a programmer?

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That depends. Does he know how to reverse a linked list on a whiteboard????

In all seriousness, some places are going to look for someone who's already overqualified for the job and won't give him the time of day. Other places will see he's a smart person looking for someone to give him a chance and give it a try.

He will probably get asked why he doesn't want to do research or get a "data science"/machine learning job.

Some companies will wonder if he'll be bored working on boring-ass CRUD apps. This is a fair question for this friend to ask himself, as well.

Returning to the first snarky comment I made at the beginning, practicing coding interview bullshit will help if he hasn't done them before.

He does have an offer from a sports club to work in their analytics department where they are using ML to predict a few things....which he seems to be considering

Yes, he just has to find that job. First let me say in the worst case that he/she can't find a job because the economy is doomed or trump is reelected, if they were to take (or work on their own) some basic cs undergrad (data structure, algorithms, theory of computation) and then get an MS in CS they would be imminently employable. This is true no matter what else happens.

Unless a company can use their specialization it would be hard for them to pass the interview bar for a regular dev (without some preperation). If they get some exp in a company, and it includes significant programming then they can start to be a dev. Programming has such a giant demand for workers that if you have recent experience and you can code and pass an interview then no one cares about your professional degree.

Get that first job, learn on the job, and you can be a dev.

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