18.10.09

phd

The past few days, I opened myself to the idea of pursing a PhD. Unfortunately, due to financing problems, it will most likely be in Singapore. A few of my friends discouraged this idea, citing employer's preference for oversea Phd as their argument; like how NUS will not hire their own graduates as teaching staffs. If you are wondering which domain of Phd would I be in, it's computational intelligence. I tried, fruitlessly, to find the starting pay of Phds in related fields and looked at career pages of companies. Everything seems to point towards computational finance, computational linguistic, computational biology etc. There was not any information on direct phd recruitment on most companies websites either. A friend told me that phd hires comes under mid career recruitment for some companies.

I do enjoy my research work and I find it invigorating. Nonetheless, i would much prefer the remuneration to match up to my expectations. But for now, if I ever decide to do phd, i would choose computational finance. I'm interested in finance, I can hold my own at computational stuffs and I love money. Sometimes I do wonder if courses like these are created just for people like me. How great is it when money and your interest can actually coincide. I do better get a better feel of the market demand for it first before I decide. How do you guys feel about it? Msn me, I would really appreciate your input on this, cos sometimes my motivations are misguided.

I took the bike out for a ride. What can I say.. I cut through air like a knife through yogurt. heh.

3 comments:

  1. wah seriously???? PHD? actually me is thinking that also..u sure US need to pay??

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  2. hey you leave comments here, i hardly see them one leh.

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  3. quantitative finance should give u an edge in the algo side. industry's moving rapidly towards that arena and the playing field will be totally different when u get ur phd. there's a huge divide between academics and reality though. be wary of that. anyway, algo programmers are paid rather well (but as good as old sch prop traders). but i'm sure u can find a slot somewhere (anywhere) w a good phd from the states. just don't do one here. might as well go get industry exposure and pay for one in the future.

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