Academia or Industry? Recent Graduate Says Internships Can Help Ph.D. Students Make the Right Choice
While many doctoral students know from the start whether they want to go into academia or industry, some don’t make that decision until closer to the end of their journey.
Sichen Jin, who graduated in the spring with a Ph.D. in computer science from Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing, said students in this situation should make good use of their internships.
Jin speaks from experience because she wasn’t sure which path to take when she started her Ph.D.
“I think that was always an open question to me,” she said. “I was debating between them a lot. I know my first two or three years, I wanted to make sure I got to know what research was like and then try the industry experience.”
Knowing she would complete at least two internships at Georgia Tech, she decided to base her decision on those experiences.
In 2024, Jin interned at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). She helped design a large-scale visual analytics tool powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to help power grid operators make quick, informed decisions.
“The work I did at PNNL was more aligned with the work I was doing in my Ph.D.,” she said. “It was very exploratory. I had free reign to go whatever direction I wanted.”
Jin said her next internship was nothing like her internship at PNNL. She interned at Cisco over the summer and said the main difference was that the work focused on producing research to enhance a product.
She helped Cisco build new pipelines that allowed its products to automate visualizations with AI.
“I think industry’s goal is so different from what academia is looking for,” she said. “Usually, academia wants a novel idea and a demo, but industry wants something reliable, something that is tested repeatedly. There are so many steps before you can release a product. They are driven by results.”
Jin said she gravitated toward that, which pushed her to apply for industry jobs.
She is now a research scientist at Meta.
“I like that the work is straightforward,” she said. “You get a task with a concrete goal, and you aim for it, and you get it solved. There’s tangible output. You get to see what you build be used by users, and your work reaches a lot broader audience. Every decision you make will affect them and whether they are happy with the product.”
Looking back on her experience, Jin said she wouldn’t change how she approached her Ph.D. Whether a doctoral student wants to pursue academia, industry, or is unsure, she said laying a foundation for their research is paramount.
“You need some concrete research outcomes that people know you for, and you need some publications under your belt. Those are the years when you’re still exploring your topic or research. Most of the time, your advisor can’t tell you what the topic of your dissertation, so you need to figure it out. Doing a research-oriented internship can help you do that.”
Jin added that all students should experience both sides to ensure they make the best choice.
“You might find that you are doing research that is aligned with the industry’s needs. Then you might want to get a sense of what that looks like; you can do an engineering or product-driven internship. You can make fair comparisons and not regret your decision.”
