Dr. Pierre St Juste (Google), Dr. Christan Grant (University of Oklahoma) and Dr. Corey Baker (University of Kentucky) presented, “Maximizing your PhD, preparing for academia or industry” at the ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference to current PhD, MS, and BS students.

The abstract is below:

To maximize success as a graduate student there are several of best practices that students should follow. Students are rarely given clear goals and descriptions of what is expected along their path. In this workshop session we describe what it takes to be an attractive candidate for academic or industry positions. First, we discuss the benefits of choosing academia or industry. We describe traditional and nontraditional career opportunities available to doctoral graduates. Second, we provide well-defined criteria to be competitive in either academia or industry. We discuss the expected range of publications, industry experience and teaching appointments to be a highly qualified candidate. At the conclusion of the workshop, undergraduate and graduate students will be able to design or improve their roadmap to maximizing ability to obtain an academic or industry position. One interesting aspect of the workshop is that we explicitly contrast the requirements for academia vs industry.