This post mostly describes me. I am a PhD student in applied mathematics and returned school to get my PhD precisely because I wanted to get a job outside of academics, most likely as a data scientist or scientific programmer. 2.5 years into my program I still struggle to see beyond the degree but am currently looking at non-academic internship opportunities as a way to start to untangle myself from academics. I also spend a significant amount of my time trying to teach my self good programming practices that I don't get from mathematics (how to write clean, adaptable code, choosing appropriate design patterns and writing generic code without over-abstracting, writing readable documentation and using version control, etc.) To those of you who have left academics do you have any other suggestions? How about for marketing myself as a programming mathematician when competing against CS and engineering students for internships/jobs?
IndianAstronaut|9 years ago