Some Advice to Graduate Engineers

Mikko H. LipastiUniversity of Wisconsin – Madison

http://www.ece.wisc.edu/~pharm

Mikko H. Lipasti--University of Wisconsin

Outline Why this talk?

Experience counts for something Try to distill advice into one place

General advice for graduate students Why become a graduate student How to become a graduate student How to succeed while a graduate student How to stop being a graduate student

Specific advice for CMPE and architecture students at Wisconsin

Tips for success in the workplace Finding a job Keeping your job Climbing the ladder

Questions?

Mikko H. Lipasti--University of Wisconsin

Why Become a Grad Student? Academic ambitions

Ph.D. a prerequisite Professional ambitions

Career path shortcut Visibility, recognition, leadership opportunity

Team to department to division to corporation to industry-wide

Published Ph.D. work inverts this sequence M.S. to a lesser extent

Bad reasons Financial Family or peer pressure Ego “Because I can”

Mikko H. Lipasti--University of Wisconsin

How to Become a Grad Student You’re already here… Preparation

GPA: Coursework GRE: Prepare, practice References

Undergraduate research Get involved with faculty UW: Hilldale and SURE

Apply to many places Not much additional overhead for n apps Solicit advice from in-area faculty as to

where

Mikko H. Lipasti--University of Wisconsin

The Road to Success -- I In the beginning

Coursework View as opportunity, not burden Broaden your horizons

Read “Read 50 papers before you write one.” Be proactive—seek out relevant, interesting work Identify top venues for your area, work backwards

Breadth-first search of references (citeseer.ist.psu.edu) Write

Not just project reports or paper submissions Attend outside seminars and talks

Arrogance (areaism) kills You will never have (as much) time or opportunity for it again

Use technology Google, citeseer, IEEE Explorer, ACM Digital Library Tools: emacs modes, bibtex, gdb, cvs, IMAP, etc.

Volunteer Be altruistic, find ways to serve group, department, area

Mikko H. Lipasti--University of Wisconsin

The Road to Success -- II Thesis grope

Read critically and thoroughly Keep notes, start writing literature survey(s) Take note of weaknesses, incomplete solutions, unexplored problems Pay attention to presentation, structure, organization, style – imitate the

best! Teach your advisor

We have a lot to learn, don’t rely on us or trust us to know everything Think

Thought experiments, what if scenarios Limit studies to measure bounds, potential, significance Extend observations to their logical extremes Challenge assumptions, conventional wisdom

Find a new nail (application) or a new hammer (tool) But not both! Find analogous problems (this is just like…) and search literature for

solutions Or, hear about cool solutions and then find analogous problems

Hack Learn by doing Discover via implementation Write stuff down as you encounter it (don’t trust your memory)

Keep a “treasure chest” list of interesting problems

Mikko H. Lipasti--University of Wisconsin

The Road to Success -- III Thesis grope cont’d

Write, revise, polish constantly Don’t be deadline-driven and write at the last minute Benchmark against “best” papers you have read

Participate in proposal preparation It’s your paycheck! Learn how to write persuasively, motivate problem You will need this skill in industry as well

Argue, debate, analyze With your peers, advisor Use visualization tools!

Believe! Convince yourself first, others later Must have some level of passion for your work

Give talks to critical audiences David Patterson’s 10 commandments for a bad talk

[http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~markhill/conference-talk.html] Attend conferences and behave yourself!

Meet people, interact, network, do your homework[http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~markhill/conference-etiquette.html

Mikko H. Lipasti--University of Wisconsin

The Road to Success -- IV Have a life

Work/life balance Limit hours

Learn limit of productive hours/week Abide by it

External stimulation, relaxation, exercise Let your unconscious mind solve problems

Think through and formulate problem Don’t force a solution but sketch possible

directions Let it go, move on to something else or go run 5

miles

Mikko H. Lipasti--University of Wisconsin

The Road to Success -- V Thesis

Thorough, “complete” treatment Be prepared to put all/most of your

intellectual energy into a single task Not to be taken lightly

Iterate: Hack, experiment, reduce/graph, analyze,

synthesize Write, revise, write

Solicit feedback from peers, advisor, UW writing center [http://www.wisc.edu/writing]

Mikko H. Lipasti--University of Wisconsin

How to Stop 3 necessary conditions [Mark Hill]

Sick of your thesis topic Sick of your advisor Sick of ECE/UW/Madison/Wisconsin

Write, revise, rewrite Defend your thesis

Not a confrontation Persuasive document & presentation

Mikko H. Lipasti--University of Wisconsin

Wisconsin-specific Advice Network

Advisors/faculty are the present Your peers are the future

Learn from many faculty Broaden yourself Don’t fall prey to areaism

Take courses outside area/dept. Participate in

Seminars (Arch. Seminar, CMPE seminar) Mailing lists (arch, reading, os) Reading groups Lunch groups Affiliates meeting Architecture outings Pizza Fridays

Help out (volunteer) with these events

Mikko H. Lipasti--University of Wisconsin

Finding a Job Resume/CV preparation Finding openings

Engineering Career Services, on-campus interviews Advisor, committee contacts Internships Peer contacts

Interview preparation, research/Ph.D. 30-second version (pigeonhole) 5-minute version (technical non-expert audience) 30-minute version (expert audience)

Salesmanship Not everyone appreciates the essential beauty of your thesis Not everyone appreciates the importance of your research area Not everyone has heard of Wisconsin Don’t be arrogant

Interviewing Do your leg work, know who you’ll be talking to Be Interested! Or, at least pretend to be interested…

If you want people to like you, (act like you) like them! Prompt them to talk about themselves (most people like to do that)

Find commonality to tie your work to others’

Mikko H. Lipasti--University of Wisconsin

Keeping Your Job First impressions

Better to be overdressed than underdressed Pay attention to dress code at your on-site interview (write it down)

Be enthusiastic & eager to learn Understand others’ jobs and interests Don’t step on peoples’ toes Find a mentor Don’t be afraid to ask for advice

But don’t be afraid to be independent Find out the proper channels

Don’t escalate Don’t skip levels of management

Be persuasive Be persistent

Less pain to satisfy your request than ignore you Be generous with assigning credit

Better to share credit and have everyone know you did the work Worse to claim credit and have everyone know you don’t deserve it

Mikko H. Lipasti--University of Wisconsin

Climbing the Ladder Gaining visibility

To first order, grad school is a shortcut Sometimes, toot your own horn

Quid pro quo Gaining responsibility

Don’t be afraid to ask Live up to it Rewards proportional to risks & effort

Keep track of accomplishments Be fair, generous, honest to others Political battles

Don’t be naïve, life isn’t fair Find allies, build networks Leverage accomplishments

Mikko H. Lipasti--University of Wisconsin

Questions?