Name: Kaleigh Mentzer (she/her)
PhD: Computational & Mathematical Engineering, Stanford University, 2023
What was your main area of research?
I worked with the San Francisco Unified School District to re-design their student assignment algorithm for kindergarteners. We used mostly Operations Research tools and simulation to propose solutions, using things like matching algorithms, game theory, and combinatorial optimization.
What is your current job?
I am a Research Engineer at Granica in Mountain View, CA.
I have done a mixture of pure research (writing a paper and submitting it to a conference) and applied research (taking a coworker's paper and working with a potential customer to scope and build out an initial version of a product). I write a lot of code and do some math, but mostly I'm working on training machine learning models to achieve specific goals.
I like getting to be involved in the whole pipeline of research to a functioning product - I have a lot of role flexibility because it's a startup with a small dedicated team for this project.
How did you find this position? What were the career steps you took to get to where you are now?
I received a LinkedIn message from a recruiter, but I actually read it/took it seriously because they mentioned the chief scientist, who is a Stanford professor I had taken a class with and thought highly of.
PhD graduate ➡️ Research Engineer
Why did you decide to not pursue a career in academia?
My advisor was an early career/pre-tenure professor, and I saw that I didn't want to live her lifestyle - in particular, "playing the game" of building your CV for tenure. I also never felt like I found exactly the right academic community that my skillset fit in with.
What advice do you have for someone getting their PhD and looking to pursue a career outside of academia?
When you're in grad school (especially at a place like where I did my PhD), it seems like everyone's going into academia and that the "successful" students get faculty positions. This is a very skewed view from being inside academia, and most people in industry don't see it this way!
Most of the time you get rejected from a job, it's not because you failed the interview or whatever. From the other side of interviewing, I've seen that (1) the company kind of loses track of hiring for a particular position, (2) we're still learning how to write our job descriptions that actually describe the skillset we're looking for and the job ends up being something totally different than what you think you're applying for, (3) they end up hiring someone way more senior than you, or any number of other reasons that are not personal failure on your part.
It's okay to have a hard time transitioning into your first job. Industry is a different game than academia, and it's okay if it takes time to get traction! So many people I spoke to said that they were totally panicking/lost for like the first 3 months of the job - so don't worry if you're in that boat - you'll figure it out!
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