ella Media | Cologne, Germany | Full Time | NLP + NLG: we generate stories through AI and provide tailored text analysis

- Machine Learning Engineer: Improve our text generation models

- Data Scientist: ETL + NLP + ML

- Business Analyst: Help us to understand

- Web Developer: Make our products available to our clients

Tech Stack: Python, R, Docker, Kubernetes, git, postgresql

Free choice of hardware, public transport ticket, home office,

md at ella dot ag

PhD in CS here, currently working for start up.

TBH, I wasn't deeply committed to research but got a position offered at my institute, which I took. Plus, I had to relocate to another city, because my adviser took over another institute. My wife had to stay at our former place, because of her job. And a lot more trouble I had to undergo for the entire process. On the other side, having these three letters next to my name was super appealing to me. This let to mixed feelings about doing a PhD. Some examples.

Pro: I was really free to do what ever I wanted Con: But I also had to get my own funding and couldn't save any money

Pro: I focused a lot on methods I was interested in and developed some on my own Con: I left new technologies behind, which made my start into industry quite bumpy

Pro: I learned a ton of interesting things in great detail Con: No one cares. Just as with technologies - models, paradigms, methods come and go. The PhD is, in most cases, only a certificate of your "self learner attitude".

But what really hit me hard was something else. During my time as a PhD I mostly worked on stuff I enjoyed and I was surrounded by people doing this for the same reasons. In industry, in special CS/coding related fields, you likely work on a ticket system. You arrive at your office, grab the ticket, machine it off, take a another one... From now and then your agile coach wants you to wright words on colored post its. I didn't expect the change to be that dramatic. Especially because I already worked as a developer in such systems during bachelors/masters degree. The PhD changed my perception of work.

In summary: I enjoyed doing a PhD, but the PhD left me with wrong self-assessment (for the industry). After getting fired I joined a fresh start-up, which turned out to be great. Here I found the freedom and creativity I was missing. Looking back I would probably skip the PhD for a start-up with a good team. Pay attention to the team - it's key.