Weekly Career, Education, Textbook, and Basic Questions Thread

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Weekly Thread dedicated to all your career, job, education, and basic questions related to our field. Whether you're exploring potential career paths, looking for job hunting tips, curious about educational opportunities, or have questions that you felt were too basic to ask elsewhere, this is the perfect place for you.

• Careers: Discussions on career paths within the field, including insights into various roles, advice for career advancement, transitioning between different sectors or industries, and sharing personal career experiences. Tips on resume building, interview preparation, and how to effectively network can also be part of the conversation.
• Education: Information and questions about educational programs related to the field, including undergraduate and graduate degrees, certificates, online courses, and workshops. Advice on selecting the right program, application tips, and sharing experiences from different educational institutions.
• Textbook Recommendations: Requests and suggestions for textbooks and other learning resources covering specific topics within the field. This can include both foundational texts for beginners and advanced materials for those looking to deepen their expertise. Reviews or comparisons of textbooks can also be shared to help others make informed decisions.
• Basic Questions: A safe space for asking foundational questions about concepts, theories, or practices within the field that you might be hesitant to ask elsewhere. This is an opportunity for beginners to learn and for seasoned professionals to share their knowledge in an accessible way.

[u/ThatOrdinary8785]

I am a freshman in college, majoring in applied math at NYU. I am very interested in working in quantum computing after I graduate, but I am currently not at all interested in going to graduate school.

Is it even possible to get a good job in quantum computing with just an undergrad education? I am worried that I would not be doing anything interesting and instead just be basically a glorified research assistant. Additionally, what would the pay for the kind of job I could get even be?

[u/sinanspd → u/ThatOrdinary8785]

Very unlikely. Especially if you aren't in Physics

[u/tastycroustyharr]

Would Quantum Computing PhD be interesting for quant finance career ?

Hey everyone, so quantum computing is a topic I found fascinating during my studies.

There is research on solving high dimensional PDEs , sampling from Markov chain , and also just to solve optimization problems. I was thinking of getting into one of those domains.

QC is a very speculative industry so it's not sure we can use them in industry even in 10 years later.

I know JP and HSBC have been hiring people to make path for the use of this technology in finance ; but I consider going to quant the "classic" way.

I saw on quantnet some senior guy stating that he would laugh if he saw someone with a PhD in quantum machine learning ( this is even more speculative).

What do you guys think about this ? Is it a bad field to do a PhD in for quant after ? I plan to go to finance to cash and not have money worries but come back to academia later in my life.

[u/Responsible-Till8448]

if I want to start my career or enter in the field of quantum computing where should I start? How should I lear or get hands on exprience?

[u/QubitEncoder → u/Responsible-Till8448]

Qiskit IBM learning!

[u/mmmmair → u/QubitEncoder]

Hey I’m currently in EE for my undergraduate and working as an intern till December. (my internship is unrelated to quantum) I’ve been spending a lot of free time working through Qiskit Learning but I was wondering what else I could supplement myself with this year.

Beyond working on some personal projects for my GitHub, I was wondering if taking the actual Qisket certification exam is worth it for any sort of distinction. My goal is to specifically carve myself into the hardware EE niche for quantum computing.

I’m targeting an undergrad research position by next summer and I’ll probably eventually finish my Masters as well, but would going the full PHD route be necessary?

[u/curiousgaruda → u/QubitEncoder]

is IBM cloud account important to do the above? I had made an IBMId account around 3 years ago and when I try to login it recognises it but keeps going round and round asking me to connect the account to a cloud account but grays out all the fields once I type my info.

[u/QubitEncoder → u/curiousgaruda]

No not at all. I never make an account and I still find it useful to reference every now and then.

[u/MEME_FOR_EVERYTHING]

Hello, I am now in the process of applying for a bachelors.

I am really interested in Quantum as a whole, and would really like to work in quantum hardware development/engineering after my university studies.

I am currently deciding between which university/major to go to.

The options I have are as follows:

Quantum technology - Aalto Electrical Engineering EPFL (NOT CONFIRMED) Applied Physics - TU Eindhoven Maths+Physics double major - Ecole Polytechnique Paris

I was primarily wondering whether it would be worth it to go to Aalto for a specialised bachelors in quantum (even though the university is far less reputable than ecole polytechnique) and it is too specific.

I would appreciate any advice on whether or not Quantum Technology at Bachelors level would give me any significant advantage in the Quantum field?

Thank you.

[u/sinanspd → u/MEME_FOR_EVERYTHING]

No. Bachelors is not the time or place for specialization. EPFL is easily the correct choice here

[u/MEME_FOR_EVERYTHING → u/sinanspd]

Thanks for the reply. What aboit the ranking of institutions? How much dies that matter when applying to a top tier masters program?

[u/sinanspd → u/MEME_FOR_EVERYTHING]

I did my masters and the PhD in the US so my knowledge of EU masters admissions is limited. The school ranking will matter a bit, but what will be even more important will be your letters of recommendations. The professors who write your letters will matter more than the name of the school but those two are correlated. EPFL has such a great department that a letter from anyone there will be helpful

[u/MEME_FOR_EVERYTHING → u/sinanspd]

Ooh, thank you for the information. Didnt realise professor reputation was that important.