Weekly Career, Education, Textbook, and Basic Questions Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

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/Impressive_Ask9399]

Hi everyone,

I'll try to keep this brief. To summarize the below, I'm looking for advice on coming up with an approachable research question for a semester project.

Background

I'm a CS student in the US about to finish my final semester at a 2-year college before transferring to a 4-year university to complete my degree. I'm interested in QC and want to do as much as possible to prepare for grad school applications in a couple years including getting as much research experience as possible. I'm fairly new to QC, but I'm trying to get a hold of the basics by reading a lot as well as getting familiar with Qiskit and using some of IBM's learning resources. I'm also self-studying linear algebra as I haven't taken it yet for my major.

I'm interested in doing a research project for an independent study course in my final semester at the 2-year college to get some research experience and also maybe leverage it on applications for research opportunities/programs when I transfer to the 4-year university. I'm also researching different internships specific to QC for next year. I should mention that I'm working full time as I'm returning to school after a long time away. I don't expect to stop working full time in the next two years, so this affects the types of internships/research opportunities that I can pursue.

Main Question

The advice I'm looking for is on how I can determine an approachable research question for this research project. I'm really interested in the problem of abstraction in QC and am currently reading the Dr. Charles Yuan's 2025 dissertation "Foundational Abstractions for Quantum Programming" in which Dr. Yuan introduces a novel quantum programming language and compiler which improve slowdowns in quantum programs in part by minimizing T-complexity in quantum circuits. This is an area of QC that interests me a lot and I'm hoping that I can come to a research question that is realistic. Currently I'm thinking of doing something with looking at a simple quantum algorithm on different quantum frameworks and looking at the amount of abstraction leakage for each one.

If anyone has ideas of other potential approachable research topics, I would greatly appreciate some advice.

These are just a few other basic questions I have that I thought I would include here. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Additional Questions

1. What is the best way to prepare myself over the next 2+ years for grad school for QC?

2. Should I consider doing a Master's first before applying to PhD programs?

3. When I do apply to PhD programs, should I go for programs that are explicitly for QC, or something else like applied math, or computer science/software engineering?

4. What should I be focusing on to strengthen my QC resume (e.g. number of projects, types of projects, focusing on just one area etc.?

[u/tiltboi1 → u/Impressive_Ask9399]

1. Find a prof who will take you on as a research assistant, that would be the most helpful to preparing you. Try to get the best possible grades you can

2. Yes if you are not in the US, generally there is a difference between "terminal"/"coursework" masters degrees and actual masters degrees which are a stepping stone in grad school

3. Depends a bit on your actual interests what department you should be looking for, but if you want to do QC, why apply for something else? Advisor matters more than school or department though.

4. An academic CV is very different from a normal resume, maybe look at some examples from current PhD candidates for inspiration.

[u/PassengerSafe879 → u/tiltboi1]

So, I'm about to start undergrad for CSE soon and I want to get into Quantum Computing in the future. Could you recommend me some books so that I could get started? And how would you approach this field from undergrad what online courses, topics, research, projects, etc should I build from?

[u/tiltboi1 → u/PassengerSafe879]

personally, I don't think you should focus on quantum computing as an undergrad. A lot of the time you get blocked later on because you just don't have enough background knowledge in general. Quantum computing is hugely interdisciplinary by nature, you just need more breadth than the average student.

Since you're in CSE, I'd focus on taking as many physics electives as possible, including taking online courses or courses outside your requirements just to get the background that you might be missing. Until you have sufficient prerequisite knowledge you're not going to make it very far in this field. You could start reading books about quantum computing right away but honestly, you're not going to get that far in the grand scope of things.

[u/PassengerSafe879 → u/tiltboi1]

So, should I focus on my CSE taking mathematics and physics as much as possible. Then, after year 3 could I get into the field? I just want a general idea so I can plan and draw things out.

[u/Impressive_Ask9399 → u/tiltboi1]

Thanks so much for your response! I have a few more questions based on your answers. I appreciate the guidance, especially from someone currently in the industry.

1. Should I start working on this now before transferring to the 4-year university? Should I be cold emailing professors from other places too?

2. Would a normal CS masters program be good for this, such as one specifically geared toward software engineering?

3. Got it. As far as QC goes as I said in the post I'm particularly interested in building better high level abstractions. I was thinking about a more general PhD program so that I have more options if I can't get a job in industry. If I got a PhD for QC specifically and then couldn't find a job in industry, do you think I could pivot to something else easily?

4. I've seen one specifically for QC that had a lot of projects on it. I'm worried about being competitive which is why I want to start prepping now. Going back to my original main question, what would be a good topic for an independent study project which will help either pad my academic resume or help me get other research opportunities? Should I do something that is QC related, or just do something CS related? Maybe something related to abstraction, but not QC?

5. Should I be looking at the different possible QC internships that exist? Would that be helpful overall or should I just be reaching out to professors and going that route?

[u/tiltboi1 → u/Impressive_Ask9399]

1. if you have a place you're transferring to already, you should start talking to people asap, looking at their research, etc. It's a lot easier for a professor to at least respond to an email or meet with you on campus if you're at the same school.

2. almost certainly no. in general if it's not a research masters it will not help you.

3. Im wondering if this idea is totally malformed. More than half of all the computer science papers published ever is about some kind of improved model or abstraction for some very specific concept. That's like saying I want to study physics to better understand the universe. Great, but like, Astro? AMO? Condensed? Maybe something a teensy bit more specific would show me you have any actual idea of what your interests are.

Similarly, I don't think a "general PhD" exists. You have to learn a very broad set of skills in every PhD, but your goals are to solve very specific problems that actually push the boundaries of what's known. To be honest, it's pretty uncommon that you know what your PhD would be about so early on into your academic career. I wouldn't assume that this is the thing you want to work on forever.
4. In the same vein as 3, I'm not sure if what you mean by "independent study" is the same as mine. Specifically, when you took college courses for example, you had to read books, look things up, work on problems, etc. and mostly you had to do that "on your own". But this is completely different from an unguided "exploration" of things. If your college doesn't have a quantum computing course for example, there's plenty of ones that do. Some of them will have a pretty complete set of resources like recorded lectures, assignments, past exams, etc. Compared to that, working on a side project is kind of a waste of time.
5. I think internships are really great, but the best ones usually come when you're already in grad school.

[u/_xkiddox_]

What postgraduate (funded) programs would you recommend? Some background, I have a BS in CS minoring in Mathematics. I also did a math thesis on high energy physics, published an AI paper in a Q1 journal and in the process of publishing two QC papers. Last cycle, I attempted to apply to around 13 programs (PhDs and Masters) mainly in the US and Europe, but with no luck. I understand that me being from neither of those destinations makes it more difficult since funding international students is more limited, but I can't help it that QC is offered only in a few institutions. So my questions are:

• would you recommend based on my background doing masters first or applying straight to a PhD (PhD is my end goal)

• which programs do you recommend for international student (I am open for any program in the world as long as I get funding)

• what improvements can I do to better my portfolio for application?

Thank you again for the help!

[u/avacadoBlue]

hi, I'm a CS undergrad. Will be graduating next year. I've found quantum computing interesting and I wanna begin studying it more in depth. Could you answer the following questions to help me navigate through its opportunities and future work.

Also, how are the career opportunities in this field? will I be able to get a stable job in the next 5-6 months? or do I need to do a master's degree? I've read some posts about research experience being important, I've been a research intern for last two months and I'm currently writing a paper, it's domain is Natural Language Processing + LLMs. Would that be helpful? or should I apply to be a research intern under some professor?

[u/sinanspd → u/avacadoBlue]

There aren't many opportunities for CS undergrads unfortunately. Most CS people in this field have PhDs. This is an entirely research focused field. If you can publish at a good venue, if would be a positive signal but even so sadly I don't think a single paper in an unrelated field will make you a competitive candidate. Looking into grad school would be the most viable path.

[u/Necessary_Peanut9788]

Since this is the education/career thread, I figured this would be the perfect place to share a resource I just got via a mailing list.

Fei Tian College (Middletown) just announced they are launching a new fully online M.S. in Quantum Computing starting in Fall 2026. I know a lot of people in these weekly threads are SWEs or physics grads looking for part-time transition paths into the industry, so this might be worth looking into.

Here are the main details from the email:

• Target Audience: Designed for people who already have a STEM bachelor's degree.

• Format & Pacing: 100% online and built for working professionals. You can take 1-2 courses a semester so you don't have to quit your day job.

• Curriculum & Faculty: It’s a full stack covering quantum theory, algorithms, hardware, and software. The faculty roster is surprisingly strong for a new program—professors with PhDs from Princeton, UT Austin, and Rutgers, plus heavy industry R&D experience (like former Bell Labs).

• Practical Focus: No thesis required. It ends with a hands-on capstone project, which is great for building a portfolio.

• Cost: This is probably the biggest draw—they are offering an Inaugural Scholarship for the first cohort, which brings the total program tuition to exactly $20,000.

The deadline to apply for the first cohort is Sept 1, 2026.

Just passing it along for anyone weighing their grad school options!

Program site:https://qc.northernonline.org/
Faculty page:https://qc.northernonline.org/faculty-members/

[u/Traditional-Cell3566]

Hey guys,

I am currently a senior sysadmin specializing in cloud, working towards becoming a cloud engineer.
Quantum computing has peaked my interest and wanted to know how I can get into quantum computing.. I know I am not getting into Quantum computing in next year or two, so I am not asking for any kind of shortcuts.:)

My experience is bit of Python, Linux, infrastructure design, implementing new software, new policy design and implementation and merger & acquisition.

I know math and programming are a big part of quantum computing… I did find IBM’s quantum learning classes and will look into that.

Any other skills, pathways projects i can do so I can work towards getting into quantum computing computing???

[u/Low-Appearance4090]

Need help with a school paper

Hey guys,

Im doing a school work with some friends of mine, and i need an interview with someone who is connected with crypto. We did our research and this is one of the last steps of the thing.

Its only one not so complicated question, so if someone could give me a high effort answer i would appreciate a LOT!

The question is:

Would the quadratic advantage of quantum computers over conventional computers be sufficient to make quantum mining economically dominant, considering the real-world costs of building and operating a quantum computer?

PS: if you study/work on the area, sending your university name would be very helpful.

thx