[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How do I bridge the gap between PhD and SWE ...
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Ask HN: How do I bridge the gap between PhD and SWE experiences?
After finishing my PhD in earth sciences, I pivoted to software
engineering. I've spent the last 8 years as a full-stack developer,
gaining a decent grasp of various stacks and frameworks. I'm now
at a point where I want to merge my scientific background with my
engineering experience. However, I'm finding a "missing middle" in
the job market. I don't ever see a position that requires and
values deep expertise in both. I enjoy development, but I feel
like my scientific training is going to waste. For those who have
successfully merged these two paths: Did you find a "unicorn"
role, or did you create one within a company? How do you market
yourself when your two halves feel like they belong to different
resumes?
Author : ecophyseis
Score : 71 points
Date : 2025-12-18 17:20 UTC (7 days ago)
| brudgers wrote:
| _I feel like my scientific training is going to waste_
|
| Your training is a sunk cost.
|
| It is also the source of soft skills.
| austin-cheney wrote:
| A PhD means you can do novel research. As a full stack developer
| what novel subject(s) did you explore? That is the middle you are
| missing.
|
| A big part of the problem is that you were spending time with
| tech stacks and frameworks. These have almost no practical
| utility value aside from attaining employment in a low skill area
| of software. I am saying that as a former 15 year JavaScript
| developer. Instead use your research background to solve real
| problems faced by businesses and users that you can measure.
| juujian wrote:
| Do you have a CV for more context? Work in a more academic
| setting is always highly context dependent, as you know.
|
| Chances are, there are a handful of labs, somewhere that could
| benefit from the overlap, but finding them is like finding the
| needle in the haystack.
| buddyhollyclone wrote:
| I'm in much the same boat - however my SWE pivot was when I
| attempted to commercialize my PhD research along with my advisor.
| We had a startup for a few years and then got acquired by a
| global company. I now manage a team of SWEs and coordinate with
| SMEs in technical fields to make sure that our scientific
| software products are great in both areas. These roles exist, but
| probably not commonly as a straight hybrid - may have to lean
| into one and use the other as a differentiator/value-add. For me,
| I think I got here by caring about the customer experience first
| - which takes "whatever it takes" - software and science both. I
| have to be an evangelist for both of these things but only as a
| means to a common end, which is to help the end users expand
| their understanding and abilities with applied knowledge.
| chrisra wrote:
| Maybe try finding a software engineering job at a place that also
| uses your scientific expertise. You may be able to find or create
| opportunities there. The position might not exist, but you can
| maximize your chances of something coming your way that needs
| both skill sets.
| checker659 wrote:
| Have you tried talking to someone at places like ESRI?
| burkaman wrote:
| https://us-rse.org/jobs/
| Timoha wrote:
| Top-tier hedge funds are always looking for PhDs with engineering
| background, it's a great combo of doing original research and
| being able to productionalize it
| ufmace wrote:
| It sounds like the kind of job you really want is going to be a
| bit of a unicorn. That means those kinds of jobs don't get
| advertised in job boards and have professional recruiters running
| around looking for candidates that fit. That in turn means that
| finding such a job is going to be a lot of networking and
| shoeleather. You'll probably have to go to a bunch of
| conferences, talk to people, and make contacts, and hope you can
| discover a place where your unique skills are a greater value to
| somebody's project than anyone with expertise in only one of
| those fields could be.
| William_BB wrote:
| Well put. The standard practice is to hire a scientist and a
| developer, both with deep expertise, and have them work
| together. For a successful collaboration, it's obviously
| desirable for them to have some cross-disciplinary skills or
| experience. Ultimately, you're still primarily doing either
| development or research.
| William_BB wrote:
| Some examples: machine learning scientists and engineers; quants
| and (quant) developers.
|
| In either case, you're primarily either a developer or a
| scientist/researcher. Unless you're at an early stage startup or
| in a principal/managerial role, chances are your time is better
| spent deeply focusing on one area rather than both. Either
| putting the system to production or doing research. A lot of the
| time, these tasks can be carried out in parallel -- while one
| person is carrying out research, the other can be improving the
| system.
| baobun wrote:
| I haven't done it myself but know a few people who did. They were
| all on the academic track and just made it happen and supporting
| their respective labs as postdocs. With an allowing or aligned
| professor I think it's very relistic in academia. From there you
| might find overlapping industry opportunities down the line. And
| I guess you have to be OK with pushing the envelope yourself.
|
| I don't think it's at all as rare as I see other commenters say.
| I don't know earth sciences specifically but I'd be surprised if
| there is a STEM field where a strong SWE expertise isn't an asset
| you can put to regular use in research.
| jcpst wrote:
| I keep the two halves separate.
|
| I was a studio recording engineer for about 7 years. I switched
| to software, and now I work in industrial global logistics. Job
| attributes I optimized for over the years: insulated from
| manufactured stress, autonomy, control over working hours, good
| relationships with my boss and coworkers.
| thatguymike wrote:
| Not easy, but I have a friend who did this by reaching back out
| to his old professors and colleagues, figuring out what they
| needed, and ended up doing a swe project in his old lab and built
| that into a consultancy which does tech partnering for science.
| gsliepen wrote:
| I did move from physics to becoming a SWE. I could put the
| knowledge I gained doing 3D rendering and GPU compute used for
| visualization and simulations in my academic jobs on my CV, and
| get a job as a SWE that way. Later I moved to another job where I
| could use my physics background to help develop a new sensor.
|
| As for how to market yourself: first you should convert your
| academic CV to one that is suited for the type of companies you
| are applying for. Unless you wrote something that ended up in
| Nature or some other super high profile journal, companies
| typically don't care about your publications. What they do care
| about is things like: can you communicate well? How well can you
| organize things on your own? Do you handle stress well? You did a
| PhD, so the answer to those things is yes, you just need to write
| that in your CV in a way a company recruiter/interviewer
| understands, even if they themselves are not from academia. So
| you don't have two halves that belong to different resumes, you
| are just one person and you just translate your resume to the
| "language" that your prospective job provider speaks.
|
| Finally, your list of skills does not need to be a perfect match
| for what a company is looking for. Of course, there needs to be
| some overlap, but as long as it means you can pick up new things
| quickly, it will be fine. That and being a good fit for the
| company's culture are the most important things.
|
| I did not start out with a unicorn role, but in I found ways to
| apply my physics background in my current job.
| huevosabio wrote:
| Apply to the research labs of the big tech companies. Both
| aspects will be valued.
|
| It may be harder if you want to do only earth sciences, but if
| you're open to many areas of research, then the FAANGs will
| probably take you.
| rubidium wrote:
| Make a list of the most interesting companies / areas you want to
| work in from a scientific perspective
|
| Cold call or get introductions to their R&D leaders (principal
| researcher /director / VP). While connecting to something they or
| their company did, ask for a coffee meeting or phone call to
| learn more about their company and how it works.
|
| Use this to Network network network. At some point a job will
| appear with interviews. Chances are good it's with a good manager
| as they're the ones taking time to build good teams and talent.
| curl_e wrote:
| Allow me to suggest Research Software Engineering -
| https://society-rse.org/careers/rse-stories/
|
| US Organisation - https://us-rse.org/ UK (but also worldwide) -
| https://society-rse.org/
|
| There are RSEs who specialise in Earth Science, e.g.
| https://socrse.github.io/geoscience-sig/
| CommenterPerson wrote:
| You are special. There are lots and lots of "software engineers"
| in the world. Very very few can bring scientific experience and
| knowledge to the job. I might look for a developer role in a
| large university project where they need programming skills and
| scientific rigor. Or a R&D person in a large software company or
| the government . These kinds of jobs aren't listed on Indeed or
| Monster. Attend conferences related to your field (don't attend
| the talks, hang around in the lobby and chat with people). Reach
| out to professors in your university or your field.
|
| All the Best!
| dahart wrote:
| Depends on what aspects of your scientific training you want to
| re-engage with. Do you want to be writing & publishing, giving
| talks, doing experiments, or building predictive statistical
| models? And what kind of software do you want to continue
| writing? Application development? More full-stack, with both
| backend and frontend? It is indeed hard to imagine places where
| you can find a strong mix of both.
|
| If you want to mix earth sciences with development, you could
| look for positions on the Google Earth Engine team, or check out
| weather companies that do R&D like Purple Air. I imagine there's
| plenty of software work mixed with earth sciences in the oil,
| gas, and mining industries; aviation & ocean shipping;
| hydroelectric, solar, and wind power maybe.
|
| Being an earth sciences researcher is highly likely to involve
| writing software, whereas the average SWE role is not likely to
| need research, so my instinct would be to say just look research
| roles. Do most of today's earth sciences researchers not spend a
| lot of their time at least writing statistical software in Python
| or R? My brother's an anthropologist, and over the last decade
| his job has become more and more writing software to process
| datasets and do statistics.
|
| If you're just looking for a scientific mindset and a role that
| does experimentation, many companies (especially growing
| startups) have data science departments that, at a minimum, drive
| A-B testing experiments. Occasionally you can find applied
| research positions that are listed as just SWE roles, but those
| might be hard to find - I'd start by asking academic departments
| for leads.
| jp57 wrote:
| "Bridging the gap between PhD and SWE" would be a good subtitle
| for my career.
|
| I started out writing software for scientists, psychologists,
| first at a university, then a small company. After eight years of
| that I went to grad school and got a PhD in CS (ML/AI), and did a
| postdoc, before going into industry, and eventually landed a role
| in what was then called "data mining", later "data science", then
| "machine learning engineering". In the beginning when the team
| was small, we were all generalists, doing both the science work
| and the engineering. As we grew, specialized roles developed, but
| I was able to chart a course somewhere between a SWE and a
| scientist, doing a lot of knowledge work, experiments,
| measurement, and presentation, but also building common tools
| that the rest of the team can use.
|
| I've been out of the job market for 15 years now, but I think any
| company that does science and builds software would value your
| skillset. In fact, when I was shifting from academia to industry,
| I started out determined to be a "scientist". After all, what was
| my PhD for, anyway? But my SWE chops were pretty evident on my
| resume, and I had a hard time getting traction. Then I got
| brought in for an interview at a company that had a team of
| scientists and a team of engineers and they brought me in for a
| split interview with both teams. It was clear by the end that
| they wanted me as an engineer, but I was insistent on wanting to
| be a scientist. They didn't offer me a job, and I was
| disappointed. The disappointment was educational for me, and I
| rewrote my resume to put more emphasis on my SWE skills, and that
| made it easier to find a role that fit me.
| sheepscreek wrote:
| > I've been out of the job market for 15 years now
|
| Wow - that's a long time at one company, or being without a
| job. Could you share more on that? Simple curiosity, thanks.
| ptero wrote:
| I would use your software skills to get in the door as a software
| engineer, then weasel into a sciencey position. That is:
|
| 1. Find a company that has non-software jobs that you like. Look
| at what companies advertise on their web sites; go to a few
| conferences (or watch talks) to see if some talks strike you with
| "ah, I can and want to do this" vibe; reach out to folks you went
| to grad school with, etc.
|
| 2. Apply and join as a software engineer. Don't try to sit on
| both chairs (software and science) during the application. You
| can apply to a science role, but this is likely _much_ harder
| after 8 years of software focus.
|
| 3. Once in, chat with folks working on what you want to work on.
| Talk to folks you saw give talks. Go to internal presentations,
| post cool plots in slack, etc. In most companies it is pretty
| easy to move within roles. Plus, HR is no longer in the filtering
| pipeline and is not tossing resumes of anyone they think does not
| have the chops for the position.
|
| Good luck!
|
| As a personal data point -- I decided, late in my math PhD, to
| switch from academia to the industry after completion. A few
| times I switched jobs I went in as a software engineer, but
| within a few months moved to working on things I wanted to do
| beyond software (algorithms for tracking, perception, signal
| processing, sensor fusion, etc.).
| heisenbit wrote:
| Good point, get into the right company and move to a place you
| like. I did that way back moving from lab to customer service
| (right company and right country) to get into the R&D I wanted.
| Easier to execute in a company that is rapidly expanding.
| jandrewrogers wrote:
| This is the way. I've seen this successfully done many times.
| The barrier to entry is much lower once you already work at a
| company and just about everybody needs more software engineers
| than they can find.
| boogieknite wrote:
| this is quite close to my boss's experience. he was an ecology
| major and phd in geography. i think you probably have about twice
| the software experience he had before merging the two
|
| his application is quite simple and repeatable: optimizing field
| measurements through apps. or more simply, really good forms and
| reports. we focus on forestry but have been able to repeatedly
| repackage and adjust our software for clients who need to go
| someplace, fill out a form, and then report on that later and/or
| submit it to some unique system (etl stuff)
|
| a phd proves you mastered a language and knowledge of process
| applicable to communicating with subject matter experts. youre
| certified in the scientific method. even when my boss doesnt have
| direct experience in a specific field, he can make an analogy to
| other client or phd work. clients are confident you can meet with
| members across their team to plan, implement, and test software
| to optimize their workflow without much hand holding
|
| another thing: he does a lot of talks. after a few talks now he's
| asked all the time and one of ESRI's first calls for an alternate
| at conferences. a lot of this is the phd title. if you dont
| loathe public speaking too much than this can open doors to
| conversations with clients, professional partners, or
| institutions developing new tech
| didip wrote:
| It's there, in data science or data analytics positions.
| grayxu wrote:
| The reason is that you are not a Computer Science PhD. But soft
| skills (such as storytelling, sense of ownership, etc.) can still
| be passed down
| mathgeek wrote:
| It's a bit ironic that the "soft" skills are becoming the hard
| skills nowadays. A lot of the AI buzz these days is around
| PM's, Data Scientists, etc. who now have the tools to code
| "well enough" and are attractive due to their people skills
| and/or other skillsets.
|
| Not to say this is an objective analysis, just observing the
| subjective trends.
| dogma1138 wrote:
| Have you looked at data science / analytics companies such as
| Kantar?
| hmokiguess wrote:
| Usually jobs in established corporations have a specific goal,
| task, or focus that maps directly to the company's bottom-line
| and ROI. Research, on the other hand, requires funding and is
| more like an investment strategy for a company. If you want to
| create your job, and bridge that gap, then try and marry the two.
| How could the fruits of your work improve a company's bottom
| line?
|
| My experience working and hiring PhDs in the past has been one
| that they sometimes are used to this being defined for them
| and/or used to applying to grants/funds in established academic
| environments but rarely do they think of creating the path
| themselves (except for some outliers). The fact that you are
| already thinking of that puts you in that category.
|
| Lastly, when working at the edge of something and creating your
| job, be ready for this mantra: https://37signals.com/13
| MrDarcy wrote:
| As a hiring manager, if someone shared a profile of a person with
| a PHD in earth sciences and 8 years of "full stack" experience
| I'd immediately assume they were a generalist with surface level
| familiarity and no mastery or depth in any one area.
|
| I'd then look over the profile trying to disprove my assumption.
| Lacking a very strong signal in mastery of something, I'd pass on
| the profile.
|
| Only at small scales are full stack engineers valuable. Their
| value is not in the quality of their output but in their ability
| to deliver make shift with that avoids having to pay for
| specialist who can deliver quality.
|
| Assuming there is product market fit then generalists are
| replaced by specialists. This is where the true value aligns in
| terms of high quality output being compensated proportional to
| value created.
|
| Given all this my advice is to pick two complementary areas,
| specialize in those areas and develop deep mastery. Keep your
| broad general skills. Then market yourself as the T or H shaped
| engineer that's most valuable.
| gcarvalho wrote:
| > Only at small scales are full stack engineers valuable.
|
| Seems like the ideal career is to start somewhere big and
| successful enough that allows you to specialize (after some
| poor generalists sabotaged their own careers by making it a
| thriving environment for specialists). Because even small scale
| businesses think they should start by hiring specialists.
| heisenbit wrote:
| > Only at small scales are full stack engineers valuable.
|
| Only if a software or integration problem is labeled neatly
| with the system and expertise required one can afford such
| thinking. Is the issue in the front-end, backend, gateways,
| middleware stack, network or compute? But even more dangerous
| are ,valuable' narrow experts designing systems without
| awareness of the limitations in all other layers.
| spiffy2025 wrote:
| Personally I don't have a PhD, but do have several advanced
| degrees. From experience, I'd suggest look into deeptech
| companies that are looking for SWEs. Deep tech companies
| typically need folks with the ability to pursue scientific
| enquiry with a SWE / Product mindset.
|
| I work at a company that is hiring folks that have a background
| in (helio)physicists / quantum (I think we have about 3 nobel
| prize labs represented right now in a team of 9) with SWE / ML
| experience (EDIT: and Full Stack Developers), to build products
| for the aerospace industry. Not exactly earth science, but if
| Heliophysics / Physics is of interest, my masked email in
| profile.
| nextworddev wrote:
| Don't worry, SWE profession won't really exist in 5 years as it
| currently stands
| petermcneeley wrote:
| I thought AGI was 2027. Given it is a week from 2026 we only
| have 1 year left right?
| nextworddev wrote:
| We don't need AGI to replace you
| tigerlily wrote:
| Go get a job at Seequent?
|
| Or fully bootstrap with a competing product?
| Joel_Mckay wrote:
| Sounds like a GIS company may be a good fit, or another related
| service. =3
|
| https://www.esri.com/en-us/about/careers/job-search
|
| https://www.jpl.jobs/c/educational-jobs
|
| https://www.spacex.com/careers/jobs?programs=Starlink&discip...
| thePhytochemist wrote:
| Consider laboratory automation?
|
| I work in that now. I am going through the same issue as you
| after studying science (there are many of us!). Jobs rarely
| overlap, wanting both skillsets. Am I ever going to do this
| scientific work I learned about? I feel entering this area has
| been progress.
|
| I'm on the 'science' side right now, after doing CAD, software
| and firmware for a few years. The previous robots I made were not
| for scientific work. Now I make liquid handling robots for
| laboratories and I hope that my scientific skills will be valued
| in the workplace.
|
| In the workplace, people mostly seem to want you to choose a box
| and stay in it rather than using a varied skillset. Right now I
| can say I "make robots" but mostly I take parts, put them in the
| machine we make and use them for a bit then send them on their
| way as tested items. The robot is largely a black box - I'm not
| allowed to see the CAD, software or firmware it runs, certainly
| not use my skills in those areas. But I'll keep trying - to bring
| value to the employer and find more interesting/valued work using
| the skills I've gained over the years. Entering a workplace for
| whatever they want then moving within it over time is a time
| tested strategy, especially in government because they are
| unionized and very rarely fire anyone.
|
| Keep in mind funding sources during your search. In Canada we
| have SRED, which is a tax rebate for scientific work and easy to
| get. People, even if they studied science, seem to perceive
| scientific work as expensive and mostly useless so subsidies like
| this really help. Since it's a rebate that means you must work
| for a company that already has revenue, not a small startup. Look
| for a company with at least a room they call a lab and they will
| keep time sheets for all "R&D" work.
| legel wrote:
| I happen to have a background at this interface as well, as the
| founder of DeepEarth and Ecodash.ai. I can tell you that I would
| greatly value such experience in collaboration, although I am not
| currently hiring. While having such a specific interdisciplinary
| niche can feel limiting, I also see it as a potential superpower
| in excelling in a very important domain. I'll also add that
| machine learning and other modeling techniques are a great bridge
| between classical natural sciences and modern tech today, that I
| would look for in collaborators. More specifically from the earth
| sciences, "GeoAI" would be a key focus.
| ludicrousdispla wrote:
| If you're in the US then you will need to wait a year _at least_
| for any new job opportunities related to science.
| Lyngbakr wrote:
| I have a PhD in a similar field to Earth Science and now I'm an
| engineering team lead at a company in a field related to my PhD.
| This is the second such role I've held like this and it was very
| much that I found a perfect position in both cases. I think a key
| part of being able to combine my domain and technical expertise
| in a single role was that the jobs were at startups where there's
| often the need for folks to wear multiple hats. That said, in the
| past decade since leaving academia I have perhaps seen a handful
| of such jobs. So, they _do_ exist, but are few and far between,
| IME.
| BeetleB wrote:
| My background was in grad level physics. Twice in my career I've
| actually gotten jobs that make use of my technical skills. Both
| times it was a big mistake. While the _work_ was cool, the _work
| environment_ was terrible (including pay).
|
| Once you get used to being paid well for "easy" work, it's hard
| to put up with attitudes when you're getting paid less (or even
| the same) doing "hard" work. If you don't perform, your
| employment is at stake, and you'll realize there's value in
| having a job that you don't have doubts you can do.
| markzporter wrote:
| Maybe it's a bit on the nose, but Kobold Metals would probably
| appreciate both skill sets: https://koboldmetals.com/
| adw wrote:
| Did you do any serious simulations work? If so, machine learning.
| (PhD in mineral physics, staff ML engineer at a FAANG.)
| clickety_clack wrote:
| I have a multidisciplinary background as well, and always found
| it frustrating that everyone wants you to be one thing.
| Eventually I just started my own company, and now I'm using
| everything I know.
| RobRivera wrote:
| I'm a military veteran; early on I pigeon-holed my precious life
| and training and focused on the needs of the markets and the
| roles I sought out.
|
| I found this productive from a learning perspective, to prevent
| bias and trying to shoehorn a style that may not be optimal for
| the work.
|
| Now after nearly a decade of work I have been able to bridge the
| gap for your alleged 'missing middle'.
|
| This is where I diverge from your perspective; I take the
| personal growth and skill perspective to navigating my career.
| That is to say, I focus on solving the problems I want,
| researching what skills are most effective with an open mind that
| I may bring something novel from my past, and grow from there.
|
| I think if you search for the PERFECT role leveraging your
| skills, you may wait a long time. Find a problem--artistic,
| commercial, or otherwise stimulating--that you would be willing
| to pursue in your free time. For me: this was video game
| development, however I forked my development from most paradigms
| circa 2003, and been reinventing many wheels for the sake of
| deeper knowledge.
|
| You may be lucky to find a role which leverages everything you
| may find your personal skills are, but if a role isnt, dont
| discounts the principles it took to succeed at something as dema
| ding as a PhD.
|
| I hope you find this perspective valuable!
| DANmode wrote:
| Keep reviewing niche businesses and industries.
|
| I thought I'd never be able to bridge my specialties when I was
| younger - I just hadn't put the puzzle pieces together yet.
|
| Being willing to start your own thing can help a lot, too.
| esafak wrote:
| With a background like that you should be doing machine learning
| if you want to combine science and software. And climate tech is
| a burgeoning field.
|
| I see many relevant openings in
| https://www.climatetechlist.com/jobs
| GianFabien wrote:
| I see you having a unique opportunity. There is a scarcity of
| strong SWE skills in the earth sciences related
| industries/businesses. You could refresh your reasons,
| motivations and interests for choosing earth sciences for your
| PhD. Perhaps your thesis and research connections reveal further
| dimensions.
|
| In any earth sciences based work, there would be requirements for
| either data sciences or AI related processing, improvements, etc.
| Those are the sorts of areas that you might want to peddle your
| SWE skills as delivering.
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