I was planning to apply to PhD programs this year. Like all transition periods, this one brought lots of questioning. I remember the last year of high school and bachelor’s, all the same. We have to think and plan: what is going to happen to us? The problem is, there is no clear answer to that. Such an ill situation!

I will try to approach the problem as a logical one. Just like we do in our engineering or science classes. We are well aware that we are not answering all the questions about life, valid for all people. We are well aware that we are proposing a humble solution, but carefully (as much as we can), to a specific problem of a specific person. In this case, it is my PhD applications. However, my case is not necessarily very different from someone else’s case. Hence, I believe reading or thinking about this case will not be a waste of time to anyone. After all, people and their problems resemble each other!

The problem (ML analogy: task, like classification, regression, etc.): Choosing a career path, specifically, a PhD position.

The person (dataset in ML analogy): Me, Hüseyin Karaca. What are my specialties, or differences, from other people? Arguably, supposedly, I have a glorious (şanlı) history, giving me the belief that I have high potential. This creates an ambition towards getting accepted into top schools. This can be supported by my personal attributes, such as being detail-oriented and not liking superficial things. I of course want to get into a top school, but only if I enjoy it (I mean, the whole process should feel right! We should not feel like we are sacrificing life itself—traveling, reading, enjoying good coffee, etc.) [But everyone wants this.]

Now, maybe we should proceed as follows: An introduction (optional), a problem statement, related work, our proposal, experiments, etc. Just like a research paper! What an irony!

Although I have some difficulties, use of English is good, as it is the language of my thinking side.. Turki shakar ast… More on the un-regularized side. Untidy, chaotic thoughts, flying around..

Paper Title: Finding a

Introduction

[You may write some fancy stuff here, as it is not that important at all.]

Problem Statement

Deliverables

To plan our days.
To adjust our mentality and motivation.
These adjustments and plans should be sustainable. To do that, we have to be able
- to make updates. We should be flexible enough.
- A good metric is needed. (The progress + the life happiness should be jointly tracked.)
- A good validation strategy is needed.
We have to name a field to specialize in.
We have to select professors at the end. A ranked list would be great, depending on our other factors.
SOP, PS, if different.
(The application material in short.)

Notes: The flexibility thing is, or should be, twofold: Our plan / solution / actions should cover both changes in 1) ultimate goals, like being a university professor or being in industry, 2) in necessary actions, like changing our working style, etc.

Constraints and Challenges

One thing which is both good and bad: we are not in an ideal space. There are lots of constraints and challenges.

Challenges

Even if we name a field that we like, it can be too hard for our capabilities. Doing theoretical machine learning? Not easy, considering we don’t even know a word about functional analysis yet.
Even if we find a field that we both like and are capable of, we cannot find professors who could guide us.
Even if we find such a professor, we may not be OK with the host institution or country. (It means maybe we should add city or country to the list. The inputs coming from Mr. AA can be a great contribution to our work.)

In the field of drawing a career path, lots of big guys have said something.

nusret çetinel: All you have to do is find your passion, the field, and then go for it until the end. Is the best professor in your field in Mongolia? Does not matter. My objections to LH: We cannot go to Mongolia. We have other constraints. Finding yourself is not that easy.

SSK: As long as you provide yourself with an outcome, such as paper and money, you are good. At the end, people only look for these things. Do not forget to advertise yourself well, so that you make sure both other people and yourself are deceived by your material outcomes! (Tweak the reality accordingly.)

The aşk kadın: It is a joint optimization problem, you are not free, you are trying to maximize lots of considerations. (Most holistic and close-to-my-reality approach ever, as you can understand from the structure and content of this post.) I am not saying “do what most excites you”, but “do not do what does not excite you”.

otis abi: You should be strategic. Make sure you are exploiting your background, your network, etc. Do not forget that SO is an FL alumnus and EI is working with him. Do not forget that SSK is a student of S and S’s students could be effective in the signal processing field. You can do what you want in signal processing (ECE dept) as well; changing your department to computer science or statistics is risky.

arkiolok: There should be meaning in what you do. I am doubtful about working on AI, as it is developing too fast, and humankind is unprepared—we have not taken necessary action to control or regulate it by laws, etc. I do not want to contribute to this inhuman technology. Besides, doing theory is much harder than expected. I was anticipating that it was hard, but not that much. Be careful. But, it is still the way to go.

Our solution :D

To be continued