Thanks for your advice and I totally agree with it.

Hello all,

I am doing a PhD in Europe and I am halfway through. I have a degree in electronics engineering and I am doing research in nanotechnology.
I am considering pursuing data science, machine learning or something closely related, partially because I am starting to be fed up with the research I am doing and partially because I am afraid for my future carrier. Having an engineering degree and some programming experience, I wouldn't start from scratch. Although I work on an industry relevant topic, it is very focused, as all PhDs are, and I feel like I am not gaining any relevant industry experience. I know that this is a common concern of many PhD students, but I still wanted to ask for your opinion. Do you think that this plan is feasible and what are the chances of being hired in this field after obtaining a PhD in quite a different field? Any feedback is appreciated!

Cheers

I was asking around and now I know in which lab to work and which tools are available there.

Thank you all for the feedback.
I would like to defend myself for this overreacting, as it was perceived like that, and indeed it may sounded like that, but I didn't want to write too much.
The place where I am doing my PhD has literally thousands of squared meters of lab space and more than 4000 employees, and I was not even told in which particular lab I have to work, needless to say that there wasn't anybody that would show me the lab and the tools. I don't expect my supervisor to tell me what to do on a daily basis, but I think this what I mentioned above should be a bare minimum at the beginning.

Thanks a lot for the advices!

Hi All,

About a month ago I started my PhD at a very renowned institute, got a good position on an interesting topic, well payed, in a nice town, so I was very excited to start. However, I can say that after a month I feel disappointed, mostly with the organization and my supervisor. To give you a background, this is not a typical academic institution, it's quite big, with a few thousand employees and the research is directed towards industry and applications. The problem is that my supervisor is highly positioned in the hierarchy and has many ongoing projects. All the discussions and actions so far were initiated by me and it is not unusual that he doesn't reply to my emails. Moreover, the discussions very often go into a big picture direction, so to say, about the plans, expectations, things to be achieved in one, two years etc. and not on the concrete actions, which is what I need at this stage. He is not even an expert in this field and for any practical question I have to ask around and hope that somebody will help me. The nature of the institute is that the projects are big, usually involving many people and different groups, so working alone with occasional meetings is not an option.

I know it has been only a month and maybe too early to rant, but I am afraid that this is note something temporary and it would be painful to continue working like this all the time. Any suggestions or similar experiences? Thanks in advance!