37
It is possible (even “practically, in real life”) to do all sorts of things that are very difficult to do, like: publish five bestselling novels; climb the highest mountain in every continent; win a gold medal in the Olympics; become a successful movie actor; etc etc.
The point is that questions like yours (which seem to get asked here regularly) are very ...
16
I'd like to address what I see as a misconception in the original question. You wrote,
I have a fairly good foundation on CS because I have been doing competitive programming since I was 13.
But computer science is not the same as computer programming. Here is an analogy: Computer programming is to computer science as elementary arithmetic is to ...
10
Don't worry about gaps that are easy to explain, especially by something that will have affected everyone to some extend, such as Covid in 2020/2021 (and hopefully not any longer...).
Keep working on your postdoc, and keep applying to positions that are in your interest.
Besides that, it is totally normal to have a few months between two positions every now ...
9
You should probably be applying but with a broadened scope. Times are tough, both generally in academia and due to the pandemic. What was true this year may not be true next.
The ease of getting a position in a given academic field varies fairly wildly over time. There are downturns and also good times. But, unless you want to give up and become an Uber ...
8
I’d like to offer a complement to Dan Romik’s answer. Roughly summarising, that answer points out that this is possible, but is a challenging plan, and (for most people) very difficult to succeed with — all of which I agree with.
But I wouldn’t therefore advise abandoning the plan entirely. Ambition is great! The important thing with such an ambitious ...
3
Do not do pure math: the job prospects in academia are horrible. Then, once you leave academia you'll figure out that a math degree while highly impressive is completely useless to employers. Yes, it's a fundamental discipline which undergirds every engineering field, but by itself it is abstract and totally and completely useless. You need to couple it ...
3
Interim postdocs are perfectly normal (in my field). Especially considering the a Covid situation this is not going to be a red flag.
Publishing lots of papers will turn you into a strong candidate.
On a side note: focus on actionable things and clear questions. Your post doesn't really include anything but asking the internet how you should feel. That does ...
2
Such things depend more on why you leave rather than just the fact that you do. If you establish a poor record then it is harder to get in to another program.
But it also depends on where you want to study and the nature of the program that you enter. Some programs give you some room and time to catch up with missed knowledge and some programs provide an ...
2
I am not aware of any journals in my field (physical sciences) that would pay cash to authors for research papers. There are some obvious edge-cases:
Some major journals such as Science/Nature contain a certain amount of non-research content, e.g. 'science news' and commentary on policy matters. I presume that the authors of this material get paid fairly ...
2
Your situation does not sound fundamentally different from any other university graduate.
Your work experience will possibly give you some technical and time management skills that others don't have, but you'll just have to put your skillset to good use like every other graduated student.
Note, that going to graduate school for the sole reason to become a ...
1
I suggest that you pursue all options open to you at the current time and delay decisions until you are required to finalize them. In other words, apply for some positions in your home country and see what develops. If they then seem better than your current situation, then do that. But you can also pursue options in your current country with the same goal.
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1
This sort of dilemma is often country and culture-dependent. Some areas of the world will be far more strict about what is / isn't a 'maths degree'. Usually here (UK) I see it phrased as more like 'a degree with a high quantitative component' which includes computer science, physics, engineering, etc, but I don't know much about the Indian academic culture.
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1
I think your plans for your future are quite reasonable, but my thoughts count for very little. Many engineers have a mathematical bent of mind and I believe many mathematics departments (especially in applied fields like statistics) will recognize that. An example of an engineer who became a mathematician is: Raoul Bott. In all probability, you are not ...
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