I am a EE PHD with 8 years of work experience, looking to transition in to data science / visualization / machine learning related roles.

Worked at a semiconductor startup for 6 years before with full ownership for R&D of a product line.

If you are a startup looking for a part-time data scientist or ML engineer, I would love to talk to you. You will get an experienced engineer working nearly for free, and I will get real-world ML experience. It is a win-win.

Location: San Francisco

Full-time/Part-Time: Part-Time

Remote: OK, but SF Bay Area is preferred for more face to face interaction.

Technologies: Python, R, Data Visualization, Machine Learning, Deep Learning

Work Samples: Please see resume.

Email: skirank@gmail.com

Resume:https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EIsON6O8hktnLpiZDR6wDbgBgk...

Visa Status: US Citizen

Location: San Francisco Full-time/Part-Time: Part-Time Remote: OK Technologies: Python, R, Machine Learning, Deep Learning Email: xyzsk3@gmail.com

I am a PHD with 8 years of work experience, looking to transition in to ML. Worked at a semiconductor startup for 6 years before.

If you are a startup looking for a part-time data scientist or ML engineer, I would love to talk to you. You will get an experienced engineer working nearly for free, and I will get real-world ML experience. It is a win-win.

Hi, I am in a similar boat, and would love to network with you either in person or online.

I have a PhD in EE, working in semiconductors. I have done a couple of MOOC specializations on Coursera, and am trying get some data science projects on my resume. Also trying do some Kernels / Scripts on Kaggle to build up a basic portfolio.

Hi, Email is in my profile and I am always looking to network. Shoot me an email and we can take it from there.

Great reply. Just out of curiosity, did you end up giving your semiconductor job before joining the start up with a data scientist title ?

I am deep into semiconductors, and am facing the dilemma of giving up my expertise so far, to join a startup as an entry level engineer.

I have done a couple of MOOC specializations and am trying to find projects within my industry to gain some credibility. Also trying to stay active on Kaggle to build some basic data analysis portfolio.

In my particular case, I did quit my job before I got my "real" Data Science position. I can't recall exact timelines, but I think I had already lined up the relationship with the startup.

The reason I did this is because there just wasn't enough hours in the day, and my job was taking ~10 hours a day with commuting...etc. It was a risk, but the idea was that I would be able to transition much more quickly if I worked full-time towards it. I also had the financial savings to support myself for 6-9 months and was willing to get a part time job if necessary. Once it became clear that my job's only purpose was to pay the bills in the context of my goals, and I had enough to pay the bills for the near future, it was clear that quitting was the easiest way to free up a lot of time.

This turned out to be the best decision of my career, but YMMV. I doubled my salary in less than 2 years. It's also nice to be part of an industry that isn't so cost-sensitive. I also have a skill set that's in much higher demand, so you can live almost anywhere and there's a ton of companies that want/need it. With semiconductors, you're much more limited.

It's true that you're giving up some expertise and will start in a less senior position in a different field than if you stayed in semi. Sticking around because you have experience is classic Sunk Cost Fallacy. Think 5 years down the line. If you leave now, you'll have 5 years experience in ML. You'll definitely be giving something up if you leave, but there's huge opportunity cost if you don't leave.

Would you be open to have a brief conversation on the phone for advice? My email is knariks@gmail.com.

Hi OP here. I don't think you need to give up Your Experience to join a startup as a Data scientist. But what won't be 100% transferrable would be your Semiconductor specific skills(think spice, process technology etc). If you have been coding your current job that is a skill that is transferrable.Your PhD is a massive foot in the door. Have you considered something like Data incubator or Insight data science fellowship which require a minimum P.hD to transition.

A few years ago, I spent on some time on spinning this issue around and giving employees a way to request public validation of their contributions from their employers. Sort of asking your manager to give you a public endorsement of your contributions every six months or so. I talked to a few managers and every one said companies wouldn't accept such a thing.

Any novel thoughts on how to get around that obstacle ?

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! My goal is to be able to build at least the initial prototypes for complex web / mobile applications, so that I can test out some of our ideas. I did this in the past with various content management systems, but I feel that they are sometimes not flexible enough and come with a lot of general purpose features that are not necessary for my application. Currently I am trying to build an education website for children with illustrated books, repetitive exercises etc., that's very easy to navigate and can keep track of progress of each student, encourage them to learn more etc.

My wife had to deal with many such cases when they were hiring contractors in their group. A few simple checks that could be useful:

1. Request to have some date of birth, graduation date etc on the CV. It's by no means fool proof, but it at least prevents a 23 year old passing a person with 10 years of work experience.

2. Replace phone interviews with Skype interviews. She says many times they can actually see the candidates googling for answers and reading the top most result. Of course, they never hire such a candidate.

3. Maintain a company-wide data-base of who is hired/interviewed from which consultancy and if the there were any red flags. This will help other groups in a big company. Since there is a written record, people also tend not to interview from the same bad company again and again and wasting everyone's time.

Thanks brudgers ! Is it okay to ask for the stock option agreement before joining the company ?

Based on not having done so myself in my younger days, I would absolutely require it (in regards to a closely held corporation).

It is not uncommon for the stockholder agreement of a closely held company to require the sale of shares back to the company upon an employee's departure or to prevent the sale of shares to a person of the employee's choosing.

In particular for your case, the agreement will tell you whether the company is obligated to loan you money in order that you may exercise your options so that the stock may be resold back to the company.

The more I have thought about it, the more this looks like a discretionary bonus not really an investment opportunity. The amount of money entailed to exercise your options and retain the stock is just too high - these are option grants which are vesting not stock grants. If at the end of the first year the company doesn't loan you money to exercise your options, there's no value for you unless you have $150k in cash handy.

I would add that 7500 shares is going to require a ten billion dollar exit to give you "fuck you" money (assuming no dilution or liquidity preference). Again it's probably best to ignore the stock as a form of compensation.

[edit] Any resistance to giving you the stockholder paperwork while you are considering the offer is, in my opinion, a red flag.

Thanks for your replies everyone ! One of my concerns was that CEO has been putting in all the money so far, so the valuation of the company is questionable.

Only comparison I could make was with another competitor in the same area, which is valued about twice of this company. So, the valuation doesn't look too arbitrary.

The good thing is that the CEO has been the CEO of another big company for >10 years. So he is capable of making this company a success. This company has been around for 5 years and has some physical products out there, so the chance of it going belly up over a short period is relatively low.

They are offering a salary that slightly exceeds that job current job including bonus/401K etc. and the vesting period for the options is 3 years with 1/3rd of the options vesting each year.

The CEO wants to make the company profitable and keep it private if possible. He said I could sell the options back to the company once they vest. He said he just converted somebody's options to company's stock once they vested. I am not sure if I can get real cash for the options though, if the company is still private and not seeking funding.

The offer letter says vesting period, but it doesn't give details regarding what happens if the company gets acquired before my options vest.

Is it okay to ask for the options agreement, before joining the company ?

I agree, putting links back to your homepage helps, and these days it shows up as the first result with my name. But still, I want the other results to be relevant: such as my papers, any press we have got etc., not some random product I have tried long time ago and never even liked it.