There is a weird disconnect in your post. You are nearly finished with a PhD in Machine Learning and you feel you lack knowledge in this field? You must have worked on some (academic) projects and gathered knowledge and experience. Don't sell yourself short.
Online courses are well and good if you want to self-educate, but don't think that will overly impress potential employers. Working for free seems like a bad idea for all involved. And I would deem you overqualified for an internship.
So, I recommend one of two paths:
- Work part-time (payed!) for that startup (or some other company). This will give you work experience and a payslip. It may also boost your self-confidence. If there is not sufficient demand for your skills in your area, you may find a position that lets you work remotely.
- Work on a cool pet-project. There are so many things you can do with Deep Learning - just find one project that inspires you and preferably will yield cool pictures or videos. This will wow future employers and will also improve your knowledge and experience.
manpreet![Tuteehub forum best answer]()
Best Answer
2 years ago
TL;DR: As an under-qualified software engineer in Australia that came from overseas, should I offer to work for free or should I keep working on my skills before applying for a paid job after PhD?
Goal: To get a full time job in Machine Learning / Data Science and graduate from PhD asap.
Background: I've attained my Bachelor's from software engineering, worked as a software engineer for about a year (6 years ago), finished a master's degree in Computer Science (all of them overseas), had about a year of gap before starting my PhD in Australia (now 1.5+ years in). My PhD is also in Computer Science, funded by a scholarship from an Australian university.
My PhD is in a very similar/same field with the job that I would like to get into (Deep Learning / Machine Learning). I live in a small-ish city where I have recently found a startup with 5 employees which I would like to work for (they were hiring for a full time, now the ad for the position has been removed).
I feel quite underqualified for the job, as I lack both experience and knowledge to do so. I am also not a citizen but I do have work permit from my student visa, and my English is great. Options:
Thanks in advance.