Non-academic jobs for a GT Ph.D in the ATL?

[gog8rs]

I'll try to address the comments all in one post:

Originally Posted by Nanosolar

GTRI, Suniva, Lockheed, but your best bet may be the TIGER program at GT in your final year. It takes 2 GT MBAs, 2 Emory Law students, and a GT PhD and makes them a team for a year to start a company.

Well, GTRI is essentially academia. The reason I don't want to work in academia is that the pace is very slow. I've looked into Lockheed and the other defense contractors, but they're not really interested in my skillset, which is really only attractive to electronics companies with fabs. Similar line of reasoning for TIGER, flashpoint, ATDC, etc., but those programs are very focused on areas that are either require very little funding to get off the ground, like web services or, more rarely, that are very popular and have a lot of private/public money floating around (biotech, energy). As for Suniva, I actually took their CTO's solar cells class at GT awhile back, but I'm pretty sure the R&D at that company is staffed with some of his many former students. It's moot because they don't have any openings, anyway.

Originally Posted by roadtrip75

You're working on a degree at Georgia Tech even though you aren't in Atlanta and you are simultaneously working at a high-paying job. I am having trouble wrapping my head around this scenario.

Sorry, I guess I should have explained, although Mishap did a good job of it. I am currently taking time off research to intern with a company.

Originally Posted by Mishap

What precisely about going back out west has given you reservations about it? Seems to me just on the scale of things in Silicon Valley and having a terminal degree would put you in a very good position to find a solid role out there.

A few things, mostly cultural/quality of life. Silicon Valley is, without a doubt, a great place to work and it would be easy to get a good job, but housing costs too much (I stayed in a house on a 3000 square foot plot worth a million dollars), and the state political system is pure insanity to a southerner like myself. I just don't believe it's a good place to put down roots.

Portland is better, but it's quite a bit smaller than Atlanta, and so it does not have many of the things we take for granted (lots of professional sports teams, a good airport, a diversified economy, etc.). It's not that I would dislike living here long-term, it's that I much prefer Atlanta.

Interesting about the consulting thing. Even though I sort of shot down a consulting gig in my initial post, I have actually been filling out applications for the last couple of weeks at a firm or two I liked.

Edit: To researchnerd, your husband is most definitely affected by ageism that is rampant in engineering. A relative of mine (engineer, very talented and many patents to his name) was fairly high up in a well-known tech company back in the 80's and 90's and he could not find stable work at another company after leaving that job. Consulting, sure, but after a certain age, you just can't travel as much.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by Onthemove2014

Online courses are a common thing these days....

Not for a PhD. For some they finish their course work on campus and can leave to do their research.

[VJP]

How about Raleigh Durham, RTP? That's probably your best bet for staying somewhat 'southern' and putting your EE background to good use. I have an MSEE, but I work in telecom, which...as might be implied, can be location flexible. Good luck..

[Mishap]

The reason why I'm mentioning consulting is b/c my younger brother is finishing up his PhD in Biomedical Engineering this month and looking for a position in consulting since he has extreme apathy for research but very high quant scores. Unfortunately, being a proactive job hunter isn't high on his list of talents. If he doesn't want to wind up in a lab, consulting is the closest he's going to get to a normal corporate gig. He's only 28 and single so getting out and traveling a bit on a corporate AMEX probably isn't a bad thing. Of course if you have a family, the lifestyle can be hard but most of the colleagues I started with at my firm from the MBA intake track were at minimum married and several have small children.

Definitely look at the size/type of the firm and the work you'd be doing. If it's pure tech strategy w/ your advanced degree, you may wind up in Silicon Valley a lot anyway which just makes for a nasty flight ATL -> SJC. An analyst I had working for me previously wound up on a project w/ a big tech firm out in Oregon which gives him the wonderful 5hr redeye on Thursdays that gets you into ATL just in time to make it to the office. That would definitely be rough but you'd log a ton of miles, still be able to enjoy GA's relatively low taxes, and do alternate travel on weekends if you enjoy Norcal(or Vegas) a lot. Of course most of my peers in the bigger service areas have regional travel (TN, FL, AL, SC, NC) which means 1hr flights or a drive.

Alternately, there's a ton of EE related R&D work out in Texas. My old HS buddy went AMD after he finished his Masters at GT and I believe his wife works in the same space out there. It's kind of southern out there, no state income tax, and a short flight to the rest of the south. Either way, get yourself to the job fair and get as many interviews/offers as you can. You never know when a company could make an offer you can't refuse.

[researchnerd]

Originally Posted by gog8rs

Edit: To researchnerd, your husband is most definitely affected by ageism that is rampant in engineering. A relative of mine (engineer, very talented and many patents to his name) was fairly high up in a well-known tech company back in the 80's and 90's and he could not find stable work at another company after leaving that job. Consulting, sure, but after a certain age, you just can't travel as much.

If he's experiencing ageism at 43, that says something pretty effin' pathetic about the industry. He's not too old to travel, but he can't find consulting gigs either.

However, I do think you hit on something: Companies can hire experienced engineers and pay them what they have earned for their expertise, or they can hire recent college grads for half the salary. Since the recession started, they are doing much more of the latter. They apparently don't take training costs and higher turnover costs into consideration, but the math looks good on the surface. Of course, at this point my DH would accept half his former salary just to work in the industry he loves, but hiring managers don't like that either. It's a horrible Catch-22.