So I am on the market after getting my masters. I’ve posted my resume to Dice and Monster and a couple others. Monster gets the most unsolicited calls. I’m finding that recruiters are an odd lot. There are some who are pleasant, though to a man (or woman) they’ve never heard of NLP or computational linguistics and have no idea how to help me (with the exception of the one or two recruiters I’ve contacted for NLP jobs). For the most part, they seem to not even read my resume. Oh, you have Java skills? How about this Java grunt job that only requires a bachelor’s degree? Waste of time. The best are the ones who contact me in broken English with a multitude of typos. Yeah, right.
I have been told that with my CMU degree, I should be looking exclusively at the big corporations: Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo, etc. If I do my time there, I can get a job anywhere and have a good career. That’s true, I’m sure. Something about startups is really attractive to me, though, so I’ve been looking at a lot of them. What if the only job I can get at a Googlosoftazonahoo is not NLP-related? Everything is so rushed. I have a September 1st exit date for CMU and I want to be in the city of my chosen job by then. Add lease problems. The problem is my decision to abandon academia didn’t come at the right time: back in the winter. I am, however, more confident than ever that it was the right decision.
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9 July 2008 at 14:08:27
Chris
My own experience has been that you need to be pretty proactive about searching for NLP jobs. I wouldn’t expect resume posting or recruiters to be very helpful. The Googlosoftazonahoo approach is sound, but those companies get 100,000 apps a month and they bus Standford and MIT grads in by the truck load. It is the very definition of “competitive”.
There are plenty of NLP start-ups out there, particularly doing information retrieval. They love machine learning skills, but are happy with any NLP familiarity.
I would suggest you look at LingPip’s list of competitors. It’s basically a list of companies you should be sending resumes to.
There is, of course, my own most excellent List of Companies That hire Computational Linguists. Enjoy.
May we assume you have already applied to Netflix?
9 July 2008 at 14:18:54
Jason Adams
Indeed that is a most excellent list, which I haven’t exploited enough of yet. The LingPipe competitors list is also very good, thanks for pointing that out.
I’m considering applying to Netflix, just debating whether I want to get away from recommender systems or not. I’m leaning towards doing something else.
10 July 2008 at 09:44:45
Chris
I understand your thinking about Netflix, but my general advice is to apply everywhere, decide later. There’s really no downside to getting an offer then saying no. Give yourself options by applying.
10 July 2008 at 09:46:35
Jason Adams
True. Thanks for the advice!
10 July 2008 at 12:02:16
Chris
BTW, at some point some interviewer is going to ask you some version of this question: “What are your salary expectations?”
Have you thought about an answer?
10 July 2008 at 12:16:19
Jason Adams
When I said a million a year, all I got were guffaws, so I’m guessing less than that. I’m not sure exactly. What do you think is reasonable? I realize it varies by city, of course.
10 July 2008 at 12:39:53
Chris
hehe, yeah, CL applicants have no salary cap.
Well, let’s see. You have a great skill set and a graduate degree from a top school. Assuming all of your experience is academic and you are looking at “entry level”, I think this breakdown is fair (maybe even low):
1. Small city (Pitt/Buffalo): $55,000 - $65,000
2. Big City (Boston, San Fran): $85,000 - $95,000
There is a third category too: Washington DC. This is its own category because those NLP jobs are largely related to servicing government customers (there’s a lot of IR down there), which typically requires a security clearance. Since only U.S. citizens are eligible, this reduces the supply of applicants, thus increasing their value. I could imagine an applicant with your credentials asking for $100,000 plus $5,000 relocation from a DC company. They may balk. I ain’t saying they’ll agree, but I think everyone down there would understand why you’re asking for that.
Now, as for the stars…I could imagine a few scenarios where you might get in the $115,000 range, but without work experience, I suspect that’s unlikely. I’ve seen a couple companies advertising the $140,000 number, but I’m pretty sure that was for PhD with experience. Doesn’t hurt to ask, though, haha.
I would ask your professors if they have former student’s who’ve given them a sense of the salaries they’ve gotten.
Do you have a preferred location?
10 July 2008 at 18:57:19
Jason Adams
Thanks, that was extremely helpful. I had been searching high and low for that two years ago when I was looking at getting my masters but couldn’t find.
I have no particular preferred location, just as long as the job is interesting.
11 July 2008 at 09:40:45
Chris
Of course, major market law firms pay starting lawyers in the $160,000 range … but they’re “worth it”, right?