Computer Vision News - June 2022

27 Ewa Nowara happened to me. I got some offers, which were pretty good, but it definitely wasn’t my dream job. That advice really stuck with me. I had a pretty good offer from a company. It was a research engineering position. I wasn’t super excited about the company or the position, but it was pretty good, pretty good compensation. I didn’t have anything else. So you did not follow the advice? I interviewed where I could. I didn’t want to turn down the interview. It seemed like a good option. Maybe not the top option - I wasn’t sure what I could get, so I guess I did not exactly follow [ laughs ], but I wasn’t able to land interviews at my top places at the time in 2020. Many places paused hiring. Then Professor Chellappa reached out to my advisor asking if he has any students who are interested in a postdoc. Ashok recommended that I talk to him. I did get the postdoc offer. I had a very challenging decision to make. I have a full-time job offer. I’m on a visa, so I do need some sponsorship eventually. That was a stressful wanted to be a research scientist. For a very long time, I wanted to be where I am now. I wasn’t sure if I would make it because these positions can be very competitive. Also, there aren’t as many of them because there’s only so much need for research in a company. You need to have strong publications. I’m very happy that it did work out. You had doubts along the way. How did you deal with these doubts? What guided you through the moments of doubt? I was reaching out to several mentors, people who I have interned with, my PhD advisor, several other professors, and also peers who have gone through a similar process. It has been really reassuring. They toldme that sometimes it’s more about the timing. It’s a bad time right now to apply for these positions. They recommended a postdoc and trying to work on something new, get some more publications. So you are living proof that mentoring is really fruitful. It helps a lot. What was the main lesson you learned from a mentor that was particularly successful?  My PhD advisor gave me many pieces of advice along the way. One stuck with me. He said that I should first go for my top positions, so interview at the top places. Because if I interview at my second and third choice places, I will likely get an offer. Then what do you do? You don’t have any other offer, right, so you will probably take it… That “If you don’t like it, then just quit and give up! ”