Dedicated to the 50th anniversary of EPFL
On October 30, 2012, I had a one-way ticket in my hands, to Geneva, and a great desire to get a PhD degree in one of the most prestigious universities in Europe, and indeed the world, perhaps. And on December 31, 2018, I spent my last day in the laboratory, to which I have already become attached. It's time to sum up where my dreams have taken me over the past 6 years, talk about the peculiarities of life in the country of cheese, chocolate, watches and army knives, and also philosophize on the topic of where to live well.
How to enter graduate school and what to do immediately upon arrival is described in two articles ( и ). For a computer science school, I found my rather detailed manual . In this part, it's time to finish the long-winded story about graduate school at an excellent university, in one of the richest and at the same time the poorest country - Switzerland.
Disclaimer: the purpose of this article is to present in an accessible form the main points of the scientific life of a graduate student at EPFL, perhaps someday some of the thoughts below will be embodied in the Russian Federation when reforming universities or in the 5-100 program. Additional, revealing information and examples have been removed from the spoilers, perhaps some points are overly generalized, but I hope this does not spoil the overall picture of the story.
Well, congratulations, my dear friend, you have entered graduate school at one of the best universities in Europe and the world, you have established your everyday life, which we will talk about in more detail in the following parts, you have passed the necessary training in safety and work in the laboratory. And now half a year has flown by, the boss, the professor is immensely pleased (or not - but this is not certain) with the results, and the candidate's exam loomed ahead - the first serious test on the way to obtaining a Ph.D. aka PhD degree.
Go! Moving from Lausanne to the new campus in Sion in April 2015
"Candidate minimum" in Swiss
At the end of the first year of study, each graduate student, or rather a candidate for graduate students, is waiting for an exam for professional suitability. Before this beautiful moment, graduate students often shudder, although the cases when someone was kicked out can be counted on the fingers. This is due to the fact that candidates go through several stages of filtering:
- formal when applying to the school,
- personal for interviews and presentations,
- social, when before the final decision on admission, the professor or group leader asks his employees if they liked the person, whether he will join the team.
If someone is expelled, it is done for formal and objective reasons, for example, regular and gross violation of safety rules or very poor scientific results.
So, you should not be afraid of the first year exam at all, because in general the exam is much easier than in the Russian Federation, where you have to pass philosophy, English, a specialty and also write a bunch of reports on the work done.
There are several formal criteria for accessing the exam (may vary from school to school):
- Completed 3-4 ECTS credits out of 12 or 16 (more on that below), depending on the program/school. In my case it was – doctoral school in chemistry and chemical technology.
- Prepared a written report on the work done and plans for the future. Someone requires a brief 5-page, someone thinks that it is necessary to write a mini-review of the literature.
- A commission of 2-3 professors (often internal) is selected.
All body movements are entered into the electronic accounting system (more on it below), the report is uploaded there in the same way as the names and surnames of professors. A minimum of bureaucracy and an almost complete absence of paper consumption (literally a couple of forms must be filled out and signed). Although, a cursory survey showed that EPFL is very heterogeneous inside and, for example, in (School of Biology and Biotechnology), the electronic system is used differently.
At the exam before the commission, which includes the supervisor, it is necessary to give a presentation and answer questions. Sometimes they are really philosophical, however, no one will torture you with “textbook questions”, such as writing such and such a formula or forcing you to draw an iron-carbon state diagram with all austenitic and martensitic transformations.
Gone iron-carbon diagram
By the way, the diagram is not easy to remember.
It is believed that the candidate will find this information somewhere in a textbook or reference book, but the ability to think, evaluate facts and make correct conclusions - unfortunately, there is no such thing in books.
European credits (ECTS): what is it and what is it eaten with?
If you thought that I would write about financial loans, then I will disappoint you. - a pan-European system for recording and recalculating the time spent on teaching a particular subject. The number of hours for obtaining one credit varies slightly, but in general it is standardized - about 15 hours per ECTS. In EPFL, 14-16 hours per ECTS is considered the norm, which roughly corresponds to a half-semester course of 2 academic hours per week.
E-book of coursesIn the e-book of courses (), which is different for each school, it looks like this: on the right, the value of the course in credits, the total number of hours and the schedule:
However, there are also courses where only 30 credit will be given in 1 hours.
As of 2013, the following rule was in effect: for masters, it was necessary to earn 12 credits for the entire period of study in graduate school, while for specialists - 16. This was justified by the fact that the specialist’s program is shorter, and, therefore, it is necessary to get this very one in various courses six months difference.
Life hacks and goodiesThe system provides several life hacks and goodies:
- Every year you can get 1 ECTS for attending the conference, subject to the availability of a report (poster or presentation - it doesn’t matter). This can be done 2-3 times for the entire postgraduate course, respectively, -20-25% of the load.
- You can take a course at another university, not EPFL, or attend a winter / summer school. Provide one (!) the only paper where the equivalent of the time spent in credits will be indicated, and fill out a special form. That's it, nothing more is required from the student, the remaining issues are resolved between responsible people.
NB: Often participation in conferences and summer/winter schools can be sponsored by the EPFL school itself. To do this, you must fill out the form and write a motivation letter from the supervisor. The money received is enough, for example, to pay for travel, which is not bad.
Ultimately, at the end of the PhD program, all courses and conferences will be listed separately in the Diploma Supplement:
Bureaucracy
Fortunately, all the bureaucracy is hidden inside the system. This is especially true for standard issues and procedures, such as filling out travel reports and so on. Therefore, in ~ 95% of cases, the employee does not encounter filling out paperwork and forms in any way, but only enters his data into the system, receives a pdf file for printing, which he signs and sends further through the instance - swiss precision. Of course, this does not apply to “special” cases when there is no standard instruction - here everything can drag on for a very long time, as elsewhere, in fact.
Business trips: Switzerland vs RussiaIn EPFL, upon returning from a business trip, all checks, travel cards, etc. stitched up and surrendered. Naturally, the report is sent in paper form, but it is still duplicated and stored in the system electronic. Usually, the secretary himself (a) enters all expenses into the system according to the report provided, at the same time checking all expenses, and then asks to sign one piece of paper for reimbursement of expenses, which will be generated within the system. I think that in a couple of years everyone will have an electronic signature and the whole procedure will be completely electronic.
Some small expenses of 2-5-10 francs can be included in the report without checks (on my word, yes). In addition, common sense always applies: if a person travels from A to B, but lost his ticket, for example, he will still be reimbursed. Or, for example, at London airports, the device “eats” the ticket at the exit, then a regular photo of the ticket will do. And finally, if the tickets and the hotel are booked through a laboratory credit card (and there is such a thing!) Or through a special bureau, then no paperwork is required for the report, they are already tied to the trip code inside SESAME.
Now, how are things in Russia. Once I was invited to a beautiful city beyond the Urals (we will not disclose all the details) to give a lecture on my scientific topic. By a happy coincidence, at that moment I was in Moscow, I could jump on a plane with a small suitcase to overweight and fly to my destination in a couple of hours. After the scientific seminar, I was asked to sign a "contract for the free provision of services", several statements, and I had to send the boarding pass stub for the return flight in an envelope.
Visual comparison of Russian and Swiss systemsOnce upon a time, I received a grant from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research for a trip to a conference in Rhodes (I wrote about this ), after which I was forced to translate all checks into Russian.
One of my colleagues in a dangerous business brought checks from a trip to Israel, where some of the amounts were indicated in euros, and the other in shekels. All checks are of course in Hebrew. However, for some reason it never occurred to anyone to force them to translate from Hebrew, they simply took the word where the currency was. Why steal from yourself, from your own grants, right?!
Yes, there is room for abuse, but usually this is all stopped in the bud when it comes to large sums, and not spending 200-300 euros at conferences.
Publishing articles and writing grants
An important indicator of the effectiveness and "coolness" of a scientist is his . It shows how well a particular author's work is cited by comparing the number of papers and their "quality" (number of citations).
In Russia, they are now fighting to increase the Hirsch index among researchers and improve the quality of journals (in other words, or IF, impact factor) where these works are published. The method is simple: let's pay a premium for a good article. One can argue a lot about this managerial decision, however, unfortunately, it does not solve two main problems: the underfunding of Russian science in general, and the “collective farm” of authors, when they include those who were directly related to the work and those “who sitting next to me."
Oddly enough, in EPFL there are practically no additional payments for articles, it is believed that the scientist himself will be published if he wants to achieve something, and if he does not want to, then please go out. Of course, if the contract is permanent, then it will be difficult to complete it due to the lack of publications, but usually by this time the professor is overgrown with teaching activities, various committees and administrative work. For example, the position of the dean is elective, there is a period of holding this position for several years.
My vision for solving this problemAll impact factors of journals are known and found in the public domain. It is necessary to establish a clear conversion factor from IF to rubles, say, 10k per 1 unit of IF. Then publication in a relatively good Nanoscale journal (IF=7.233) will cost 72.33k rubles per team of authors. And Nature/Science up to 500k rubles. And it is better to differentiate 5k for 1 IF unit in large cities and federal research centers and 10k in new (up to 5-7 years) and regional centers.
Then such an allowance for publication should be paid not to each author, but to the entire team of authors, so that there is no desire to include left-wing people in the publication. That is, if it is a "collective farm" of 10 people, then each will receive 7k, and if it is 3-4 people actually involved in the project, then ~ 20-25k each. Scientists will have a transparent economic incentive to write in good journals, correct English (for example, by ordering proofreading of articles) and not include “consultants”.
Total: a researcher will be able to receive at the level of a professor or even director of an institute, doing what he loves. A fork of opportunities will appear: vertical (career ladder) or horizontal (more different projects and topics, more graduate students and students, more money earned) development.
In general, there is nothing difficult in publishing an article if it is well-written and it is expected that it will be of interest to the public. Based on my chemical experience, I can say that the first 3-4 articles in serious journals are hard to get, because some factors were not taken into account in its preparation (general style, presentation of important and unimportant results, a ready list of reviewers, including which aspects of work discussed at conferences and meetings, etc.). But then they start to fly out like hot cakes from the oven. Especially if the topic is in the world top, and the last in the list of authors is a well-known and authoritative professor.
The following dilemma immediately arises: a top world-famous professor (aka large corporations), when attention to one’s work must be literally scraped off bit by bit, or a group leader with a large and ambitious project (aka start-up), where you can have a huge incentive to develop and multitasking experience.
Although physicists and biologists, for example, can take up to several years to obtain results suitable for an article, so 1-2 publications for doctoral studies are considered the norm.
However, I have to disappoint the romantics of science: as elsewhere, it is often not the quality of the work itself that is responsible for publishing in a highly rated journal, but acquaintance with the right people. Yes, the very nepotism that they are trying to fight, but it is difficult to correct human nature. Even within the EPFL itself there is an elderly professor under whose name some rather obscure papers are sometimes published in good journals. But this is a big topic for a separate article, where everything is intertwined: PR, the desire of magazines to make money and the ambition of the authors.
And, of course, a similar situation with grants. The first few applications may fail, but then the grant writing activity gets on the assembly line. Although graduate students are not formally required to engage in grants, it is nevertheless possible to participate in the process.
I don’t know how it is now with applications for the Russian Science Foundation (), but 7 years ago, an application for a grant in the Russian Federation actually required a ream of paper, as well as a report. Applications and reports for the Swiss National Science Foundation () rarely exceed 30-40 pages. It is necessary to write briefly and concisely in order to save resources and time of other participants in the process, reviewers.
There are no specific plans for articles, but in general, my professor said this: “If you publish 1 article a year, I have no questions for you. If there are two, then great!» But this is chemistry, about physicists and lyricists it is said above.
And finally, the publication of articles is slowly, belligerently creeping towards open access (aka open access), when the author himself or the scientific foundation pays for the author, instead of the usual model when the reader pays. The EU has adopted a directive that will soon call for all research funded by the ERC to be published only in the public domain. This is the first trend, and another trend is video articles, for example, there have been 3-4 years – Journal of Visualized Experiments, not a successful blogger. This magazine also promotes the dissemination of knowledge about scientific discoveries in a simple and understandable way.
SciComm and PR
And since the word PR has sounded above, then in modern science there is a simple rule: you need to advertise your research and achievements as much as possible - PR. Write articles for popular science portals, write review articles for scientific journals, prepare materials for the same Youtube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and VK. Make the most of social media. Why is this needed? The answer is simple: firstly, no one, except the author of the original research himself, will be able to better describe his ideas and the results achieved, and secondly, this is the banal transparency of science to taxpayers. The West loves it!
More details can be found in the article *
*LinkedIn is an organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation
Scientific PR as it isOne great video from :
Video of the most public defense in EPFL:
One of my Irish acquaintances almost wins ERC and national grants through Twitter, because there is an S&T council account on Twitter, which monitors where and what is happening, where there are notorious “growth points”.
a smoker of a proper scientist turned to face the public
In addition, various competitions are now gaining popularity, aimed at a short and capacious story about science. For example, organized by the British Consul, , in Russia, , held for the 11th time under the auspices of the journal Science (, for example), and many, many others. For example, one of the upcoming events will be held as part of where students can participate absolutely free!
In the same FameLab, for those who passed the preliminary selection, they organize a mini-school on the weekend, where they tell how to convey information, how to start and end a story, and by and large the same pitch. At one time, I participated in such a school, which was organized and held at CERN itself. It is unusual to feel yourself on the surface of the most grandiose scientific structure and realize that somewhere below the protons fly almost at the speed of light through a pipe of 27 kilometers. Impressive!
For many people, science is the door to a new world! Often, brilliant scientists simply do not know how, they are embarrassed or afraid to speak in front of the public, but it is precisely such competitions that allow them to break down barriers and overpower themselves. So, one of my biologist friends, having made his way to the final stage of FameLab, became a scicomm evangelist. I think it was a pretty cool turn in his career for him. See for yourself:
Or here is Radmila's speech about uranium complexes at the last competition "Ma these a 180 seconds" just a week ago:
About mentoring
No matter how polite and respectful everyone is to each other, conflicts often occur, and the interests of the boss (professor or group leader) diverge from the desires and aspirations of the employee (graduate student or postdoc). EPFL, as a conglomeration of tens of thousands of people, is also subject to these processes. To help graduate students in the first few years of their stay at the university, in 2013 a mandatory institute of mentoring was introduced.
What does mentoring aka mentoring mean for a graduate student?
At first, scientific and technical examination of the ideas of a graduate student. In principle, the mentor should receive the same reports and research plans 1-2 times a year as the professor himself and the supervisor of the graduate student.
Secondly, mentor - an arbitrator in disputes between a graduate student and a professor. If the professor, for one reason or another, rejects the proposals and ideas of the graduate student, then the mentor weighs all the arguments of the two sides and tries to resolve the conflict.
Here it is worth mentioning that in EPFL, despite all the efforts of the administration, there are abusive professors who squeeze the last juice out of students and graduate students - sometimes even scandals happen. In this case, the mentor can support the student, help contact the administration of a particular school. This is an important aspect of learning, because for many graduate students, the transition to another laboratory or the decision to stop studying in graduate school is almost a personal failure on a planetary scale, so they are ready to endure almost anything to prevent this from happening. However, in EPFL you should not be afraid of this, as there are a variety of ways to solve problems and employees, especially administrative staff, are always ready to help, because this directly affects the image of the university.
ThirdlyA mentor can help with career advice and networking. The mentor will also help with advice and contacts for a future career as a doctor.
By the way, while this article was being prepared, I took it for video about what is mentoring in EPFL. Anyone can contact me through this club .
Teaching practice: hell or heaven?
Each graduate student, signing a contract, undertakes to spend 20% of his working time on teaching (teaching assistance). This can be both conducting seminars with the analysis of tasks, and working in the laboratory with students (workshop).
Here I can’t write for everyone, maybe it’s practice that gives pleasure to someone, but my experience turned out to be not too positive. Of course, it depends on how you feel about it: you can do it on “from #$@&s”, or you can try to tell and show something to students, try to combine different sections of chemistry with leading questions.
What teaching practice looks like inside the ISA system
For two years I practiced in IR spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy (two semesters each). After 200 students, I can say that only 10 percent treated the workshops with due respect. interest and did everything accurately and on time. Unfortunately, the proportion of the indigenous, Swiss population among such "wunderkinds" is vanishingly small.
Requiem for a WorkshopThe first workshop on IC was very childish. Usually the group left in an hour, sometimes 1.5, instead of the prescribed 3. It’s simple: he told the theory, showed how to work with the device and voila, the “kids” measured 5 samples (each for a minute, two) and went home to count, look for information and cook report. A week later they bring a report, I check it, put marks. However, there were brilliant individuals who were too lazy to write and draw up a report. There were also those who were too lazy to simply look for the IR spectra of the most common polymers. They saw them and touched them with their hands (!), that is, it is simply impossible not to guess, since 4 out of 5 are PET, PVC, Teflon and PE, one sample is aspirin powder (yes, you have to tinker here). There were also those who could not answer fairly simple questions from the series: “how to polymerize a monomer?” Once, 5 people stood at the blackboard, trying to remember the stages , which they took literally last semester, and why chlorine is often used there - they didn’t remember ...
Another workshop was on fluorescence spectroscopy: how much in Schweppes. A task in analytical chemistry to build a calibration curve and determine an unknown concentration. We did this in the SUNC in the 11th grade. So, bachelor students do this task poorly, they don’t follow the numbers, they don’t know statistics, although they had practice in analytical methods and statistics with the processing of results - I found out. Some of them can’t even prepare a sample and standard solutions ... in the 3rd year of a bachelor’s degree, yes. Is it any wonder then that Swiss graduate students are an endangered species?!
And as a cherry on the cake, an unspoken rule: you can’t put it below 4 out of 6, otherwise the student is obliged to retake, which neither the student nor the teachers need.
Yes, you should not forget for a minute that not only the teacher evaluates the student, but the student also marks the teacher at the end of each course. The saddest thing is that these student assessments are taken too seriously - it may not come to the dismissal of a teacher, but it is quite possible to get a ban on teaching. And a professor is not quite a professor if he does not have 1-2 courses for students, that is, the replication of knowledge. When it works in the direction of encouragement and additional goodies for the teacher, it’s good, but when it becomes a means of revenge and settling scores, then you get the rules “at least 4 out of 6” and overestimated marks, and monosyllabic questions at the test stages, just to fall behind, that is the quality of teaching declines.
A cautionary tale about students and teachersOne day, one teacher needed to replace another colleague for some time and conduct a streaming lecture at EPFL for first-year students in general chemistry. One lecture - noise, din, the children have not yet understood where they got to. The second lecture is similar. On the third, he began to read the material, and when the flow went into the dressing, he turned and said (in French, semantic translation): “I'm replacing another teacher here. I came here to teach leaders because this is EPFL. I don't see any of you...» The students immediately wrote a “slander”, a well-known substance began to seethe, they almost broke a person’s life and career. He barely resisted and since that time he no longer gives streaming lectures, only the workshop is safer.
In fairness, it should be added that EPFL has a bonus system, when the best teacher in the opinion of students can receive an incentive of 1000 CHF per semester.
But in all Swiss universities there is a rigid system: if you couldn’t study to be a chemist on the first attempt, you flew out in the middle of your studies, then you no longer have the right to enter this specialty in any universities throughout the country, only if you leave for the EU.
Graduate Completion: Dissertation Writing and Defense(s)
And now, having gone through all the circles of hell, having received the required number of credits, and having worked the required number of hours with students, you can think about defending a dissertation.
In EPFL, as in many European universities, there are two dissertation defense schemes: and ordinary. If there are 3 or more published articles, then you can go for a shortened scheme. That is, write a brief general introduction, attach these articles, since each will be regarded as a separate chapter of the dissertation, and write a general conclusion. There is less work than in the usual version, but there are also fewer goodies. For example, shortened dissertations are not eligible for the award. , as well as special awards of the corresponding school for outstanding dissertations (usually, the commission votes for this in a closed defense).
Accordingly, the time of writing also differs: a shortened one can be issued a month or two in advance, and a full one must be written at least 3-4 months before the defense, and preferably six months.
Next comes the protection process, which is divided into two stages: private protection and public protection. At the same time, 35 days before the private defense, you must upload the text of the dissertation and in the amount of 1200 francs.
Closed (private) protection is a kind of analogue of our pre-defenses at the departments, when only members of the commission gather (professors from other Swiss universities and universities in other countries - at least 2 out of 3). They evaluate the quality, scientific significance, prepare tricky questions, and so on. In general, the defense goes smoothly, professors communicate with the future doctor on an equal footing. It is absolutely not required to memorize any factual material or formulas, you can always refer to the page of the written thesis. As in the case of the first year exam, they rather evaluate the ability to think, reflect, process new inputs, when there is already some kind of conclusion.
A relaxed state after the defense, and it was already getting dark outside the window ...
The whole process is automated, the system itself will tell you when to submit a document, who to contact for help, and so on. And since 2018, the entire document flow has been conducted electronically. If earlier it was necessary to print and bring four (each professor + one to the archive) filed copies of the thesis, now all communication is conducted online, and papers for review are sent by email. Plus, it allows you to carry out a plagiarism check, which is mandatory since 2018.
Fun Swiss CustomsOne of my acquaintances mailed his diploma to a professor in neighboring France. Usually, upon receipt of the work, a rebuff comes, saying that the correspondence has been delivered. However, one week passed, then another, there was no answer, the printed version of the work was not seen in France. It turned out that the Swiss customs delayed the shipment, considering it for a book and, accordingly, not finding the payment of the duty on their accounts, delayed it. So by email it is somehow more reliable now.
Sometimes such Talmuds arouse suspicion
Almost all the data is collected in the postgraduate student's card inside the ISA system, and inside this system all this data is stored, updated and supplemented
This is how a graduate student's life inside ISA looks like: Run, Forest, run!
To eventually put a bold green checkmark at the end
And now, all the stages have been completed, the work has been written and corrected after the questions and the answer to the private defense. The candidate goes to a public defense, where he must explain his science in the simplest possible language, since anyone can visit it, including not necessarily an EPFL employee. This is how full transparency of science and the expenditure of taxpayers' funds is organized. Some defenses are really attended by people "from the street".
And only after a public defense (yes, it may seem that this is just a formality, but it is) the candidate receives a diploma and a PhD (PhD, ).
It so happened that in the confusion they completely forgot about the photographer ...
And the most pleasant part of the public defense is a small, and sometimes even a very large buffet table, again for all those present.
Doctor's champagne My ...
Which must be put into action immediately!
And a photo for memory in an informal setting
Yes, I almost forgot, EPFL has its own printing house, where theses are printed. Depending on when the final version of the dissertation is uploaded, the printed version of it appears in a beautiful cover right before the public defense or a little later:
This is what a printed copy of a diploma looks like, you can take a couple of pieces with you
Degree recognition in the Russian Federation and apostille
Until recently, a degree obtained in the EPFL required confirmation in the Russian Federation, but since 2016 this is not required, according to .
Now I know that you just need to certify the signature in EPFL, and then put an apostille in the Lausanne administration (), which takes a couple of hours maximum. Make a copy of the apostilled diploma and simply submit it for translation to any translation agency in the Russian Federation.
A story about how the Ministry of Education does not want to delve into your appealMy original submission:
Subject: Recognition of the PhD degree (EPFL) in the Russian Federation
Message text: Good day!
There is a lot of information on the Internet about the recognition of a PhD degree obtained at a foreign university in the territory of the Russian Federation. Unfortunately, I did not find detailed and simple instructions / information on what to do and where to go on the site, so I am writing this appeal.
I received my PhD in Chemistry from the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne (EPFL) at the beginning of 2017. I would like to receive detailed instructions for confirming a diploma and a degree, as well as the approximate timing of all necessary checks, although I believe the latter should pass quickly (10+ publications in top, well-known journals), besides, the dissertation itself is in the public domain.
In particular, there are the following questions:
1. Do I need to translate into Russian and apostille the diploma itself, or is it enough to have a notarized translation (for example, made in the territory of the Russian Federation, since the latest version of the law says “notarized translation”)?
2. Do I need to provide a printed version of the dissertation?
3. Do I need to translate my dissertation?
4. In what form and where to submit documents? Is there an option for electronic filing of documents (at least preliminary)?
5. If it is still only a paper submission form, can I submit documents in Moscow with a non-Moscow permanent residence permit?
6. Will a candidate's "crust" be issued?
7. Perhaps the Russian Federation and Switzerland have mutual recognition of degrees?
Thanks in advance for the detailed answer!
—
Best regards,
XXX
It would seem that the situation is described, what I want is indicated, the questions are quite specific.
What do I get on 4 pages, from which follows absolutely nothing. What is the meaning of such an answer? Where are all the options listed? Why is it impossible to make a scheme or some kind of script on the site that will provide relevant information?
Is there life after a PhD?
At some point, every freshly baked PhD is faced with the question: is there life after PhD? What to do next: stay in an academic environment or try to get a job in a private company?
Below is a slightly simplified diagram of how I saw this situation.
Possible Career Paths After Getting a PhD
At first, there is always the option to return to Russia. Unfortunately, there is practically no R&D left in Russia (I'm talking about chemistry and physics now), there are separate pockets of resistance, such as start-ups developing equipment for tomography, oil and gas chemical holdings, which want to sell not only oil in barrels, but high value-added products, start small-scale production of chemicals. But that's all. What remains is the academic environment, which has recently begun to be pumped up with funds not only for the purchase of equipment, but also in terms of salaries. This and , and various programs aimed at foreign cooperation, and the notorious SkolTech, and "fat" grants , complex . But the problem remains: after a quarter of a century of total oblivion, so many talented young scientists have washed out of the scientific community that now it will not be an easy task to fill in the problems. At the same time, all sound initiatives are buried under an array of bureaucracy and paperwork.
Secondly, you can always move from Switzerland to neighboring countries of the EU, the USA, etc. The diploma is quoted, and the Swiss Science Foundation can throw more money on the program . And the salary will be slightly higher than the average for the country where you plan to go. In general, people in Europe and beyond are very fond of various mobility programs for young scientists so that they can visit here and there, gain truly international experience and different approaches, and make connections. Same program aimed precisely at the intensification of international cooperation. On the other hand, in 4 years it is quite possible to develop a package of contacts in the scientific community (worked with someone, drank beer somewhere at the conference, and so on), who will invite you to a postdoc or researcher position (researcher).
If we talk about industrial positions, then there are plenty of them in neighboring France, Germany, Benelux and so on. Major players such as BASF, ABB, L'Oreal, Melexis, DuPont and others are massively buying up talented people with a degree in the market and helping them move and settle in a new country. The EU has a very simple and convenient system, the salary exceeds ~56k euros per year - here you are "”, just work and pay taxes.
Thirdly, you can try to stay in Switzerland itself. After receiving a diploma, starting from the date of its issue, any student has six months to search for a job within the country. It has its pros and cons, its nuances, but more on that another time. Many companies do not want to bother with hiring foreign employees mainly because of the visa issue, so getting a PhD position in the industry can be called a big success. Although, if you learn one of the state languages (preferably German or French) to a conversational level B1 / B2 and receive an official certificate, then the chances of finding a job increase, even if you don’t say a word at work in the future. A moment of chauvinism and nationalism. In addition, this certificate will be required to apply for a permanent permit.
And, of course, you can stay in Switzerland, working in research centers and universities, because, in principle, the salary of a postdoc allows you to live comfortably with your family. In this case, they will look askance at a person, since mobility is considered the norm, but it is quite possible to stay in your group for a year to finish what you started, or go for a year as a postdoc on an interesting project. It all depends on the specific situation and the desires of the employee himself.
Instead of a conclusion
On this story about graduate school and study in Switzerland can be considered complete. In the following parts, I would like to talk about everyday life, domestic issues in this country, show its pros and cons. Write in the comments your questions of interest to this part (I will try to answer them as detailed as possible), as well as to the next one, as this will help me structure the material.
PS: defended his dissertation on January 25, 2017 and stayed for a postdoc in the same group. During this time, five more works were completed and written, including a monograph (book) based on the results of the dissertation. And in January 2019, he left to work for a startup manufacturing solar panels.
PPS: I would also like to note and thank for the comments and comments of those who helped with the writing of this article: Albert aka , Anya, Ivan, Misha, Kostya, Slava.
And finally, a bonus - two videos about EPFL ...
... and separately about the campus in Mount Zion, which is engaged in projects in the field of energy:
Don't forget to subscribe to : It's not difficult for you - I'm pleased! And yes, about the shortcomings noticed in the text, please write to the PM.
Only registered users can participate in the survey. , you are welcome.
What will the next part be about?
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Everyday life
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Travels
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Foodstuffs
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Housing (search, features and choice of habitat)
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Work searches
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Cities of Switzerland
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I'll write in the comments
19 users voted. 8 users abstained.
Source: habr.com