Discussion Ask HN: What does it take to get hired into applied research without a PhD? I’m a mid/senior software engineer (~7 YOE) trying to move into applied research in AI/robotics. No PhDIf you’ve hired for research engineer / applied scientist / robotics roles:What differentiates a strong non-PhD candidate from "Smart SWE who likes ML"?Which artifacts are most convincing (reproducing papers, open source contributions, working on real-world systems, conference workshop paper, etc.)?What skill gaps usually show up in interviews?And if you’ve made the jump, what worked for you? 3 points snyp 10 months ago 0 comments
If you’ve hired for research engineer / applied scientist / robotics roles:
What differentiates a strong non-PhD candidate from "Smart SWE who likes ML"?
Which artifacts are most convincing (reproducing papers, open source contributions, working on real-world systems, conference workshop paper, etc.)?
What skill gaps usually show up in interviews?
And if you’ve made the jump, what worked for you?