What can I do after my master?
What options does a student have after completing the master’s degree?
After the master’s degree there are three options: to continue with your studies, thus continuing with the Ph.D. or a “second level” master, or to enter the world of work or, finally, to start a research collaboration.
What is a PhD?
“The aim of the PhD is to prepare students to become researchers”
If you want to enter the world of research, whether it is academic research or industrial research (for example, the research and development department of a large company), a Ph.D. is essential. The purpose of the Ph.D. is to prepare you to become a researcher. It lasts for 3 years, during which the “doctoral student” participates in research projects (typically international) and takes some courses (usually less intensive than those in the graduate programs) to complete his or her education.
What activities are carried out during the three years of doctoral studies?
Research activities consist in developing new ideas, performing experiments, and gaining publication experience. You learn the skills of scientific communication professionals, such as the ability to write scientific papers or present your work at international conferences.
How does the Ph.D. program end?
The Ph.D. ends with the preparation of a thesis, which is different from the degree thesis. It is a thesis that develops and is made up of all the work done in the three years. It starts from a problem position, followed by the state of the art exploration, the proposal of creative and innovative solutions, their analysis and experimentation, the demonstration of their validity and, finally, the publication of the results in various articles and in the thesis itself.
What are “second level” masters?
The “second level” masters are study courses lasting one or one and a half years, which give the title of post-graduate master. They aim at providing foundations to enter the world of work in a more prepared way, specializing in a sector. They can also be done while working, with the support of the employer. Masters of this type are masters of the Politecnico, delivered by partner institutions, such as CEFRIEL and POLIMI Graduate School of Management (former MIP).
“Master’s degrees are courses of study that give a postgraduate master’s degree”
What job opportunities do you have at the end of the master's degree?
There are four major sectors where information technology can be placed. Software houses, which develop and maintain software, industrial companies, consulting companies or startups. This is a pretty strong choice, because being a software engineer who is a consultant in a consulting company is very different from being a software engineer working as a computer scientist in a software development company.
What are startups and what do they require?
Startups are small businesses that are born from an innovative idea. They often require specific skills, such as those that a master’s degree or a Ph.D. can give. Some students, once they complete their master’s degree, found startups. Politecnico provides, in its ecosystem, activities to support startups: there is in fact an incubator called Poli-Hub. There are, in addition, lots of opportunities for prizes, events, hackathons, to win startup support.
What is the difference between a Master's degree and a Bachelor's degree with regard to job opportunities?
Once you have completed your master’s degree, you enter the working world with the qualification of doctor of computer engineering, but with greater expertise and specificity with respect to the bachelor’s degree. For example, you may have delved into machine learning and artificial intelligence or security or big data issues. So the profile becomes more specific than that of a bachelor’s graduate.
What kind of support does the Politecnico give for the job search?
There is an office, which is called “Career Service”, dedicated to this; it is an independent structure that keeps the relations with companies, providing services ranging from guidance to support for internships to the possibility of posting one’s resumé to find a job. Another thing the career service does every year is to organize so-called “career days”, which are precisely days when companies physically meet potential candidates at the Politecnico in a kind of “fair”. A student can find all the information and carry out all the procedures online, via the website.
What is research collaboration?
Some professors and researchers, typically within the context of projects, may announce paid collaborative positions, which are called in italian “Assegni di Ricerca”, if they need human resources on specific tasks that are useful for completing the project. Those who win them then find themselves cooperating in a research activity: this may mean attending a laboratory, supporting experiments or technical developments, publishing papers, and even attending conferences.
It is a temporary collaboration that can be used by graduate students as a test of their aptitude and interest in research. It can be very useful for students who are interested in the Ph.D. but are not sure if it is the right path for them. It allows you to gain experience but at the end you get no qualification.
“Whoever wins the call cooperates in a research activity”