Zohim, a Senior Quantum Application Engineer at NVIDIA, shares his insights and advice for students interested in a Tech career. Here he covers advice on developing coding skills, networking and creating opportunities.
1. The quality of online education is amazing, learn how to code:
Regardless of what subject you are doing, basic level of programming is essential to understand the methodology in which code is developed, structured and executed.
During my undergraduate studies in Physics, there was not much emphasis on developing skills in computer programming. I remember learning MATLAB which required installing clunky software and subscribing to the university licenses. Much of it was taught to aid our experimental physics courses in the labs. Luckily the course has moved on from this to Python since it is much more transferrable to other domains.
Regardless of what subject you are doing, basic level of programming is essential to understand the methodology in which code is developed, structured and executed. This informs your thought process in a similar pattern which is required since most of the world now runs on software.
Luckily, no clunky software downloads of MATLAB or Anaconda are required anymore. Create a Google account, open a Colab notebook, search for ‘Python for beginners’ on YouTube and just get started.
Getting started is the biggest hurdle. ‘Shall I do the CS50 course?’ or ‘shall I get certified by Coursera?’ or ‘Is the Udemy course better than the edX one?’. These questions act as a disguise making you believe that you are pursuing the best course of action but in reality are hurdles along the way preventing you from getting started.
If you want to go a step further than just Python programming, learn machine learning. The word sounds daunting but you don’t need to understand all the linear algebra. A basic understanding of what individual neurons are doing will open up a plethora of opportunities. The ‘Deep learning specialization by Andrew Ng’ is the best way to get started.
2. Send out cold emails:
At the end of my second year, I came across an opportunity for a summer school at Zhejiang University in China. It was mostly paid for by the host university however the topics they had advertised were all related to either Electrical engineering or Humanities neither of which are my main interests.
I could have just walked past the advert and forgotten about it but decided instead to email a bunch of professors at the Physics department in Zhejiang to see if they would be willing to take on a summer intern. Luckily Professor Bo Feng, a leading researcher in theoretical physics responded.
Once I had his blessing, I decided to reach out to the summer school organisers to see if they would be willing to accommodate a topic out of the ones they had advertised. Furthermore, through my good relationships with the department at Nottingham, they kindly agreed to sponsor the remaining funds so that I could take part in this opportunity.
Life sometimes feels like a checklist of eligibility criteria. You must meet certain conditions to be eligible for certain opportunities. More often than not these criteria are guidelines rather than well-defined rules. If you show the right amount of enthusiasm to the right person, it may work in your favour.
3. Level up your LinkedIn:
If you show the right amount of enthusiasm to the right person, it may work in your favour.
I owe my career so far somewhat to having a LinkedIn account albeit not a very active one where I post inspirational quotes of all the productive things I get up to.
After I finished my masters, I had a PhD offer from the University of Cambridge with a component of having to do an experimental physics masters in my first year followed by 3 years of research in quantum computing. The experimental part put me off. The advice I received was ‘PhDs are hard to get into, fully funded ones are even harder to come by, especially at top-notch universities like Cambridge’. This rang in my ears every night when I went to bed.
This advice was very valid, however, I decided against it. A couple of months later, I received a LinkedIn DM telling me about their expansion plans in the UK and encouraging me to apply for a role. After the interview process, I ended up getting a job at a start-up building quantum computers. The person who messaged me would later become my manager and the work that entailed taught me the foundations of all the quantum algorithms work I undertake now.
Just over a year into this job, through aimless scrolling on LinkedIn during lunch, I came across a job posting from NVIDIA hiring for the same role that I was doing. The posting advertised was for a role in USA however I ignored that part and decided to apply anyway.
After 6 gruesome interviews back to back, I asked if the job could relocated to the UK.
I have been at NVIDIA for just under 2 years now. Like I said above, if you show the right amount of enthusiasm to the right person, it may work in your favour.