News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Ask HN: Compiler Engineers, what would you advise new grads/students to learn?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: Compiler Engineers, what would you advise new gra... by jlebar on Sunday September 08, 2019 @10:29PM (#20914749)
> There is a bit of a market for compiler/ML cross overs ATM (at MS, Facebook, and Google at least). But you need at least a PhD or 10+ years of experience.

Until a few months ago I lead part of the XLA team at Google, working on ML compilers for CPU/GPU.

Most of us didn't have 10+ years of experience in compilers when we started on the team. I know one of us had a PhD in compilers. Possibly others did too, I'm not sure; this goes to show how unimportant the PhD in compilers / PhD at all was. I had no experience in compilers before I joined (not as the lead).

We're unusual, but I want to demonstrate that you really can get a good job working on compilers without a PhD or 10+ years of experience.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Compiler Engineers, what would you advise new gra... by seanmcdirmid on Sunday September 08, 2019 @11:23PM (#20914968)
Note that I didn’t say a PhD or 10 years experience in compilers, it could be ML or some other related area. There really isn’t such a thing as a PhD in compilers, and even in the SIGPLAN area compiler specialized PhDs are rare (formal verification is much more common).

A PhD can get your foot in the door (showing mastery via the research you’ve done vs work experience). And then either/or is very useful in even knowing about and being recommended for these jobs (HR is generally not very useful in hiring).

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Compiler Engineers, what would you advise new gra... by jlebar on Sunday September 08, 2019 @11:25PM (#20914982)
Iirc none of us had any ML experience. :)
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Compiler Engineers, what would you advise new gra... by seanmcdirmid on Sunday September 08, 2019 @11:43PM (#20915056)
Noted. It is a bit ironic since a common complaint/frustration among PL people (mostly with PhDs) working at google is that they have to work on ads...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Compiler Engineers, what would you advise new gra... by ScottBurson on Monday September 09, 2019 @02:35AM (#20915695)
Please contact me. Email in profile.
[ Parent | on HN ]