If you had asked me even a year ago, I would have hardly told you that I was done with school and was never going to pursue a PhD, but then a few things occurred. First the job market was (and still is) in a very bad state, with more people graduating each day in computer science and mass layoffs vastly increasing competition for every single job. I applied to around 1000 jobs with only two interviews and no offers. Finally, I was able to get an unpaid internship at a financial and sustainability startup working as a data analyst helping to develop the companies foundational models. While I do feel like I learned a lot and did make strong contributions to the company I found myself somewhat bored after a while, while also being stressed (that I wasn’t working enough, that I would make a major mistake affecting the results and losing us customers) which is a bad combination of factors for working. Along with this I realized that I really do enjoy research (and have been pretty successful so far).

Furthermore, I had the extraordinary luck to have a very supportive advisor who pushed me to apply even though I wasn’t fully sure I wanted to go at the time. Also, going back to the school where I did my masters means that I can cut a few years off the degree and continue with an advisor who I like working with and has similar research interests. According to many people, having a good advisor is what really makes or breaks the PhD program.