Got an appointment in IIT Ropar as an Assistant and
Getting It Accepted

Q) How do you see yourself before joining IITG and after completing PhD from here ? What personal and professional changes did you observe in yourself ?
Ans: I have observed that a Ph.D. is only 30% of your thesis work, but 70% of it is about discovering your self and fixing your shortcomings. The Ph.D. period is the best learning time of my life. Now, I have the confidence to learn any topic to a high level regardless of its difficulty. Because of many conference and progress seminars, I am now more confident for any oral presentations, posters, and written documents. The most noticeable change that happened to me, is that Ph.D. has increased my patience level for which now I am able to handle any situation. To be honest, I don't think so that my supervisor will read this interview, but I have learned a lot of things from him, and many other faculties of EEE department. I believe that management and teaching skills are one of the most important activities if he/she is interested in the academic job and those activities I have learned from my supervisor (Prof. Roy Paily). Some special skills that developed in me from the diverse attitude of IITG faculties, for example, I also got to know how to guide/supervise PhD students.
During Ph.D., I have enjoyed my life with two groups; one is my Ph.D. batchmates and another is Art of Living (AOL) group. From Ph.D. batch, I learned how to stay away from negativity, enjoyed a lot during the festivals and last but not the least that I received great support from them during the difficult situations. However, with AOL group, I learned meditation and yoga excerise that helped me to keep calm and stay mentally and physically fit which I believe is very necessary for day to day life.

Q) How was your life at IITG? What major ups and downs did you see here ? Also share your memorable experience in IITG ?
Ans: Life at IITG was the most memorable and awesome part of my life which I am going to cherish throughout my life, for which today I can achieve my dream of becoming the assistant professor. Every Ph.D. student has to face a struggle per iod, but my Ph.D. life started with that struggle period. The initial three years, I literally had ZERO outcomes, where my seniors and colleagues were already talking about submitting papers. At that time, I also went for surgery in the lower part of the abdomen that was a painful part of my life. In those years, many friends diverted my mind to change the topic, but my supervisor was very supportive and motivated me to stay on the same topic. In those days, I used to be in the lab by 9 a.m., and keep working till midnight. In meanwhile, I used to listen to motivational talks, such as Lakshay - Title Song and Great people speeches in the free time. When I felt too demotivated/bad, I used to write a blog.
With a year of hard work, I had initial results to convince my supervisor that it is now high time for me. After more than 50 times correction, I submitted a paper in TED and luckily it got accepted in the first revision. When my TED paper appeared online, I got many emails from seniors and professors that was the most memorable moment of my life. I realized that happiness is when other people praise you and that motivated me to continue my work more sincerely.

Q) What differences do you see in the department between now and the time you joined here ?
Ans: Research-wise not much differences, I could observe. Importantly, Mukut and our department staff are very good and even more supportive than our Professors. Nowadays, they made lots of rules and regulation, and became too much strict for TA duty and attendance. When we joined the institute, there was no pressure on marking attendance every day. I believe that little strictness should be there for TA duty, but Ph.D. should be free from attendance.

Q) Although it's a personal interest for joining Academia, industry of Post Doc after PhD, do you suggest any criteria to be kept in mind while taking this decision ?
Ans: When there are thousands of PhDs coming out every year, we need to prepare our profile as per our interest, so that we can easily get the interested job. For example: If someone wants an industrial position, then he needs to involve in a lot of research projects and also needs to get hand-on experience on many software and hardware tools. Also, he/she needs to try some internship at the early stage of PhD career. Nowadays, getting a job is not easier whether it's in academia or industry. So, I suggest Ph.D. students to try for at least four to eight months internship either in academia or industry. During the internship period, you can make contacts with industry/academic peoples that will be very useful for the job/post-doc referral. In my case, I have applied in all three sectors, but my final goal was to join academic institute because I like teaching and want to explore new research areas which are very difficult to do in industry. If you want little comfortable and deadline free life, then academia is a better choice.

Q) What are the basic things that one should prepare for any interview? Your advice to the research scholars who are at the verge of completion of their thesis ?
Ans: I advice Ph.D. students to prepare basic subjects related to your stream. During Ph.D. tenure, we spent a lot of time on one pinpoint problem and moved away from basic concepts. However, in the interview, they look for 3-4 subjects that you can teach/handle especially in academia position. During the interview time, my regret was that why I did not prepare basic subjects during Ph.D. because of that I was unable to answer many questions and lost many opportunities. After Ph.D. completion, you will not get time for preparation because you have to apply for too many jobs, and interview call usually comes before 10 days for academia or 3-5 days for industries.
I suggest Ph.D. students to take the online courses that will boost your knowledge as well as helpful in your research work. The video lectures are the best way to gain knowledge because lecture has been prepared following at least three to four books. The important thing also works on communication skill both written and oral. Do not forget to apply as much as you can either in industry or academia and never say No to interview call. Selection is not that important, but you can improve yourself from the interview. Personal note, try to record your interview and listen that so that you can realize your mistakes. Make a good LinkedIn profile and join checky scientist like groups.

Q) What are the basic websites which one should follow for job opportunities in industries, academia and post doc ?
Ans: You can find many websites by simply searching in the Google. For post-doc, I usually followed jobs.at.uk, postdocjobs.com, and findapostdoc.com. On the other hand, for academia and industries, you need to apply on their web-pages. Usually, in industries, they receive thousands of CV for the single job, so if you can get the referral from someone, you will be called for the interview. If you want the job in industries, then prepare a good LinkedIn profile. I got many interviews offers from LinkedIn.

Q) Is Post Doc a necessity for pursuing career in academia?
Ans: It depends on how you have completed Ph.D. If you have excellent research papers (more than three IEEE papers for Electrical Eng.) in Ph.D., then Post-doc is not necessary. The Post-doc is just to boost your research carrier or to enhance your research profile. Post-doc is a good option because it increases your contacts and also the possibility of collaborative research projects, but you should take care of 35 age criteria. During the interview, I have interacted with many candidates, who spent 3-5 years as a post-doc, but they are unable to get good position neither in academia nor in industry. I suggest to choose the Post-doc option very carefully if you want to stay in India.

Q) Which one is better to join as faculty, according to you, new IIT or well established private University?
Ans: If anyone gets into IIT, then there must be no choice. One must join IIT because initial fund available for faculty is more compared to IIITs/NITs, so you can immediately start your research work. In new IITs, there will be many administrative responsibilities, but you have to be a superman if you want to grow yourself. Further, getting a project grant is easier in IITs.
Instead of new IIITs and NITs, I think joining good private University can be a good option. When you join any University, try to get 1-2 projects and try to develop new courses within in 1-2 years. If you perform well there, you may easily switch to IIT. I heard from one Professor that till you have not become Professor, you always try to enhance your profile, do not satisfy yourself with limited success.

Q) What is the advice you want to give to the research scholars who are in their initial years of PhD and what do you suggest to students who are struggling in their PhD ?
Ans: Do not be too hard for PhD. Just keep the Manjhi attitude "Jab Tak Thode Gaye Nahi... Tab Tak Chode Gaye Nahi". Try to spend more time in the lab and avoid too much gossip. Importantly, do not take negative advice/thoughts. Try to finish the comprehensive exam and state-of-art with full dedication and give your best because these two exams matter a lot in a long Ph.D. race. I believe that good hand on basic concepts helps you to solve the research problem and good understanding of literature helps you to writing papers and analyzing the results. Those, who are in struggling phase, focus on the basic subjects/concepts and read research paper as much as you can. We are stuck somewhere because we do not know that topic/idea fully or that problem is not clear.
The important thing, we all want quick results, but it does not happen in Ph.D. For timely completion of Ph.D., you need to first fix a research problem, which can be a general issue. If you are honestly working every day, soon you will get the results. In my experience, it takes a good year or two just to get into the "researcher's mindset". You don't expect to get results in the first year itself; just grow and develop yourself.
Thanks to RSF team for giving me the opportunity to share my experience.

Dr. Brajesh Rawat Alumni-IITG