What's Your Advice For A Master's Student Choosing a Thesis Topic?

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC]

00:00:05.000 | All right, I think we have time for one more question.

00:00:07.000 | Let's do one from Linda.

00:00:10.500 | Linda asks, do you have any general advice for a master student

00:00:14.900 | in the sciences choosing a thesis topic?

00:00:17.000 | Is the topic more, less, or as important as location, people,

00:00:21.400 | the lab, nature of work, topic relevance?

00:00:23.600 | Does it really matter in the long run

00:00:25.500 | what the topic is?

00:00:27.400 | Yeah, it's a good question.

00:00:29.900 | I'm looking at the elaboration here because the fact you said

00:00:34.800 | master's degree and not PhD

00:00:36.500 | gives a very different answer.

00:00:38.900 | So if we were talking about a dissertation, especially if you

00:00:42.600 | wanted to do an academic job, there's a lot of things that

00:00:45.000 | really matter there.

00:00:46.000 | I mean, so if you wanted an academic job and this was a PhD

00:00:49.600 | dissertation, I would say

00:00:51.000 | you want to choose an advisor

00:00:53.600 | who lots of universities wish they could hire, but they can't

00:00:58.600 | because that advisor is already at this really good school and

00:01:00.700 | is very happy.

00:01:01.500 | And what you want to then do is basically become the low-cost

00:01:07.000 | alternative for that advisor by mastering whatever she does or

00:01:10.100 | whatever he does, that approach that you are their protege, that

00:01:12.800 | if they can't hire her, well, at least they can hire you because

00:01:15.300 | you're younger and on the market.

00:01:16.600 | That's the best way to open up your options in a PhD environment.

00:01:21.200 | Master's degree is a little bit different.

00:01:23.800 | In your elaboration, you say that

00:01:26.300 | you don't want to go into doctoral graduate school after

00:01:28.700 | this, you want to go into industry.

00:01:31.100 | So then I would say topic really matters from a

00:01:33.500 | what skill is valuable in the industry right now.

00:01:36.100 | Master's degrees are short, couple years.

00:01:39.000 | So you don't have to worry like with a PhD what's going to be

00:01:41.800 | popular six years from now.

00:01:42.800 | You can just say what type of job do I want?

00:01:44.900 | I want a job in one of these type of organizations.

00:01:47.300 | What is the thing they're looking for right now?

00:01:49.600 | Let me find a way to do a master's degree that would force

00:01:52.900 | me to learn that skill and show I'm good at it.

00:01:54.500 | Very simple.

00:01:56.100 | It's a skill that's going to be on your resume that an

00:01:58.500 | employer in the next year or two is going to look at.

00:02:00.800 | Think ahead what skill you want them to see.

00:02:03.300 | So I would see that almost entirely as an exercise in

00:02:06.900 | skill, useful skill acquisition.

00:02:10.900 | All right.

00:02:15.400 | Oh.

00:02:17.300 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:02:20.660 | (upbeat music)

00:02:23.240 | (upbeat music)

What's Your Advice For A Master's Student Choosing a Thesis Topic?

Chapters