Quit PhD and start work?

[abcom]

I am 2nd year NUS phd student. Have 2yrs of security experience and MSc from korea. I am really thinking of to quit phd as coursework giving me alot of pressure and research life is becoming so boring. I just applied for info security analyst position at bank and quiet likely to get an offer. coz i believe i meet all of their requirements and can pass interview, also friends who work there told me that.
Question is what will be the process if i get an offer?. will mom give EP in my case? or should i quit before applying to EP? I need your help guys, thanks.

[abcom]

Any idea guys?

[JR8]

I am no EP expert but common sense suggests that you cannot hold two visa statuses at once. So if your prospective employer applied for an EP while you are still on a student visa I think that would not work, and might also put a spanner in the works on your record.

So I'd say keep your student visa and studies going until you get a very solid offer, from someone who is very confident that they'll get an EP approved for you. At that point quit studies and have your student pass cancelled (I don't know the process to do this). Once that is done the EP application can go ahead, and you cross your fingers.

Presumably once you cancel your student visa you revert to an SVP, and have x days to stay before it expires?

p.s. Is there any way of converting the 2 years of your PhD studies into a second masters? It would be a shame to throw that time away...

[heilchina]

I am 2nd year NUS phd student. Have 2yrs of security experience and MSc from korea. I am really thinking of to quit phd as coursework giving me alot of pressure and research life is becoming so boring. I just applied for info security analyst position at bank and quiet likely to get an offer. coz i believe i meet all of their requirements and can pass interview, also friends who work there told me that.
Question is what will be the process if i get an offer?. will mom give EP in my case? or should i quit before applying to EP? I need your help guys, thanks.

Hi

Any insights in the process ?

I am in the same boat, was wondering what are the pitfalls

[sundaymorningstaple]

I am 2nd year NUS phd student. Have 2yrs of security experience and MSc from korea. I am really thinking of to quit phd as coursework giving me alot of pressure and research life is becoming so boring. I just applied for info security analyst position at bank and quiet likely to get an offer. coz i believe i meet all of their requirements and can pass interview, also friends who work there told me that.
Question is what will be the process if i get an offer?. will mom give EP in my case? or should i quit before applying to EP? I need your help guys, thanks.

abcom,

What I would suggest is, if you are determined to throw away two years of your life, that the prospective employer apply for the EP. IF you get an AIP (Approval in Principle), THEN quite school and at the time you convert your AIP to an EP, the Student Pass will automatically be cancelled. My Account's executive was here on a student's pass when I hired him 4 years ago. Once the S pass was approved in principle, we proceeded with the issuance of his S pass and the student pass was automatically cancelled by MOM.

I hope not finishing school will not come back to haunt you later though.

sms

[zzm9980]

For his field of work, InfoSec, having a PhD will not be a major boon unless he gets into research for academia. Any degree (or no degree, in my case, heh) is all that's required to get your foot in the door.

Also, in the InfoSec 'community', InfoSec researchers in Academia do not have a very good reputation. They're often seen as way out of touch with the real world, and honestly add little or no value to the work.

So in my opinion, I think the OP will be OK. (If he even still cares, almost 8 months after he posted...)


Also, OP, what kind of research did you do? exploit development? Malware analysis? Crypto? If you're any good at any those, you can make a lot more money outside of working for the banks...

[the lynx]

FWIW, it was heilchina who bumped up the thread

[sundaymorningstaple]

I reckon if he's in the same boat, the same applies.....

Two birds, one stone?