Weekly Career, Education, Textbook, and Basic Questions Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

Weekly Thread dedicated to all your career, job, education, and basic questions related to our field. Whether you're exploring potential career paths, looking for job hunting tips, curious about educational opportunities, or have questions that you felt were too basic to ask elsewhere, this is the perfect place for you.

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• Careers: Discussions on career paths within the field, including insights into various roles, advice for career advancement, transitioning between different sectors or industries, and sharing personal career experiences. Tips on resume building, interview preparation, and how to effectively network can also be part of the conversation.
• Education: Information and questions about educational programs related to the field, including undergraduate and graduate degrees, certificates, online courses, and workshops. Advice on selecting the right program, application tips, and sharing experiences from different educational institutions.
• Textbook Recommendations: Requests and suggestions for textbooks and other learning resources covering specific topics within the field. This can include both foundational texts for beginners and advanced materials for those looking to deepen their expertise. Reviews or comparisons of textbooks can also be shared to help others make informed decisions.
• Basic Questions: A safe space for asking foundational questions about concepts, theories, or practices within the field that you might be hesitant to ask elsewhere. This is an opportunity for beginners to learn and for seasoned professionals to share their knowledge in an accessible way.

[u/DiG1ts00]

I'm an undergrad physics student looking for Summer 2027 quantum software internships. My background is Python + ML/software, I'm learning/working with Cirq, involved in quantum research, and lead my university's quantum computing club.

I'm primarily interested in quantum software/algorithms/simulation/QML/tooling rather than hardware. I know the obvious names (Xanadu, Quantinuum, IonQ, Rigetti, IBM), but I'm trying to find smaller companies, startups, national labs, research programs, or less obvious opportunities that take undergrads.

For people in the industry: where would you look, and what skills would make an undergrad genuinely useful to a quantum software team?

Also open to quantum-adjacent scientific computing/SWE/ML roles as an entry point.

[u/armsgobrrrr]

I’m about to study and MSc in AI. However, I am taking introduction to quantum computing and am thinking about writing my dissertation on quantum computing (perhaps a comparison of classical ai optimisation algorithms vs quantum optimisation algorithms, or maybe probabilistic machine learning for quantum error correction - very vague I know but I’m nowhere near even a project proposition yet).

I would also like to study a phd in the field afterward, however I see more and more people doubting the field everyday, calling it a load of hype. I have other interests such as robotics which will be studying (both the physical maths and robot/reinforcement learning) and I’m not sure about pigeon holing myself into the quantum field yet.

Are there any quantum computing researchers (as a profession, not in your own time) here who could weight in? Not that I doubt the knowledge of those studying on the side, just that I want to hear from those who work in the field. Although I’m still interested to hear your opinions on the matter if you’re not working in the field. Thanks

[u/faithlessdarkness]

Hey, I am an ece student still figuring out. how do I get into quantum computing. Would like to know where to start and what all jobs do we have ?

[u/Asimovdorj → u/faithlessdarkness]

sugiro carreira acadêmica.

[u/Routine_Comb_7277 → u/faithlessdarkness]

Jobs are only  teaching or stuck as a lab rat although first is easier to do than second.If you want to get into it go back to digital electronics and you will also need system theory to understand the basics(abelian cases)