Currently a 4th year data science undergrad who already has two internships and currently doing a capstone project/contract work with a company. I have the opportunity to do undergrad research as well but kind’ve burnt out at the moment and feel like my resume is “good enough” and should maybe just focus on job interviews. Am I just being lazy or should I do the undergrad research for grad school applications/letters of rec.
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Maybe you should respond to the question: Are you interested in entering the business or staying in academia? And for grad school are you looking for Ph.D. or Master’s?
Should you decide to remain in the sector, you should start preparing for interviews and be ready for a competitive employment market. However, considering your background (as well as your relationships with previous instructors and internships), you might have more room to grow. If the former, persevere and concentrate on your graduate study.
A more precise response regarding the journey there can be provided by a small number of people who work in academia, as far as I’m aware.
Best wishes!
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I am going to be honest as someone who did research etc and has a phd. Its probably not really worth it at this point in your education. You are in the 4th year which means that you are almost done with school right?
At that point you likely won’t have enough time to join a group and get integrated into a project and make something useful out of it. I suggest just focusing on job searching but thats just me.
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You did not specify which nation. However…
As someone who entered the sector immediately after receiving their PhD, I can attest that undergrad research is not really important for jobs in the industry.
While having research experience from your undergraduate studies may make your resume stand out a little, you would have been much more successful in landing a job and performing well in it later on if you had spent the same amount of time networking, interview preparation, and even familiarizing yourself with more practical tools. Part-time MS committees also don’t give this much thought.
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It depends on a lot of things, but having a really cool research project can set your resume apart from others pretty easily - whenever a recruiter talks about “I liked _____ project” from my resume, it’s always about those
Do you know the professor? If they are chill it may be worth trying it! Sometimes they can be dicks or hard to work with, but it’s hard to top how chill people can be in academia
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This is so true! Having this has a cool project can really set someone apart!