Lessons I have learned in my journey, Commonly asked questions about MSc infosec @UCL, CERN applications, and more
Disclaimer: These are purely my suggestions based on my experiences. They are not approved or suggested by UCL, CERN or anyone at those organizations.
If this helped you, consider 
- Things I wish I knew before starting a Ph.D.
- Consent in Research
- MSc Information Security @UCL pre-requisites
- MSc Computer Science @UCL
- CERN Openlab Summer Student Experience
- CERN Internship Application Tips
There are a lot of things I’ve got to know during the last 6 months since I started my Ph.D. that I should have been prepared for:
- Have a better understanding of the literature in the area and keep on updating it. It's difficult to find literature similar to your research because academics use different keywords and write the same things differently. The arXiv papers aren’t indexed well because of citations, but they are all preprints waiting to be accepted at conferences.
- Think more scientifically than just technically writing code to solve a problem. Coming from a more technical background, it took me time to understand this.
- Think through the research questions on a broader level instead of a direct question. Eg. I have a simple question that I want to answer: what is the distribution of x and y in SMS frauds and is not answered in literature but is not very scientific. So it would help if you polish and re-rewrite things to improve them.
- It will involve a lot of reading and writing. Technical stuff would be much less than one thinks.
- Patience is going to be a critical factor in this journey. We think we know what we want to do and can get started and get done. However, other stakeholders/collaborators would have other priorities so everything will take time.
- Don’t talk much about your research with everyone outside your lab. Keep it broad and vague unless you have a publication because the world is not good.
- A good Supervisor can make your life easier. I’m glad to have a good supervisor who helps me with everything.
- Your timeline changes compared to your proposed one before starting the Ph.D., and you should be okay with that.
- Thankfully, I have a diary where I take notes for every meeting with my supervisor (something I learned from someone's tweets before starting my research). Otherwise, one forgets things so fast because you are occupied with multiple things that you are doing. I have a different diary where I write meeting notes for the ones I have with collaborators/industry ones.
- Keep the expectations from your supervisor clear. It’s better for the long run.
- Burnouts are a thing, so taking breaks and weekends for yourself will make you more productive (sometimes working over the weekend is okay because of deadlines).
Six months into my Ph.D. journey, I have already made mistakes. Consent in collaborative research is something nobody teaches you, but everyone needs to know. Here are a few points I have learned till now:
- If you are not the lead of the project, inform others before taking any step, including sending Freedom of Information (FOI) requests or the smallest step possible.
- Before starting a draft submission to a conference/journal, ask for permission from all co-authors (even if you are the first author).
Congrats on receiving an offer and Welcome to UCL! I have a complete thread on Twitter which I wrote after I finished my MSc in 2021 where I have listed suggestions about some pre-requisites for the new cohorts. Hopefully this should help you prepare and be ready to grind during the Master's.
Guide for students joining UCL MSc Computer Science by Anchit, Hugo and Devan.
Check out my answeres on Quora
CERN Summer Student and Openlab internship recruitment is one of the most fair process I have seen. As someone on both sides of the table, where I was selected as an Openlab intern in 2017 and while working at CERN recruited a summer student in 2020, I have quite some experience to answer this from my perspective. The process works in a very different way as compared to many other internship recruitments. My main tips would be:
- Read about the organization and the research that is performed at CERN. You do not want to fill-in an application without knowing where and what you want to do.
- Write a good statement of purpose and highly suggest having your own portfolio website. Get good recommendation letters from your professors/previous employers.
- Have a genuine application and resume. It is easy to spot applications where students fake about their skills.
- Be clear about what you bring to the table i.e. what skills do you have and how do you want to use them to contribute so the correct supervisor can read your application.
- Have keywords in your application and resume about the things you want to work on. For example, if you do DevOps and want to do the same, write keywords like
devopsandCI/CD pipeline, considering you know those things. - Unlike the other interships like MITACS or DAAD, CERN does not give that much weightage about your GPA. But that does not mean the supervisors ignore those things completely.
- APPLY. Do not think that you cannot get in because of the competition. You would not get to know unless you apply.
Side note: CERN receives a few thousand applications for a very small number of students they select which obviously depends on the available funding. In 2017, CERN Openlab selected 37 students out of 1600 applications and this gets tougher every year. Do not be disheartened if you do not get selected. Another thing to keep in mind is that there should be a supervisor with an available project that matches your skillset. You do not just get selected because you have particular skills. So do not think you are not good enough if you do not get selected. Try again next year!
Lastly I just want to say - 'Good luck with your application! This will be the best summer of your life!' If you do end up as an intern at CERN, do ping me on socials and let me know how was your summer!
If you have any questions after reading this, feel free to create an issue on this repo so I can answer it here for everyone to look at those questions and maybe even add it to this readme. If there's something else you'd like to ask, get in touch with me.