[hieunguyen411]

Hello everyone,
I am currently doing my PhD in Mathematics in Germany, my works focus mainly on Euler equations, both in theoretical and numerical aspects. However I think it is more "theoretical" than "numerical". As in the title, let me assume for a moment that I will be able to finish my PhD degree (I hope so...), what is the chance for me to get a CFD job in Europe?
Since I am very interesting in the field, I am learning Programming language by myself and reading some books in CFD, Aerodynamics (J.D. Anderson's books) in my spare time.
I would appreciate any answer and I am looking forward to hear your opinions.
Thanks in advanced.

[sbaffini]

Well, it pretty much depends from a lot of other factors too but, in principle, nowadays, your degree should be more spendable than a classical engineering one.

Obviously, when you are done with the Ph.D., if you are all about existence and unicity stuff but you know nothing of the industry standards or models (or how to program them) or can't do a mesh with any mainstream mesher, that pretty much complicates things a lot.

In that case you can still have some chances in somehow smaller companies. But, in the end, as any other job, it is more about what you can actually do than what some institution has certified you can do. In CFD this just works better because most are somehow small companies and HR is not typically involved in the process (not much at least).

Note, however, that the CFD industry is actually really big, it just depends from what you would like to do. There are also jobs where you don't need to know a lot about actual CFD.

Look under jobs in industry on this site to have a grasp of what is available today and if you can try to fit.

If you want to apply for a developer position, besides specific knowledge of the field (and your own subfield, like turbulence, combustion, lattice boltzmann, ecc.), there are certain additional requirements that will typically help: C++ (there are much less Fortran positions out there) and MPI are somehow the basis. Anything GPU related and/or some exposure to Qt (for GUIs) and VTK (to manage meshes and visualization) will also help a lot. Python also is an evergreen but, honestly, I would rather choose a scripting language which you can better expend for the web (like javascript).

[juliom]

Well, I would not be worry about that. In fact, I have seen (with a lot of concern) how a lot of people are getting out of school with undergraduate diplomas and they claim they "know" CFD. Nothing worst than that. In fact, a lot of professor agree with this statement.
A PhD is more than a diploma that also few people take for granted. That diploma comes with a big burden. That burden is your obligation to create new knowledge. Here is the kicker. That knowledge can come from different perspective. Those perspective are thought only in PhD. Having said that, you will learn things that you never imagined and will help you to develop your career no matter where you are or what you are doing. Paolo, may agree with me since he has already obtained his PhD Diploma. Mine is coming soon ( I hope so).
The problem with industry ( I may be wrong here) is that you end up doing the same thing over and over again with room to creativity (BOOM THIS IS WHAT A PhD HAS CREATIVITY). Off course that does not happen in R&D positions.
I agree with Paolo about developing new skills. For example, I am Mechanical Engineer and I have spent 7 + years doing CFD and After My master I started doing REAL CFD. Before was only commercial software. Now, I am a more involved role in my PhD.
Go ahead and do not be worry about that, you will have a very important plus for your future goals in CFD.

[FMDenaro]

I would add just an advice: start to study not only numerical methods for Euler equations but extend your reading to techniques for Navier-Stokes. Compressible, multiphase, reacting and turbulent flows are what industries are looking for...

[akidess]

Originally Posted by sbaffini

In that case you can still have some chances in somehow smaller companies. But, in the end, as any other job, it is more about what you can actually do than what some institution has certified you can do. In CFD this just works better because most are somehow small companies and HR is not typically involved in the process (not much at least).

I disagree. I think a big company has much more possibilities to develop you if you do not possess the skillset they are looking for. A small company does not have the same luxury. A small company might not even have a colleague that can train you appropriately, or the breath to deal with your lack of productivity while you learn.

[sbaffini]

Originally Posted by akidess

I disagree. I think a big company has much more possibilities to develop you if you do not possess the skillset they are looking for. A small company does not have the same luxury. A small company might not even have a colleague that can train you appropriately, or the breath to deal with your lack of productivity while you learn.

Well, you know, it probably also depends from case to case and where we put the separation between small and big.

Probably, I also wrote it down incorrectly. What I meant is that a big company is more likely to require a very specific skill to improve/advance its product(s) in a very specific direction. So that, even if they can train you, the end result is still not what they were probably looking for in the first place.

In contrast, I assumed that a small company might require a lot of work in a lot of different areas. In that case, an expert is not necessary, you just need someone who can, eventually, manage that.

I also assumed that, besides specific corner cases, a small company is less appealing than a larger one for an expert (consider money, for example ). So that small companies might actually also face shortage of experts with respect to the big companies.

[hieunguyen411]

Hi all,
It's been a while and I was quite busy with some stuffs. Just check the forum today and found that there are many nice replies/comments for my thread. Thank you all very much and I really appreciate your opinions. Things sound quite optimistic, so I should stop worrying, start working and wait for the future