Leaving Industry to Study Again

August 2026

I studied math and statistics, and I loved most of it. However, I had grown a bit tired of devoting so much of my time and energy to ideas that had no evident impact on the real world, which is why I decided to start a career in the industry. Luckily, I was able to secure several offers, and I ultimately decided to join Amazon in an operational context.

The work was reasonably aligned with what I had studied, and I enjoyed most of it. However, the problems weren’t intellectually challenging and did not foster my curiosity or my intellectual ambitions. Also, when I looked at my managers—who were good, competent, and well-paid people—they were doing even less technical work than I was. With every step up the career ladder, the math drifted further away. Unfortunately, the jobs where you actually get to think hard about complex problems almost all require the same thing: a PhD.

However, taking the big leap from a well-paid job to a much more precarious environment is not something to do without careful consideration. That is why, while working at Amazon, I started working on a research project closely tied to my personal interests. I enjoy the sport of orienteering, where in one modality you have to maximize your score (collected at different checkpoints) within a strict time constraint. I formulated this as a mathematical problem and tried to find optimal solutions. I enjoyed this process so much that it helped me make my final decision.

So, in September, I am starting the MVA Master’s at ENS Paris-Saclay, with the intention of pursuing a PhD afterward, either in industry or academia.

To my colleagues: thank you, sincerely. You made this short chapter a great one!