Advert says you must have PhD to intern at this company for these two roles
By K24 Editorial, February 16, 2021Imagine labouring for 22 years in the Kenyan education system or elsewhere in one of the toughest emerging courses in the world to earn your Ph.D. in machine learning or artificial intelligence or computer science or applied mathematics.
Now, imagine that the company of your dreams — a multinational technology company — wants to hire you as an intern whose Ph.D. must be topped with expertise and experience in at least six programming languages.
This is the case for IBM East Africa Limited, a subsidiary of the global technology company that reported revenues of $77.1 billion in 2019 with operating gross profit margins of 48 percent. This is also a firm that returned $7.1 billion in the same year to investors.
“Transformation requires investment. And since 2012, we have devoted significant capital to developing new capabilities. In all, we invested more than $120 billion to transform our strategy, our portfolio and our workforce. At the same time, we returned $97 billion to shareholders,” said IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Virginia M. Rometty, in a letter to investors.
Today, in the African market, IBM is looking for research scientist interns, roles that require successful candidates to have a Ph.D. in machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer science or applied mathematics.
The interns are needed in the Nairobi and South Africa research labs for health and climate change projects.
“IBM Research interns are evaluated on their technical contributions, ability to collaborate across labs, and leadership. These metrics, in the context of a commercial research lab in an emerging market, create a unique combination of roles and responsibilities for a research intern working in the healthcare domain,” said IBM East Africa in the online advertisement.
Since the company has not indicated the internships are compensated, the advertisement has raised a few eyebrows on social media.
The ideal candidate, for the health project, is set to help IBM create innovative products that will increase access and improve the quality of healthcare in Africa.
In addition to having a Ph.D., expert knowledge in six programming languages, the successful candidate must also be published in scientific publications such as NIPS, CVPR, ICML, ICLR, IJCAI, AAAI, KDD, AMIA, JAMIA, or JAMA.
Since 2012, IBM said it has invested more than $120 billion to transform its strategy, portfolio, and workforce.
The multinational has portfolios in artificial intelligence, cloud, security and blockchain technologies among others.