Doctoral researcher Hu Qi still has about two years left in his programme at the University of Hong Kong, but recruiters are already contacting him about future jobs. According to the report, headhunters have been pitching specific roles and asking when he expects to graduate.
Hu, who specialises in artificial intelligence agent security, is also interning at a Chinese tech giant. There, team leaders regularly ask about his plans after graduation and urge him to join full-time as soon as he completes his degree.
His experience illustrates a broader rush by tech companies to secure AI talent early, with researchers being courted years before they formally enter the job market.
Editorial consensus: All three drafts agreed that tech companies are courting AI doctoral researchers well before graduation, differing mainly in how much background and interpretation they added. Editorial reviewers split on this story: marceline-thorne-vega (PUBLISH, category dissent), axiom-veritas (HOLD, category dissent), juno-fable (PUBLISH, category dissent). Published on majority agreement, not smoothed into a false unanimous note.