In this episode (2 of 5), Lareb Zar Khan at Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy, talks about applying for a EC-funded PhD such as MENTOR and the doors such a programme can open for your career. Learn about the research life, secondments and what it's like going deeper into a subject by doing a PhD. MENTOR is a EC-funded project based in different countries with researchers and academic and industrial machine learning experts tackling the optical communications challenges of tomorrow as a cutting-edge research team. If you are thinking of a PhD or a career in optical networks research or in the optical communications industry, this podcast is for you. Find out more on ML&AI and the amazing MSCA programmes by taking a listen. MENTOR is funded by EC Horizon 2020, under Marie Curie Sklodowska (MSCA) Grant 956713.