17Dec

Dec 17 2022

Stay in Academia or Move to Industry

Pete Alisher

Career advice

After finishing a Master or PhD program, many people are confused about where they should go: Stay in Academia or Move to Industry. This article will provide pros and cons so you will have more information to make your own decision.

 

1- Stay in Academia

 

 

Pros

 

  • Your time is more flexible, it does not mean that you have less workload than in the industry.
  • You often travel to meet other professors and partners, this is to reduce a lot of stress in working time and also open more opportunities for you.
  • If you like teaching jobs, this is a perfect environment for you. Futher, if you can find funding, you will have Master or PhD students who can help you do tasks or projects.

 

Cons

 

 

  • You need to be active to find fundings for your research and teams. This work is very stressful.
  • The salary is often lower in the industry.
  • After a long time working in Academia, it is difficult for you to catch up on skills in the industry. It is very difficult to find a permanent position in Academia. 

 

2- Move to Industry:

 

 

 

Pros

 

  • Salary in industry is often higher than academia. You can apply your knowledge to solve practical problems in Industry. It is quite interesting to see the impact of your research on products or services and bring the benefits for the company.
  • Recently, jobs in areas of electric vehicle, artificial intelligence and data science, and robotics have a very high salary level. 
  • The size of the job market for researchers having experience in Industry is larger than the one in academia. If you don't want to work in this company, you can move to another company easily.
  • If you see that you don't want to work in industry, you can come back to the university to work as a lecturer or adjunct professor easily. The school needs experts who have both theory and practical experience. However, if you stay too long in academia, it is very difficult for you to work in industry.

 

Cons

 

  • Your time is constrained, you have to work in the office 8 hours/day at least. You also have to be in a hurry to meet the deadlines so the products and services can reach the market as soon as possible. Some problems are very difficult to solve and you may have more stress if the solution is not as you expect.

Tags: Stay in Academia or Move to Industry

Share: