Academia versus Industry - some thoughts
Slides: https://www.andreashandel.com/presentations/
1/16/23
My Experiences
- Almost exclusively academia (Undergrad -> PhD -> Postdoc -> Faculty).
- A few summer jobs in high school.
- A short-term industry engagement May-Dec 2022.
Your Experiences
- What (if any) work experiences do you have (past or present)?
Academia vs Industry
- There is no such thing as “academia” or “industry”:
- Academia: Wide range from top research university to community college.
- Industry: Wide range from <10 person start-up to very large corporation.
The in-betweens
- Government organizations (e.g., CDC, State PH departments).
- Academia-like organizations (e.g., federal research facilities, NIH, Cary Institute).
- Other academia-adjacent organizations (e.g., Gates Foundation, American Cancer Society).
Your dream employer/job
- What do you currently envision your ideal job/employer to look like?
- What job features are most important to you?
Some categorization attempts
Disclaimers
- In the following, I try to very generally categorize different academic/industry settings.
- This is my opinion, not rigorous data.
- This is very on average, there are of course wide variations everywhere.
Job Characteristics I
| Increase in: | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|
| Location Freedom | live wherever you want | none? |
| Topic Freedom | work on what interests you | requires self-direction to find interesting and relevant topics to work on |
| Time Freedom | schedule your days as you want | probably no time when you are “done” (no clocking out at 5pm) |
| General Freedom | nobody tells you what to do | you need to figure out what to do; can get isolating |
Job Characteristics II
| Increase in: | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|
| Compensation | more money | usually more responsibility, more work, less freedom |
| Workload | possibly more impact | less free time |
| Pace | can feel energizing | can feel stressful |
| Job security | reduced stress | none? |
| Advancement Opportunities | upward career trajectory easier | staying in place might be seen as failure |
Job Characteristics III
| Increase in: | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|
| Teamwork | energizing | restricts freedom; stressful if bad team members |
| Meaningful work | feels good | none? |
| Continued Learning |
can be enjoyable and exciting | can be a source of stress if no interest in constant learning |
| Responsibility for others |
can increase one’s impact | can be stressful (hire/fire, secure funding) |
Categorization I
| Research University | Community College | Start-up | Large Corp | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location Freedom | ++ | + | +/++/+++ | +/++/+++ |
| Topic Freedom | ++/+++ | +/++ | +/++ | +/++/+++ |
| Time Freedom | ++/+++ | +/++ | +/++ | +/++/+++ |
| General Freedom | +++ | ++ | +/++ | +/++ |
Categorization II
| Research University | Community College | Start-up | Large Corp | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compensation | ++/+++ | + | ++/++++ | +++ |
| Workload | ++/+++ | +/++ | ++/+++ | +/++/+++ |
| Pace | ++ | +/++ | +++ | +/++ |
| Job security | +++ | ++/+++ | + | ++ |
| Advancement Opportunities | ++ | +/++ | ++/+++ | ++/+++ |
Categorization III
| Research University | Community College | Start-up | Large Corp | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teamwork | ++ | +/++ | +++ | ++/+++ |
| Meaningful work | +/++/+++ | +/++/+++ | +/++/+++ | +/++/+++ |
| Continued Learning | ++/+++ | +/++ | +++ | +/++/+++ |
| Responsibility for others | ++/+++ | +/++ | +/++ | +/++/+++ |
Job characteristics discussion
- Any other job characteristics you think are important to consider?
- Here are some thoughts from an AI (ChatGPT).
- Did I or the AI miss any pivotal ones (apologies)?
Things to consider
- Academia/industry distinction might not be the most useful way to decide.
- Even within the same or similar places, big differences are possible.
- It’s useful to consider jobs/employers for the mid/long run.
Questions/Discussion
- Any further questions/thoughts/comments?
Academia versus Industry - some thoughts Slides: https://www.andreashandel.com/presentations/ Andreas Handel 1/16/23