Academia versus Industry - some thoughts

Slides: https://www.andreashandel.com/presentations/

Andreas Handel

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.

Blackboard with equations

JESHOOTS.COM/Unsplash

Your Experiences

  • What (if any) work experiences do you have (past or present)?

Enrique/Pixabay

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.

SOCIAL.CUT/Unsplash

Robert Stump/Unsplash

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).

NIH/Wikipedia

Your dream employer/job

  • What do you currently envision your ideal job/employer to look like?
  • What job features are most important to you?

Gerd Altmann/Pixabay

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.

DALLE-2 prompt: A painting of a professor fighting against a CEO with the Harvard campus and an office building in the background

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)?

UK Black Tech/Unsplash

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.

Nick Fewings/Unsplash

Questions/Discussion

  • Any further questions/thoughts/comments?

PhD Comics