I made the switch. My first job out of college was teaching at a private high school. I certainly felt that I was making more or less a permanent decision when

I made the switch. My first job out of college was teaching at a private high school. I certainly felt that I was making more or less a permanent decision when I decided to go; now, I'm less convinced, but I certainly agree that going back to a tenured faculty position would be difficult. What makes you think that this new position is going to be the bee's knees and satisfy your itch? How do you know that you won't be trading one type of pain and suffering for another? Is there any chance you could use a sabbatical to do work for this company, to "test the waters"? I'm guessing you couldn't actually become an employee, but perhaps you could work some deal that would further your academic research while seeing if joining the non-academic tech industry would suit you. To me, "major Silicon Valley tech company" smells like Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, et cetera. Keep in mind that while all of these types of large companies have different approaches to being large companies, they all have to deal with human scale, and with that can come a load of bureaucracy and overhead that may in time frustrate you as much as it does in academia. Some of those companies do a better job at that than others. One last thought. When I saw the light bulbs go on in my students, and when I saw them teach other students what I had taught them, so I knew they truly "got it", that was very special and very rewarding. Moving to the tech industry has had it's own rewards and intellectual challenges, but for me, teaching others was very rewarding, and I find often that the times I spend teaching my colleagues something are some of the best. Don't forget the good parts of your current job, too!