I too listened to my heart and after years of thinking about it, made the jump. I too worked as a contractor for many of the top consulting firms. In my late 4

I too listened to my heart and after years of thinking about it, made the jump. I too worked as a contractor for many of the top consulting firms. In my late 40's I returned to academia to a do a PhD in software engineering. Graduated last year and back on the consulting trail. The years doing the PhD were an emotional roller coaster ride, but that is par for that course. I have no regrets having had that "adventure". But for me continuing on as a Post-Doc or doing more adjunct teaching are unappealing. Becoming a F/T academic is rather difficult, lots of applicants for every position advertised and you need to have an impressive list of papers, etc to be considered.