One major difference is it’s a lot easier to move around in the private sector. If you have a bad experience at company A, you can easily start “fresh” at comp

One major difference is it’s a lot easier to move around in the private sector. If you have a bad experience at company A, you can easily start “fresh” at company B or C. References are relatively pro forma and don’t count for much. Academia, in contrast, runs on reputation. You’ll need a reference—ideally a glowing one—from your PhD advisor to land a postdoc position and fellowships. You’ll need more letters to transition to a faculty job, and even more to keep it. The contents of the letters actually matter too; none of this “she was employed in my lab for the indicated time period” malarkey. This gives a few people incredibly strong influence over your career, especially early on.