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I left academia (Computational Neuroscience) to work in Data Science. Some of my best friends stayed in and are now postdocs (I left the PhD with the consolati

I left academia (Computational Neuroscience) to work in Data Science. Some of my best friends stayed in and are now postdocs (I left the PhD with the consolation master). I'm in Europe so the difference in compensation is nowhere near as big (tech pays less here and grad school pays more) but really it's about what you want to do. If the compensation is the most important thing then you won't be happy in grad school, equally if the research isn't fulfilling you then you might as well work in industry and earn more. My friends who are happy in research are those who are working on things they really love (in High Energy Physics etc.) and wouldn't exchange it for the higher salaries (and less freedom) of industry. For me, it wasn't the pay that turned me off academia but the insecurity - you can study it for years just to be cast out of the field when you can't get a permanent position and in the meantime you continually have to move which makes serious relationships very difficult. Basically it's a compromise - I think I made the right choice, but perhaps had I better chosen my field in grad school (maybe if I had stayed in Phyiscs?) I would have preferred to stay - I certainly wouldn't say industry is always better.

oefrha 8y ago
Your point on insecurity is spot on. Your concerns are my concerns as well. Compensation is just (the most quantifiable) part of the insecurity formula that plays a greater part in my case. Funny you mentioned hep; I happen on work on hep-th. Do I love the subject? Absolutely. Is compensation the most important thing? Absolutely not. However, I've learned over the years that appreciating other people's successful work and actually trying to build on top of that are pretty different, and the handful of successful theories I love are really built upon the (life-long) failure of thousands and thousands of nobodies, and I'm very likely to be a nobody, given that I'm not thrown of the train of nobodies in the first place. It's just natural to think that if I'm going to be a nobody, I might as well be compensated well for that (and not making my head explode all the time), like that guy. The thought really puts a dent on the "love", and I'm personally (maybe just me) much more prone to exchanging pure passion for something more tangible. > higher salaries (and less freedom) of industry. Depending on the definition of freedom, when you have a "jobby" job it's at least easy to separate work and life, whereas in academia, at least in the theoretical branches, it seems much harder to draw boundaries. (I'm not saying people in the industry don't work hard.) By the way, glad you're happy with your decision.

oefrha 8y ago

Your point on insecurity is spot on. Your concerns are my concerns as well. Compensation is just (the most quantifiable) part of the insecurity formula that plays a greater part in my case. Funny you mentioned hep; I happen on work on hep-th. Do I love the subject? Absolutely. Is compensation the most important thing? Absolutely not. However, I've learned over the years that appreciating other people's successful work and actually trying to build on top of that are pretty different, and the handful of successful theories I love are really built upon the (life-long) failure of thousands and thousands of nobodies, and I'm very likely to be a nobody, given that I'm not thrown of the train of nobodies in the first place. It's just natural to think that if I'm going to be a nobody, I might as well be compensated well for that (and not making my head explode all the time), like that guy. The thought really puts a dent on the "love", and I'm personally (maybe just me) much more prone to exchanging pure passion for something more tangible. > higher salaries (and less freedom) of industry. Depending on the definition of freedom, when you have a "jobby" job it's at least easy to separate work and life, whereas in academia, at least in the theoretical branches, it seems much harder to draw boundaries. (I'm not saying people in the industry don't work hard.) By the way, glad you're happy with your decision.