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Ask HN: How to leave academia? And where to go?
I'm an associate professor in Computer Science at an European university. It's a "tenured", safe, permanent, and comfortable position. My salary is slightly above average, I have a mortgage on a beautiful new house, my working hours are very flexible, and I virtually have no boss. And I hate my job.
The main reason is that I spend most of my time dealing with relationships with other people. My working place is very horizontal, which means everyone wants everything all the time; every snowflake wants to shine, and every flower wants to have the best smell. That'd be ok if I could simply ignore them, but since we have virtually no hierarchy, that means that (a) we need to have meetings all the time, where nothing gets solved (because there is no one to make final decisions), and (b) we're supposed to solve everything peer-to-peer, which means people will keep knocking on your door all the time: there is always a new idea, a new project, a new complaint, a new possibility, someone needs to cover for someone else, etc. I like to be engaged in my work, I mean, I want to be active in whatever I do, so there is a tendency for things to fall on my lap and never leave it. I need to keep fighting and pushing back constantly in order to do a minimum amount of significant and relevant work. It's exhausting.
I would like to leave academia and work in a company, where people are still people but they have some common, objective, external constraints and goals (like making money and/or making the company grow). In academia, there is no goal other than building your own personal individual career. Since we have no real boss and virtually no external assessment whatsoever, everything invariably ends up moving towards whoever has the larger ego, i.e. the ones who are louder and sound more certain of themselves and whatever they are doing. These are usually the ones who can get other people to do some part of their job, so they can go and be even louder and get even more people to do their job, and so on.
I don't mean by this that I don't want to work with other people; exactly the opposite. I love to work with people, as long as, by the end of the day, someone says "ok, we got a few different opinions, but we're moving this way. Let's do this." It may work or not, but at least there is something else to pursue other than pure egotism supported by non-existent or informal notions of grandeur.
So, how can anyone make such a transition? Any experiences out there? Any success/failure stories?
I am very good at programming basically anything, I'm just a bit rusty. If I can sit in front of an IDE and code for 4 hours straight you'll see a man with a smile (I might even consider a low entry salary). Right now my twisted idea of paradise is having a boss who says "code this", instead of only coding my own personal projects (and failing miserably to reach my ridiculously over-inflated expectations for them).
- amitoz_azad 4y agoI am not in academia - but the meetings you have described reminded me of the meetings I had during my PhD years. I was supposed to attend 1 or 2 meetings every year in different cities in France (it was joint work between different teams from different french labs). Your first realization (where nothing gets solved, no one to make final decision) was also my experience while attending those meetings. Reading your post - it seems to me that you are not happy with kind of collegues/peers you are working with ("someone has to cover for someone else, people with larger ego can get other to do part of their job"). Whether you stay in academia or go to industry - you are likely to encounter the same problem depending upon the quality of peers around you. If you are passionate about research, try moving towards top-tier european universities/labs (ecole polytechnique, tum). I feel that the research is more directed and you will have better peers.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- impendia 4y agoI am a tenured math professor in the US. The top-rated answer suggests to be more assertive and forceful; personally, I think a bland approach might be effective: Colleague: "I have an exciting new idea to design a new underwater basket-weaver!" You: "Thanks. Sounds interesting, I'm afraid I'm rather tied up at the moment." Colleague: "But if we build this, then agency XXX will give us $YYY in grant funding!" You: "Sounds great. I have too many commitments right now, but good luck!" Colleague: "I don't think you're seeing the opportunity here. Just imagine blah blah blah." You: "Sounds exciting. I'm sure it will be a big success. Best wishes on your project!" Colleague: "But... but..." You: "Thanks again for the invitation. If you'd please excuse me, I have to go back to work." [Put head down and return to your own work] You say you love working with people -- are there enough people whom you do like, that you can focus on working with them?
- johndoe0815 4y agoIn many European countries, leaving academia for a job in industry will make it hard to go back in case you don't like the new job. I'm a tenured full (CS) professor in Germany with some excursions to industry (research) and had to struggle quite a bit (and have a lot of luck) to be hired in my current position. Maybe there are some alternatives you could try? Many universities offer the opportunity of a leave of absence for a year (or possibly more), so you could try out something else without having to fear losing your job - of course, your publication and funding record will still suffer, but this is maybe not so critical since you already have tenure. Another idea might be to use some of the ideas from your research and try to commercialize them in a startup - perhaps together with some of your students? If this works well, you could also apply for a reduction of your position at the university to spend more time at the startup. Also, applying for a position at a different university (possibly in a different country) might be an idea? Of course, this might be a less attractive option considering you just bought a house.