I never wanted an academic job, even before I started my PhD, and I know more than a few other people in the same boat. My options were always to go into indus

I never wanted an academic job, even before I started my PhD, and I know more than a few other people in the same boat. My options were always to go into industry or join a pure research organization (e.g. a national lab). Ended up at a startup 15 days after defending my thesis. Many of my friends and peers at the time did postdocs but never took up academic positions, landing up in startups or industry. I've never understood why science PhD = academia. Learning to think analytically through problems, set up hypotheses and test them and communicate those findings has helped me in the things I've done since. edit: Added some additional content