AMA highlight: it's not always sunshine and roses in industry
Real talk about challenges and disillusionments
Leaving academia can the right move for many people, but industry isn’t all sunshine and roses either. In a recent AMA at Academics in the Wild, participants discussed the challenges and disillusionment they faced when they made the transition.
Here's a summary of the key points:
Loss of Community and Identity: For some, the hardest part was losing the tight-knit community and social life that academia provided. The transition felt like a departure from a familiar world where work and social life were intertwined.
Adjusting to Industry Constraints: Others found it difficult to adapt to the constraints of industry work, such as shorter deadlines, less freedom in project choice, and the need to prioritize business needs over personal intellectual curiosity. The shift from the longer, more flexible timelines of academia to the faster pace of industry was a significant adjustment.
Reevaluating Career Aspirations: Several participants spoke about the psychological impact of letting go of their academic identity. Moving away from a long-held vision of becoming a professor required confronting deep personal questions about identity and purpose. However, this challenge also led to new, broader perspectives on their professional lives.
Positive Aspects of Industry: On the flip side, many found positive aspects in their transition. The ability to work in teams, engage in applied sciences, and achieve a sense of progress through smaller, more frequent accomplishments were highlighted as rewarding. Some also appreciated the opportunity to still engage in research, albeit in a more applied context.
Some key quotes:
[the hardest thing about leaving academia was loss of] freedom, I felt stuck in a job where I had just to follow the projects or the need of the business. Learning new things became hard or was left on my free time.
For me, the move to industry was overall extremely positive! But I underestimated how much I'd be impacted psychologically by doing work that did not always feel mission-driven.
For many years I built in my head this image of myself being a professor and researching with students, and suddenly that future seemed less and less real, pushing me to ask the very hard questions: well, who am I then? What is my professional life and aspirations about? Fortunately, it wasnt very long until I discover the world is an INFINITELY interesting place and there are problems to solve everywhere!
Overall, while the transition from academia to industry comes with its challenges, many of our participants were happy with their decision to make the leap, finding new opportunities and fulfillment in their industry roles.
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