Interesting that the pay difference didn't come up at all. I would've thought that would be a big change from Academia to Business.
The pay difference is pretty staggering, but after a certain threshold it stops being a very good motivator.
I Regret Quitting Astrophysics
31–40 of 146 posts
Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics
#32You learned something really important about what you don't like. That's not worth regretting.
Get back into academia with newfound commitment. This time you won't be looking over your shoulder wondering if you're missing something in "the real world."
Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics
#33I wanted to do Astronomy or Astrophysics as a degree/career choice when I was growing up. What changed my mind was every single astronomer or astrophysicist I spoke to about pursuing the career literally told me not to. No jobs, no money, don't do it. Being young and unfamiliar I listened to their advice and went to university for a different career. Academia research seems like a lot of politics and bs to put up with however I think I would have enjoyed that career much more than software development I am in now.
Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics
#34Do people really go into industry because they’re expecting to enjoy it? I thought it was to get paid.
Academics are supposed to like their work more than us industry stiffs, aren’t they? Because if that’s not the case........ what exactly would be the draw?
Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics
#35Let me just say to all those out there who have left academia and went into industry: academia would be happy to have you back! I went into "academia" (or close to it), doing software engineering for a telescope being built. Astronomers are a great little community out there, and they really need help writing code. A lot of them aren't familiar or have experience with best industry practices that could save them so m…
Agree with you - but I think the author of the article wants to get back in as a tenure-track professor rather than a programmer or data scientist on a scientific project. They would probably see coming back in as “staff” as an unacceptable loss of status and prestige in their field. (I think that status distinction is a terrible and stupid feature of academic research but it is very deeply-ingrained as folks are soc…
I have a PhD in math but I often dream about how nice it would be to get paid to write simulations for big shot mathematicians. Usually this work goes to undergrad/grad students. Maybe it’s just not worth paying for professional code.
Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics
#36The mind has a way of tricking us into remembering many of the good things and fewer of the bad ones(or sometimes even rationalizing bad things into good ones). Not to say that the regret here isn't valid, but just to be careful how much stock to put into missing the 'good ole days'. "The people who questioned my decision to become an extronomer were right. I was wrong. It seems too late to get back in." This mindset…
This perspective IMO is informed by a slow-burning (like, career-scale) FOMO where if you're not as successful as the person getting $200k+ offers from FAANG right out of university then you are behind and a failure. This is a persistent sentiment in CS and adjacent circles, I've noticed, and a serious hindrance to finding fulfillment in life and career. It's not a race, it's an Iron Man, and for the vast majority of…
There is a real trap in always feeling like you need more career wise or comparing how you are doing to other people.
It's way too easy to shift the goal to being a little bit more successful then you currently are and it makes people miserable even if they are doing well by most people's standards.
Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics
#37"It seems too late to get back in." The author appears to be alive, and astrophysics still seems to exist. So, what exactly is the problem? I expect wrong answers only.
He left in 2013, most postdocs positions have a 5 year cutoff for eligibility. It's been 7 years since he got the degree so a lot of doors have already closed for postdoc opportunities. Professors will find reasons to not hire him such as being out of the game for too long and thus he's not caught up in the literature or whatever. He could try to go in as a data scientist. It is true though that usually that job goes to students because they're cheap and capable, they just take longer. So yeah it's kind of hard to compete against cheap, passionate labor that students provide.
Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics
#38> On top of that, being geographically bound doesn’t help.
I can absolutely believe that this is still an issue, but it's also highly disappointing that's still the case.
All your data analysis is done on a computer, and I'd bet that every telescope or instrument you have to interact with is computer controlled and can be worked with remotely with little modification.
Yes, astrophysical datasets can be absolutely enormous, and bandwidth can become a serious constraint, but we have solutions to those problems too - that's one of the reason terminal sessions (in their various modern guises) are so powerful.
You would think or hope that by the end of 2020 when a global pandemic has taught many of us that, for much of the time, for those of us whose working lives are mostly spent "in computers", we would have learned that geography is not a significant barrier. At least not with decent enough internet connectivity.
Again, sadly, I'm not surprised to see that in certain circles it is still an issue. It's a cultural change, and those can take an awfully long time to work themselves out.
Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics
#39The mind has a way of tricking us into remembering many of the good things and fewer of the bad ones(or sometimes even rationalizing bad things into good ones). Not to say that the regret here isn't valid, but just to be careful how much stock to put into missing the 'good ole days'. "The people who questioned my decision to become an extronomer were right. I was wrong. It seems too late to get back in." This mindset…
This perspective IMO is informed by a slow-burning (like, career-scale) FOMO where if you're not as successful as the person getting $200k+ offers from FAANG right out of university then you are behind and a failure. This is a persistent sentiment in CS and adjacent circles, I've noticed, and a serious hindrance to finding fulfillment in life and career. It's not a race, it's an Iron Man, and for the vast majority of…
Big tech comp numbers that get thrown around--and that are often inflated and have been at least partly driven by stock market gains--lead a lot of people to set them as the bar. And to feel that's what they need to achieve even if they don't especially like the work given that they can't imagine doing something that "only" pays $100K or $150K or whatever.
Re: I Regret Quitting Astrophysics
#40I think passion rules everything for most of us - unless we have passion for money :)
An interesting comment, sadly I find that most people I know are passionate about money and not much else.