71–80 of 146 posts
You might miss the people involved and the culture, but you can always cultivate and find that somewhere else. And not like you drop all those connections anyways.
Let 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…
Most of the regrets here seem to be about quitting academia or "meaningful" work rather than astrophysics per se. No reason why as a data scientist he can't pivot from financial services into something more research oriented within industry, or back into academia; the pay will likely be much less in the latter case, but the opportunities for work on a more meaningful track with like-minded people will be there.
As another STEM PhD data scientist who is thinking of pivoting back into academia at some point, do you have specific examples of the kinds of jobs that are available that would welcome and benefit from industry DS experience? Perhaps teaching DS or computer science?
More generally, I would say that the key would be to target roles and teams that cross the boundary between pure research and software engineering, which could vary from straight research software engineer roles - with say, "machine learning" or tech associated with data science (e.g. "jupyter") as an example of what you might search for in key skills and keyword filters; or by generally investigating the support roles within academic institutions because that can be a backdoor way in. Naturally the closer the research to your specific experience the stronger your application would be.
One way outside of the normal job search platforms you can identify those gaps is to keep an eye on conferences (especially during the present time while they are online) and the communities they serve and (e.g. if you are a coder) the most widely used code libraries as referenced in academic papers; apart from giving you an idea of where your skills might plug a gap they offer scope for networking in the former case.
Sorry to be vague/obvious or responding to a different question, but I don't have specific examples to mind, this is just what I have seen actually working as a strategy into data science-related roles in similar institutions with people without your enhanced qualifications (stem phd and industry data science experience).
Let 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 don't think this essentially different in business, it is not uncommon not to get hired when you're overqualified or considered too old for the job. The reasonableness of such restrictions can be discussed but they also exist in academia in most countries. In my country, for instance, none of the national funding schemes accept "having been in business" as an excuse in the CV (only medical reasons and pregnancy), so you're expected to be fully comparable to anyone who has worked the same number of years since the Ph.D. in academia. It sounds ridiculous but that's the rule. So you will compete with someone who has 40 publications as someone with 20 publications, for instance.
I 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 wit…
The fact is everything has its downsides. Industry has just as much politics.
The key is to find a balance of what you like doing and your livelihood - sway too far one way, sure, you'll have money, but you'll hate yourself. The other, you won't be able to have an adequate lifestyle, and also hate yourself.
I recall a seminar given a few years back by an astronomy PhD graduate who was talking about career prospects outside of academia, and naturally all of them were 'data science' related. The speaker's first remark was something like 'I don't mean to say that data science is just marketing, but...' and then proceed to describe their career as a person 'with statistics and scripting experience'... working in marketing.
In journalism, it is said that you can always find employment if you join the dark side, which is public relations. I think less people fool theirself in thinking that PR serves the public interest.
We can speculate about why we are hemorrhaging scientists to marketeers, but for the self-interested individual, it's rational. I've always thought that teachers and scientists do not have as high status as they should for the contributions that they provide to society, but perhaps we shouldn't want to attract people to those fields who are in it for the riches and glory.[†]
[†] (of course, it's more nuanced than this)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
It's not about status and prestige, it's about scientific freedom and possibilities. Of course, someone who was on tenure-track or had an otherwise promising career before they left will not want to get back as a staff member, and, by the way, these people also cannot get hired as such. Sometimes there are even explicit restrictions such as "maximum of X years since Ph.D." or maximum age for lower-level positions. I…
Status and prestige confer power. Power brings resources. How one uses those resources is separate.
That said, status and prestige are only correlated to title. An essential staffer will get what they need to do the work they want to do the way they want to do it.
I'm another astrophysicist who left academia for industry and this post definitely speaks to me. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I regret my decision to leave academia, but I will admit to wondering what could have been if I had stayed. After getting my PhD I had a postdoc position lined up with a professor I was excited to work with and had won the NSF astronomy & astrophysics postdoctoral fellowship. (It's not…
I studied atomic physics, graduated in the early 90s. I was extremely fortunate that both of my parents are industrial scientists (now retired), so I had good role models, and working in industry wasn't a foreign idea for me. I've been in industry for 25+ years, with no regrets. I've told people that there's a good living to be made doing things that other people hate. In my case, I solve hard multidisciplinary probl…
How do you go about finding the right kind of projects to work on, or the right kind of environment that appreciates what you bring to the table? And how often do you come across like-minded people? In my (short) experience, apart from occasional threads like these, it’s very difficult to spot kindred spirits.
PS: If you’re up to interacting by email/Zoom, I would love to get some perspective based on your experience. (Email in my profile)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
It's a tough one. The problem we haven't solved as a society is what do we do with all these smart people? They need money so they go get a high paying job in finance or tech or consulting and then all that scientific training was kind of left aside right? So what was the point of the PhD? A job with meaning is hard to find, maybe we should encourage and support all these smart people to start a business/research ven…
Well, some research presumably came out of it and the experience of planning and executing that research is presumably at least somewhat transferable to a lot of others tasks. The reality is that a lot of people don't directly use a significant portion of what they learn in school. Even if they got a CS degree and become a developer, there's probably a lot of theoretical CS most won't use outside of interview questions. And many of us have shifted our careers multiple times even if we've stayed loosely adjacent to prior roles.