What should I do? Academia vs Industry: How to decide?
Are you a final-year undergraduate student at a University? Then most probably the question debating in your mind is, should I do my higher studies or join the industry. As a final year Software Engineering Undergraduate I am also debating with myself about what I actually wanted to be?; Is it go to my higher studies and become an academic professional in the field that I am interested in most or become an industry expert who gives solutions for real-world solutions for business problems mainly and get a decent amount of salary.
This is one of the main topics I discussed with my #ScholarX mentor Prof. Arosha Bandara and I did several readings on this. So this article will summarize the key points, pros, and cons of each career path I gained from my mentor and self-learning.
Identifying who you are and your strengths
Before choosing the career path it’s essential to identify yourself and your strengths because choosing academia or industry is truly depends on personal preferences.
First, you have to identify your enthusiasm and for what type of work you have more skills. Some people are professionals in coding and they enjoy building software. While on otherhand some people are not passionate about programming but they really like to drive deep into cutting-edge technologies and investigate them. This will helps you to find you are a development lover or a researcher. In summary, if you are a development lover then you can improve your career life in the industry.
Present there is an understanding that people who have a research-oriented degree such as a Ph.D. get higher salaries in the Industry. According to the knowledge, I gained this is wrong, and doing a research degree for a better salary would be a wasting of your time. The salary in the industry will depend on your skills. What my suggestion is, don’t wait last minute to plan who you want to be? plan it from the beginning and start improving your skills towards your goal. If so you can easily climb up the ladder and be an academic or an industry expert.
Academia
Now let’s take a look at why you should choose higher studies after getting your Undergraduate degree.
If you think you want to be an expert or specialized in a particular field then joining academia is the best option. There you can join for a research degree like a master's or doctoral degree. To do a research degree, In most countries, you have to pay an institutional fee. However in this case, if you are lucky enough you can secure a scholarship. However, this is not an easy task and It will depend on the quality of your research proposal and your skills.
In some cases, graduate students go straight into the industry and work there in 1–5 years before applying for a research degree. However, from my point of view, this approach is not the best one. Because “Humans minds can change when they get money”. In shorter terms when you get money while working in the industry, you may forget your ultimate goal, and it is hard to shift from an industry mindset to an academic mindset.
Opportunities
When considering the opportunities you get while doing higher studies, the most important one is collaboration. In academia, you are able to work with experts in your area of interest and people with the same passion as yours. This will be a good opportunity to grow within the community. While you are in academia you can get free travel to the conferences and meet amazingly talented people and learn from their expertise as well.
Apart from the studies, some universities offer lecturing positions to Ph.D. students. Thus it will be a good opportunity to secure your job as a lecturer at a University after your higher studies. However, a research degree holder can also join the industry as a research engineer.
Balancing Working and Life
In academia, it is a bit hard to balance work and life. Because while doing a research degree you will strict to a well managed time frame. In academics relatively working in a lab, writing research papers, and getting publishing those within the time is essential to secure your position in the research lab. Moreover to prove and find theories you have to do lots of experiments. In addition, there are situations, maybe you have to work on weekends as well.
However, by securing a lecturing position or an engineer position in the industry after higher education you could be able to get a decent life. Moreover being a lecturer would be a good opportunity to help students and make their lives far better.
Financial Stability
When considering the financial stability, until you will finish your research degree and get a lecturer position in a university or an R&D engineer position in the industry you will never have the feeling that you are financially stable. Moreover, as I mentioned earlier doing a research degree for a salary increment in the industry is useless. In some cases, a Ph.D. holder could be overqualified for a particular job position as well.
So here’s a little about why you chose academia and the pros and cons of that path. If you like to find higher studies opportunities here are some websites where you can find different open research opportunities in top-class universities.
Apart from these two, you can search the websites of the universities or research labs that you are willing to apply to find out the open research projects. Generally, every university showcases their open research opportunities to each academic year.
Industry
Now let’s take a look at why you should choose the industry after getting your Undergraduate degree.
If you are someone with good programming skills with real-world business-related problem-solving skills then working in the industry is the best option for you. Moreover, if you have internship experiences while your undergraduate studies then it’s easy to get into the industry because what the industry expects from you most are skills and experience. However, before finding a position in the industry, it’s better to research the trending job positions current job market.
Making money and having decent life is one of the most compelling results of entering the industry because with a few years of experience you could get a far better income. Moreover after getting the business knowledge you are able to start a small startup which will be an additional income for you.
Opportunities
When considering the opportunities in the industry you could be able to work as a team. So the responsibility and the workload are low when comparing to academia. Moreover, you would be able to develop technical skills and climb up the ladder easily. The most delightful feature in the industry is if you show your skills you can easily be promoted.
If you have the opportunity to work for a multinational organization, then you also get the opportunity to get free travel all around the world for the works related to the organization. In addition, most of the computer science-related organization gives lots of other benefits to their employees such as annual trips…etc.
Balancing Working and Life
While you are in the industry, you can have a balanced working life, unless there is a tight project. Plus, working in the industry means you only work from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, and the rest of the time, including weekends, you can spend with your family.
Financial Stability
Of course, working in the industry is much better from this perspective. In addition to your main position in the organization, you will have time to start a small business or do freelance work to earn extra money. However, I also want to emphasize: “Money is not life.”
To find out the open and trending job positions in the industry you can have a look at LinkedIn and the following two websites.
Conclusion
According to the readings and my mentor having a stable goal is essential. Further, explain, you have to decide who you should be in future and you have to answer the question why you choose this career. After having a solid goal you have to work hard to achieve that. It doesn’t matter if you go for higher studies or join the industry .. Do your best in the field that you chose and it will bring you success.
In conclusion, after you join the industry and then you realize you should do your higher studies..of course, you can change your career path and vice versa. But the only concern would be your age and you have wasted your time… So what I mainly learned from my mentor and readings is to do the right thing at your right age and have a well-managed plan with a proper backup.
I think this will be a good startup for Undergraduates who are struggling to decide their career path. If you have any thoughts on this plz let me know.
Good Luck 😉
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