Pros & Cons of Working in Industry vs Academia

Hey STEM Baddie! How is everything going? Things have been very up and down over here, work has been slow but still stressful because of our very needy customer for the project I'm in charge of... And outside of work I still worry about my cat's health because he is throwing up pretty regularly lately and not eating as much again ): Please pray for my baby Kylo!!

So last Friday I went to a business/networking event in LA and had SO MUCH FUN!! It was hosted by the League of Originals, who work hard to bring together brands and build them up.

I met so many amazing people and some really cool local creators I want to collab with on events and freebies for you baddies, and also got a lot of free swag, food, and drinks. And I also learned a lot of new things about how to make a good website and helpful things like that. This inspired me to do a bit of a end-of-year rebrand and mix up the logo and website a teeny bit. Below you can see some of the designs I was deciding between before ultimately choosing the first one. I think the different fonts really stands out more and looks more mature and STEM-y. My bestie has other ideas and wants to add in some eggplant, so maybe we will do that next rebrand.

What do you guys think of the new look?

Our latest post on Insta has to do with looking at the two different sides of STEM that I have worked in thus far in my 5-year career: Working at a university and working at a big company. I loved both of them for different reasons and I think it's very helpful to hear from other people's points of views, especially if you are looking for a career change or are graduating soon!

Industry Pros:

• Money- I doubled my salary coming to this job. I also moved from AZ to CA, but still

• Could be more stable- I was a university employee at the U of Arizona but specifically for the NASA mission NEO Surveyor, so when they changed funding and schedule and ultimately nixed our lab, we were all out of the job

• More opportunities- There are (probably) more companies out there than universities and companies (probably) need more employees than schools need grad students/employees. Not 100% sure of course but this is the way it seems.

• Possibly more coworkers and more fun- I had TWO coworkers at UA. Here I have 200.

Industry Cons:

• Less benefits- My benefits at UA were AMAZING and I miss them so much. Could also be due to two different states but nonetheless I miss my health benefits.

• Very company-dependent some really suck (may be the same for schools also though)

Academia Pros:

• PTO- SO MUCH FREE TIME! My boss told us he does not care when we are there, as long as we get our work done. No charging hours. No need to take PTO for a long weekend vacation. Also a boss having trust in you is so nice.

• Freedom of schedule usually- Goes with the previous bullet but it definitely does not have to be a 9-5. This could be both good and bad, it's very easy to become a workaholic if you're working on cool stuff so remember work-life balance.

• Usually a learning environment with like minded individuals- Hugely different than where I am now. Some people are interested in learning more and improving, but the vast majority seem to be complacent and just here for a paycheck. It is quite sad. I love learning new stuff and trying to be involved and do more, that is not the norm here.

  
  

Academia Cons:

• Less money- Schools just have less money than big companies. But benefits are great and lots of time off, so depends on what you're looking for.

• Sometimes job description is not well defined bc you’re doing R&D.. which could be cool but also incredibly frustrating- I had NO IDEA what I was doing at my previous job! My tasks were incredibly vague and nebulous because everything was new. Here, we've been doing a lot of this stuff for a while so the job description is quite robust. But there's also that sense of R&D on certain things WHICH I LOVE.

So that's my (very limited) experience working in academia and industry. What do you guys think? Which one have you worked in and what's your experience like? I'd love to hear!