I have never been micromanaged in any non-academic position. I’ve worked in software start up, arts/crafts, small biotech, large pharma.

In academia, I’d be restricted to writing grants, teaching, pursuing only the research I can secure grant funding for. Outside of it, I have the independence to truly pursue anything I want to do by only accepting jobs that I want to perform at organizations doing what I want to do (or starting one myself). Because I’m not tied into the tenure system, I am free to change this path at any time too.

I think of academia offering job security at extremely high personal cost (low pay for a long time, no control over location, family constraints and child delay, tenuous tenure prospects). And god forbid you decide you don’t like the job anymore; you get to start from scratch.

Industry through is career security; no one job matters as much as your overall trajectory. You earn more money faster which is critical to retirement building and family, you get control over where you live, and you can leave for something better at any time much easier. Its is a perspective shift that I don’t think folks who have never worked outside of academia can fully appreciate.

Academia = independence is a story told by those that ‘succeeded’ in a time when the prospects were much better, by people who never actually worked a business day in their lives to know otherwise. You won’t get the full story there.