Outside of of the pros of industry salary and academia tenure, I would argue that there are certain pros and cons with the type of people and personalities you can expect to work with in industry and academia.

I believe many people in industry, especially upper management, is very “Type A”. These are your people who like to compete, need to have a set plan and prioritize, and take careful consideration of time management. When you are in industry, upper management tends to have this type of personality possible because of the sense of urgency of meeting deadlines, product launches, and satisfying stakeholders. I think the pro here is that, because of their driven competitive nature, these people are highly likely to succeed and if you are on a team that is led by this type of personality you can expect to accomplish what your goals are. The con here is that sometimes these people are very hard to work with because, from my experience, they tend to be stubborn.

From my time doing research as an undergraduate, I found that professors who are conducting research are more so “Type B”. These are your laid back, go with the flow, low stress people. This isn’t to say some professors aren’t “Type A” or a combination of the two, but professors are more concerned about grant money. They tend to move toward a “Type B” personality especially after becoming tenured. I think the pro here is that, working in academia isn’t as high stakes/job on the line as compared to industry. Because of this, there is wider margin of error, and you can be wrong on more than one occasion (Ex. Research fails and lost money) and still keep your job. Therefore, I believe this tends to lead to that “Type B” personality that academia offers. The con here is that, from my experience, with these teams, things can move slowly and its a lot of trial and error.