It seems that the two different paths would attract people who are of different mind sets.

The argument that attracts me to academia is being on the cutting edge of new knowledge. Being the first person to discover something and to be able to publish it under my name is something that sounds quite nice to me. But I have spent some time working in an academic research lab. Whilst the actual conducting of the research was incredibly captivating to me, what came after was quite the opposite. The slow pace of the whole “industry” of academia is unappealing to me as a whole, and I have found that applicable research is much more interesting to me. So the arguments for academia can be summarized, at least in my head as more stable.

That leads me to my arguments for industry. If you are like me and like that the landscape around you is changing constantly then the industry work is better. I have been working in industry as a co-op for a little over 3 months now, and whilst that is a limited scope of what industry is like, I feel like I can understand a small portion of how industry functions. But the main difference is the focus. Academia is focused on discovery where as industry is focused on money. The whole environment is different from my experience. Industry is so much faster because every company want to bring the next big thing to market.

The main difference I have seen between the two is the speed of the industry, so if you are someone who prefers a more slower paced more job “safe” environment then academia is for you. If you want something that is fast where you will be quickly rewarded for good hard work then industry is definitely better.

But at the end of it all we all need to make money to survive so what you like may fall by the wayside in the face of needing money. But that begs the question, is it worth it?