Even though I am a PhD student, I don't know if academic research is where I want to be long term. It's a big decision, but I think what it comes down to for me is grant writing. A huge part of being a successful academic researcher/professor is writing and earning grants. There is a lot more to being a good grant writer than being a thoughtful scientist. You have to be very comfortable with the more legal side of the profession and in some ways you end up as more of a writer and manager than a scientist. I don't want my success or failure in my career to be determined by how effectively I can write grants.
Industry has its share of legal roles related to research, but I believe I would be able to find a career path in industry that is not solely dependent on my writing abilities and legal understanding of the field.
Over the past 2 years, I realized that I prefer working in industry because of the job stability as well as knowing that there is already a "golden standard" set for the quality of work and how everything needs to be handled. Since most companies in this field are monitored by the FDA, there is a lot more stress to make sure you get things right, which could also mean that sometimes there are consequences when there is a trend of bad quality work or items. In the industry, sometime you could also get a lot of research aspects that are normally experienced in academia but that also depends on the types of job that the person is applying for.
I feel that one of the most important characteristics to have when working in the industry is to be detail-oriented. Many things you work on will either being going to patients or to hospitals, so to be detail-oriented is important for the quality of the product so that it could be delivered on time. These products, depending on the job, could be the deciding factor for whether someone can live a more normal life so I believe that you also have to be able to handle high stress situations when working in the industry as well.
I only have around 5 months of industry experience and I've come to realize that most likely, this is the field that I will enjoy the most. As others have mentioned, there is a standard that you must meet and for the most part, there are steps to handle it. To be completely honest with myself, I know that I am not the best at coming up with out of the box solutions to problems that may arise in a more academic/research based position. If I was to go the academic route, it certainly would not be in BME but probably in Math. I a a responsible person but it is still a little daunting to me that in the medical device industry, you could be responsible for a serious mistake depending on your position. I believe that as I gain more experience, this fear will subside. During my time as an intern, I saw how important it was to be detail-oriented, a characteristic "knm7" highlighted. For one project, I got some surface/intern level insight on CAPAs, more specifically the cross-referencing work that goes in to making sure everything is checked out when submitting change notices for updates or obsolescence of documentation.
I think a characteristic that is important for both fields is time management/prioritization. Chances are you are going to have around 5-10 assignments at a time, ranging in difficulty from simple tasks to more difficult or time consuming ones that may require approvals from other departments. From personal experience, I had change notices of different priority levels that I needed to decide when to efficiently work on them. If it was a hot notice that needed approval from several departments, I aimed to complete the updates at least 2 weeks from the deadline, providing ample time for the senior engineers and approvers to review the documents and provide any additional feedback (if any) before being sent over to Document Services. In this case, when I was working on proofreading Informational For Use documents, I would put that on the back-burner and focus on the hot change notice.
As a laboratory professional with a background in molecular biology research and industry experience, I've had the opportunity to work closely with professors, PhDs, and other leadership figures from all walks of life that have been mentors and great influences. From my experience and in speaking with other professionals, I don't think there are any specific traits or characteristics needed to work in one field over the other. I think the traits between the sectors closely resemble each other and include leadership qualities, some degree of creativity, effective communication, and being detail oriented. Whether choosing academia or industry, there will be varying levels of each quality needed to fulfill each profession.
Personally, I would prefer industry as I tend to thrive when provided with projects and deadlines. Academia seemingly offers more freedom with research opposed to process based projects while roles in industry provide structure.
I'm currently working in the medical device industry, and I agree with the above replies in that I personally prefer the stability and structure that comes with working in industry. You're often going to be working a 9-to-5 job, with clear projects and deadlines assigned to you from upper management. Someone who prefers a more flexible work schedule, and the freedom to deep-dive into a specific passion project would probably be better suited to academia. However, that freedom also necessitates a lot of personal responsibility - you don't have a project manager making sure you meet your goals like in industry, you are personally responsible for staying on track. But the positive is that you're not under as much pressure to get things done as soon as possible. So in general, I think academia is more for people who want freedom and industry is more for people who want structure, but of course the actual working experience is going to depend on the company culture.
Currently I am working in the industry, and as of now I believe that my long term career will remain in the industry. While doing research in academia is interesting to me, as mentioned above, a good portion of your time is spent doing paperwork rather than actual scientific testing. In order to secure funding, you have to fill out forms and compete with other researchers for the same funds you want. Thus, despite how much you really want to do research on a topic, if the university or sponsors do not approve of your research it may never come to fruition. As opposed to this, in industry, while you cannot do whatever you want, you can still pick a role that relates to an area that excites you. Research can also be done in industry as a R&D scientist. Therefore, while you may not have the same autonomy as in academia, you can still accomplish your goals in industry.
When being introduced to academia and industry medical device development we see pros and cons to both pathways depending on your interest. Professions in academia focuses more on conducting research in a scholarship structure while professions in industry is more business oriented , developing products, strategies, and business plans.Which profession would most fit your preferred job arrangement ? and what characteristic or trait does one need to work in either field?
Academia jobs are great for people who want to do their research and work on their schedule to get their work done. Industry jobs are suitable for people looking to get a guaranteed salary and be able to work with others and their schedules. In my opinion, I like academia jobs because you are your boss in the sense that you work on your own time and can have more free time if you get your job done. However, industrial jobs are better primarily because of the quick and guaranteed money, and in most cases, this is why most people choose industry instead of academia. Some traits one should have for the industry are time management and teamwork. Some characteristics of academia are time management, multitasking, and open-mindedness.
Personally, I am a Master’s student who has no industry experience but approximately 2 years of research experience. I plan to complete my master’s and then work in R&D for a few years before returning back to academia to begin my PhD. I have somewhat blindly hoped that the skills that I am learning through research would directly translate into the industry and help me get a job that I would be passionate about. From my personal experience I agree with knm7 when they say that an individual needs to be detail oriented when working in industry due to the high levels of risk and liability, however, I believe that it is also important for academic researchers to be detail oriented as well. I have personally handled antibodies that cost hundreds of dollars that are being used in quantities of microlitres. This level of work requires a high level of precision and focus.
I personally think that the biggest difference between academic research and industry research is that academic research strives to answer the most questions while industry research is attempting to work on the next big product that will boost their company. Academic research does not necessarily have the appropriate tools and funding in order to accomplish their research while in industry research the scientists are expected to work like machines and meet deadlines and quotas. I think that academic research is better catered to someone who knows how to answer the right questions while industry research is better suited for people who know how to work efficiently and problem solve.
I am a PhD student and love to do research. In Academia, there are a lot of options to do research independently and also, you have your own lab, so for research-oriented people, it will be exciting. Also in industry you can go to R&D if you like research which I prefer. As in industry mostly, there is fixed time and you don't have to think about research all the time like in academia. So, there may be more work-life balance. Though both have their own pros and cons. you have to choose according to your preference.
I think working in academia still has some problems and deadlines. I was a student in a lab with two funding projects when I still needed to prepare my thesis. We worked nothing different from a company sometimes because we were required to report to the company every three weeks. Although some days might be busy. It could be busy and flexible as we planned. Once we finish the company project report, we can use the rest of the time to process our own experience. I think the point of academic work is to find a balance between projects and research.
One of the differences between academics and industry is flexibility. People can choose any time to research and experience in the academic field. In the industry, people must follow the employer's requirements to finish the request before the deadline. However, some companies are practicing the possibility of a job responsibility system. If the amount of work doesn't increase, would the job responsibility system be an advantage for the industry compared with the academic?
Working in academics requires many skills like writing a thesis, teaching students in the lab, meeting with companies, competing with other professors for funding, leading the experiment, and holding a course in the university, which most costs the time. If people change their minds, which part of skills is most important for an academic worker who wants to change his route to the industry?
In my opinion, the major difference between academia and industry is, you are your own boss in academia while in industry you work for someone else. And for many people that could be a deal breaker. However, I see professors working 24/7 to be on top of his/her field of work and still under paid comparing to their industry colleagues. The most fascinating matter of academia is flexibility and owning your work. You are actually working on your own schedule in academia.
If you are passionate about research and “ research work “ doesn’t seems work to you then academia is the best fit. Again, if you are passionate about research but want a balanced life then you can go for industry. Yes, in academia you can keep work-life balance but to get on the top of your research field you generally need to work more than others. Personally, I am quite interested to be a part of any startup company after my PhD graduation. The reason is, it can allow me the ownership of my work just like academia.
When I was reading on the possibilities, I wondered if I could participate in both the academia and industry sides when it came to the development of medical devices. Given my interests, I believed that conducting research through a scholarship basis and also engaging with students who may have ideas that can be cultivated and added to the overall development process could be great networking as well as experiences for both the students and myself as a teacher and researcher. From the industrial standpoint, I would enjoy the clinical research aspect and allowing my research and my teams efforts in the development stages to make a different for my target demographic. Given that I am very much deadline oriented, I would thrive in the industrial setting, but I would make more of an impact in the academia area of work. With all of this being said, I would prefer to work in both and merge the two areas together and receive the maximum benefits that can be achieved in medical development.
