Academia and Industry both have pros and cons. When going over the lecture what stood out to me is that Academia was low pay with more freedom while Industry is more pay with less freedom. I had a hard time deciding which area I would be interested in because I would like a job that has good work life balance, but I want a job that I can enjoy and pays well. When going over the list of professions I knew the list for Academia did not sound too appealing. The description for the professions in Industry were more suitable of things I would actually enjoy. The salary for some of the professions and the ability to always have a job is a plus. 

As I begin a new career path in genetic medicine believe taking the industry route for medical device development best suits me. When it comes to making products to be sold on the market for commercial use, it is important to remain objective. Even through an idea for a medical device may sound promising and may yield a lot of benefits. If the device is not easily implemented or isn’t cost effective, than there is no way it could be successful implemented within the market. From a developer stand point it is important to make sure devices are safe to use for consumes just as making your target population as realistic access to the device. 

I have worked in industry for the past 9 years. My professional titles include technician, assistant research scientist, service engineer and applications engineer. The last title is my current title and I support companies in industry and academia. The needs of companies in industry vary slight from academia. In my experience, I support academia clients by understanding their process used in the lab thoroughly and providing products that can be used with multiple applications or solely one. However, my clients in industry are more interested in investing into their lab and scaling their process. I prefer working in industry as I can expand my experience with different applications used in industry and I can learn about the different industry trends in real time. I have found that academia can be limiting as it depends on funding and scope of the institution. 

My preference is industry work. One of the main aspects of industry careers that everyone should be aware of is the strong financially oriented goals. Typically these goals determine the pace of the workspace in terms of procedures and deadlines. In academia, there can be a lot of politics and management when it comes to grants and funds. As opposed to industry careers where your financial security is determined based on work performance. A career on the industry side will attract individuals who work well within teams.

Although my personality traits would fit in academia, my life goals are more suited for industry. I enjoy helping people, I'm curious, and enjoy challenging tasks. However, my life goals are to directly helping people and make comfortable salary doing so. I am currently working in industry, and I am confident that I'm where I need to be. I rather not be a head of academic departments and get tenure. I do not want to apply for grants and publication. These are admirable acheivements but I think I would like accolades in industry. Being in leadership positions and receiving internal and financial promotions are desirable to me. 

When deciding between academia and industry, both the financial compensation and the long-term benefits need to be reviewed. Industry will give a significantly greater paycheck but lacks the tenure that academia offers. Working in certain industries, the work is mainly consumer based and you are not able to work on your own projects and test your own creative ideas. Other industries offer their employees to give ideas and work on their own project as long as they fit with the companies' specific initiatives. In academia on the other hand, individuals are able to write proposals over their innovative idea, gets grants, and test their theories. 

Personally, as I currently work in the industry of manufacturing, partially being medical devices, I can foresee myself staying. I enjoy being able to devote my time to more specific projects, and help customers figure out better ways to produce their products. One other reason I prefer industry is there are multiple position that I can hold, and I am not stuck doing the same thing throughout my career. Also, with the correct methods of saving and investing, there are plenty of ways to be financially stable for life.

Thank you for your question. After grad school, everyone has the same question. In the first lecture. I read about the duties in academia and industry. Both jobs have some advantage and disadvantages. However. i think a person should think which one is more suitable for him. For example, if any one wants freedom in his work then academia will be a good option for him. Since in academia professor can do whatever he wants and whenever he wants. On the other hand, if money is important for someone, then industry will be a more suitable option. Since industry job pays significantly more than academic jobs. 

Therefore, i think there is no exact answer to this questiom. Every person should think what they wants in their life and which job suits their personality. In this way, they can choose between academia or industry. 

Starting off, I'm willing to admit I am a lot more biased towards industry. I have had many working experiences in industry and the style of workflow matches to what I want out of MY career. That being said, I also understand that it's not for everyone and that there are a lot of advantages and disadvantages to being in either industry and academia. While in academia, once you're graduated and in your career you are able to write grants and study things that are of interest to you and your collaborators, you are more in the forefront of research and have flexibility to study all of that. In industry things are a lot more restricted and based off the needs of the company but one thing that's good is that when you're applying to jobs they give you an overview of the research so if you're interested in that type of work already it isn't much of a chore to get into.

I'm doing PhD now and I still hope there is a position such that you can get the industry salary but do not have to do the job of "begging for funding" like in the academia. That's pretty much the only thing I don't like about staying in the academia, since you really have to just keep writing and proposing to get funding, not only for yourself but also for the lab in general: the people, the students and the devices etc. But given that I have been studying ever since, I am just a bit scared to think of going out into the industry, do anyone think I will be in a great disadvantage? Also, I learned that even when you have a patent when you're in academia, you earn nothing but the title of the owner, and your organization get all the financial benefits from it, isn't that crazy? 

At 31 years old, with only Academia work experience so far, I still don't think I have the answer to this question. There are a ton of things I love about working in academia:

Work/Life Balance - Deadlines are for the most part semi-flexible, very easy to change work arrangements around if issues outside of work arise, and I have not experienced too much "crunch" or unreasonably long work hours

Interesting Work - I get to constantly learn by doing literature research and using new technologies

However there are some things that are not ideal, mostly the pay structure and the length of time/education needed to move up the ladder.

I hope that this course will help me gain some more knowledge on the industry experience, to help me decide if it would fix some of the issues I have with academia work while not losing all of the benefits.

-Mike

The choice between academia and industry depends on personal goals. As a PhD student, I view academia as a long-term exploration, while industry can provide a shorter path to achieving goals. In academia, passion for deep investigation and the ability to work independently over long-term projects are necessary steps that people should consider before building their careers. On the other side, in the industry, characteristics like collaboration and adaptability are more crucial. It cannot be easy for employees with other mindsets to reach their personal goals in this environment.

It is clear that both academia and the industry are fruitful and innovative parts of biomedical engineering. During my undergraduate career at NJIT, I was exposed to the realm of academia, where professors, researchers, and research assistants would perform experimental research. During my junior year, I worked as an intern at a biomedical engineering program, and I immediately fell in love with all the facets of the industry I was exposed to. The various departments - research and development, production, quality - just to name a few, offered a holistic approach to the biomedical engineering world. I believe I am more inclined to work in this sector of the industry. There is upward job mobility, more interaction with other engineers and authoritative bodies, such as the FDA. I understand that the research done in academia can lead to the development of a product that is brought to market, but the industry is more appealing in the crossing of disciplines that occur. 

Since graduating from my Undergraduate college, I’ve gained experience in the industry. While I explore the various positions out there, I think I’d prefer a career as an Engineer in the Industry. I prefer having a career with a corporate style structure, while an Academia life would be overwhelming to balance the amount of projects to take on my own. An Industry career also provides a work life balance that an Academia career would likely not.