The closest I’ve come to working in academia was at the NJIT CHEN building for about 2 years, where I simply assisted PhD students in their research. Now this position was not a career by any means, but it did provide a sense of pursuing a path in an academic environment. The main advantages would be the flexibility of one’s personal schedule that essentially allows one to make their own hours. For example, I would work only on the 3 days of the week that I had classes rather than be obligated to come in at consistent hours. This can save on time commuting to campus, which is beneficial since a lot of analytical work can be done from home. One of the top professions in academia, as mentioned in lecture, is becoming a teacher/professor, which does require one to attend the class’ meeting times but is more high-paying than other academia careers and is still less of a time-commitment than a 40-hour work week. Another benefit of academia is the possibility of making a breakthrough discovery and being one of the first to say you were present when it happened. Unfortunately, since being credited in academic research is unlikely, it may draw aspirants away from the field.

I have been working in biotech industry full-time for over two years at both large and small companies and can say that I personally prefer working in industry over academia due to personal preference. The higher pay is without a doubt, one of the prime benefits of industry, and from my experience, your job security is stable as long as you maintain a proper work ethic (being on-time, being respective to all coworkers, providing your full undivided attention, not making mistakes/errors, etc). Being punctual with attendance is taken more seriously in industry of course, but that requirement applies even on days that the company is not running production of any sort (meaning you get paid for essentially doing nothing, whereas you can work yourself into a coma in academia and not see anything close to a similar payoff).