Beyond the Ivory Tower

The Waiting Is Over

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By Sarah Maxwell

You might say I got scooped; I think I was robbed. I only found out when a colleague kindly mentioned that a research project I have spent months trying to get grant support for was the topic of a paper presented at a recent clinical conference; it got a nice award there, too. At least the idea was a good one.

The conference presenter hailed from a research group just down the road from my own Midwestern university, where I am an assistant professor in a medical school. Then I learned that the company that had financed the research behind this award-winning paper was the same company that I had approached months ago to support my project.

Initially, that company had seemed very excited about my idea and then I had heard nothing further. Apparently, the company was known to have worked with that other research group in the past. Hmm.

I got back to my office and cried. Why was I in academe again?

Then I did something that I know you should never do when you're upset: I e-mailed someone. No, I didn't fire off an angry message to the company that seemingly "borrowed" my idea. Instead I e-mailed an old lab mate who now worked for an engineering consulting company in the Mid-Atlantic region. I had a few questions for him: Did he like his industry job? Would he be willing to work at that company for five years? Ten years? Until they shoveled dirt on his coffin? What did he do there, exactly?

Three days later I had calmed down enough to regret sending the e-mail. My supervisor had shrugged off the "borrowed" project issue stating that competition in research happened all the time. No one could cover every aspect of any area so we would just tailor the project to areas not covered. I was feeling better and moving forward with my idea. Was leaving academe for an industry job really a conversation I wanted to have -- now or ever?

Then my industry friend replied to my lengthy message with one of his own. He answered all of my questions and urged me to call him. When I did, we talked for more than an hour about what it was like to work for his company. He said the place was run like a law firm so I had to learn what "billable hours" meant.

A few days later, he e-mailed again to say that he had mentioned our chat to his boss, who now wanted to talk to me. That led to a conversation with his boss and then to another with the head of the company's biomechanics department. Within a couple of weeks, I had a job interview scheduled; guess industry does move fast. I decided to play along.

My husband, who had moved to a new region with me after I finished my Ph.D., and then moved with me again after my first postdoc, was not too happy initially about the prospect of relocating one more time. After he calmed down, however, he and I both began to like the idea. We could move from our large Midwestern city, where we didn't know too many people, back to the mid-Atlantic area, where we have many friends and family.

To get ready for my interview, I scoured around for information about consulting. I found out that some consultants travel extensively. When I asked another friend about his consulting job, he said he loved the work and traveled three to four weeks every month. That's the entire month, in my opinion. I have a small son at home and a husband who already thinks I work late too frequently. So taking a new job that involved traveling Monday through Thursday practically every week was not going to work.

I also looked into the delicate matter of salary. My friend at the company where I interviewed said the range for a person with my qualifications would be $85,000 to $90,000. (Picture me on the floor upon hearing that figure).

While I was surprised by the amount, I had expected that industry would pay more than academe. What I didn't know was how companies handled future raises. Were you stuck with a basic 2-to-3 percent raise every year? When you got promoted, did you get a raise?

(I had already run into problems on that front in academe. I didn't get a raise when I was promoted from postdoc to assistant professor and I knew of a few others in my department whose promotions were only "on paper," too. Eventually, thanks to the joys of grant writing, I learned that I was being paid less than a research technician in the lab and that my salary didn't even come close to that of other assistant professors in the department. After a few conversations with my department chairman and other administrators, I got a raise after a year to $60,000, or around the 25th percentile for assistant professors in my clinical department, but by then, I had already started to look around for other academic positions.)

I guess I knew that I was serious about leaving academe when I actually asked people to be references for me. I had never publicized my past job searches outside my family. I don't know why I changed my attitude this time.

Maybe because the job was not a pure research position and that appealed to me. Maybe I was tired of working mainly by myself in the lab. Maybe academe was not the best choice for me and it had taken me years to figure that out. Having my research project stolen had just been a catalyst.

I wasn't the only person surprised by my decision to interview with a company. My graduate adviser and my current supervisor reacted similarly to the news. First they said some variation of "Really?" Then they asked me if I was sure I wanted to leave academe because it would be hard to return.

In the end, both wished me luck and said they would support whatever decision I made. Those were good conversations.

The job interview went well, too. Everyone at the company seemed very relaxed and happy to be there. There were pictures of children displayed on desks and each office was personalized by the occupant -- and had windows. A few people came to the company from academe and were willing to talk about their experiences. The main changes they perceived? The corporate world had more deadlines and the clients controlled the project timelines.

As for travel, I learned that consultants at the company did not travel too frequently, especially at the beginning of their time there, and even the more experienced consultants rarely traveled overnight.

Now with an offer in hand (remember I'm operating on industry time, not academic time), my family is gearing up to move back East.

Am I doing the right thing? I don't know. I have heard from many sources that getting back into academe from an industry job is really difficult. But I have also heard from an equal number that it probably is not as hard as some people say.

The question is, after going to the "dark side," will I even want to come back?