[cerrelio]

I took two breaks from tech. One was for grad school, which I dropped out of after 3 semesters. Like some others in the thread I found academia to be pretty bad. You're paid shit and treated like a peon. The work was actually interesting, but I knew I could just go back to private industry and make 5-10x as much doing the same type of work.

I took a break from "everything" at one point and became a nightlife photographer in a large urban area. It didn't pay much. It mostly involved drinking and doing drugs, on someone else's dime, until the early morning. It was a great time for the most part, and I met lots of interesting people. After about 6 months I got tired of it and went back to tech. Note: having a professional camera in a club is a great way to meet women.

I'm considering leaving tech again, or at least ending my engineering career. I no longer find it personally enjoyable to build systems. Building systems that other people want, instead of ones I'd want to build, has jaded me. I've worked at several companies, large and small, over the years. And I've found that as a tech shop matures, that exciting feeling of creating a product dulls. It dulls to the point of becoming anesthetic. The longer you stay, the worse it becomes. I wouldn't mind staying in the tech field. I just don't want to spend all day in front of a monitor anymore.

[rifung]

> The work was actually interesting, but I knew I could just go back to private industry and make 5-10x as much doing the same type of work.

Don't you have much more freedom in academia on what you want to pursue though since it doesn't have to make money or am I mistaken? I'm considering going into academia because I'd like to do research more on the theory side for which there don't seem to be (m)any industry positions.

[cerrelio]

Short answer: no.

Long answer: Yes, if you can find a PI/project that's solving the exact problem you want to solve.

The work doesn't have to make money, but it has to make papers. And if your publications aren't landing in high profile journals, your funding (and career) will dry up.

[ewjordan]

You'll have freedom to do the things that are fashionable in your field which you are qualified to research and are popular in your department. That's very different from "what you want to pursue" in many cases.

If those things match up with your desires, it will be great, otherwise you're going to be seriously miserable and feel penned in by the work that you're "allowed" (for on-campus political reasons) to do. In a lot of ways industry actually affords more opportunities, depending on the field.

[bonniemuffin]

I didn't find that to be true. As a grad student and also as a postdoc, you work on whatever your PI can get grants for, which means you work on whatever the big grant-funding agencies think is fashionable.

Also in academia there's less ability to pivot when a project isn't working out -- if the results will be "novel" (i.e. you can get a paper out of it), you're pretty much stuck continuing in a line of work until you publish it, even if you've already concluded it won't be useful in the real world.

In industry, as soon as I determine that a piece of work won't be useful, I can drop it and work on something more useful. Personally, I much prefer the criteria of "usefulness" as a reason to continue a project, rather than "novelty". Other people may differ on that preference.

[kennethcwilbur]

Autonomy in academia depends entirely on the field, the funding situation, and the advisor. If you choose wisely, you can build a highly autonomous career. But it is hard for the inexperienced to figure out how to make the right choices.

[beachstartup]

have you ever tried technology sales? i can turn on the social charm like a light switch but it requires significant effort so i wasn't able to do it long term but it might be a good transition for you.

[cerrelio]

I was considering that. I don't have any sales background, but I can communicate what's good and bad about software/systems fairly easily. In my career I've also had to "sell" complex ideas to management, and I've had pretty good success in getting permission to execute those ideas. Interacting with people can tire me out though. Nevertheless, I can power through anything with the proper motivation.

I'm currently trying out management, but the management atmosphere at my company is pretty bleak. None of the managers seem genuinely interested in launching products. They just kind of kick cans down the road for a few years hoping to fail upward. Over the past two years I've seen effective managers leave the company while the mediocre ones stick around. I probably just need to explore companies whose work ethic suits me better. However, it's hard to know beforehand if the company/team you join is going to fit you.

The other option is starting/founding a company. To explore that I've been going to monthly alumni events to network. There's so much money being thrown around in the Bay Area, I might as well try to tug on the brass ring. And it's not entirely the money that's the attraction, but the opportunity to call the shots.

[akegalj]

> They just kind of kick cans down the road for a few years hoping to fail upward

Never heard this one before. Really made me laugh. Thank you

[wil421]

How do you make the transition? I can turn on the charm and getting tired of corporate IT.

I know a couple people who've done it but they always knew a former co worker who got them jobs.

I was thinking sales or sales engineer.

[beachstartup]

interview for open positions. ask your friends if their companies are hiring. be honest, tell them you want to transition.

but ... i mean, if you can't sell yourself into a job, you're not going to be doing much sales.

[nitrogen]

As someone with basically zero talent for salesmanship, from my outside perspective I'd describe the sales process (and thus the process of getting a sales job) as anticipating, identifying, or manufacturing a need in someone, and positioning yourself to fill that need. So I imagine the parent commenter could use that to decide if/how to transition to sales.

[beachstartup]

that's marketing + sales but yeah, a small organization 'sales person', or an above-median good one that works in a large organization will have to understand (or even do) both.

[ttoinou]

How did you became a nightlife photographer ?

I did photograph for one night and it was pretty hard to prevent people from spilling theirs drinks on my camera :S how did you handle that ?

[cerrelio]

Cocaine makes you very vigilant.

I became a photographer because I had some friends who were socialites and had VIP access to clubs. Their various club owner friends liked my photography, so I just started showing up with my camera all the time and I'd get in free and drink all night.