| I have never had the experience of working for any of the FAANGs. But I have worked for several multinational big-name corporations. Much later in my career I decided to take a sabatical and do a PhD in software engineering. I expected it to take 3 years, it took 8 (some of it on part-time basis). I studied and live in Australia. The situation in California USA is reputed to be far more advantageous. From what you write, I suspect you are in Germany. The top German universities have very high standards and a focus on mathematical rigour in most areas of software research. My observations are: Teaching is hard work. Preparing lesson plans, drafting assignments and exams, marking assignments and exams and completing the myriad of bureacracy. You can easily spend 2-3 times more time on it outside of the classroom. And you don't get paid for those hours, only the "contact hours". If you persue an interest from your working career experiences, it might be very hard to get a surpervisor who can relate to the industry side of your work. Popular research areas form cliques. Negative results are buried, so it's easy to go down the wrong path because it looks obvious, yet nobody has written it up so it's like a bear trap you walk into. You are expected to publish several papers in "important journals / conferences", the very same ones that seasoned academics have trouble getting published in. Yet, you as a newcomer, are expected to meet the same standards. You might be lucky if your supervisor is well regarded in your field. But second authorship is often not highly regarded. Publish or Perish - starts from your PhD days and continues until you retire if you choose to go down the path of academia. There is a great deal of competition for academic jobs, so the chances employment in that area are dismal. You actually diminish your employment prospects if you decide to return to industry. Being "over-qualified" becomes a very real issue. Have been an adjunct lecturer (part-time before starting my PhD and during it). It's not well paid for the hours you actually work. And you can have your courses dropped with just a few days notice if enrollment targets are not met. You have to remember that you develop the course material on your own time and without getting paid for it. Of course, there are existing course materials. The tenured academics tend to grab those courses because they require far less work. The adjuncts are left with the courses that nobody else will touch. Oh, last but not least, between 50% and 70% of PhDs are abandonded. ABD: "All But Dissertation" is an all too common outcome. BUT, there are positives: It is an amazing personal development adventure. As difficult as it is, once you graduate you will feel that it was all worth it for the experience and sense of accomplishment. As long as you research something that you have a strong interest in, then you scratch a very personal itch and become the world expert (at least for a short-time) on that topic. |