[david_l_lin]

>you will get paid SIGNIFICANTLY less than you would doing almost anything else

Definitely true.

>have zero autonomy

Might be true? But in the right research group, this is definitely not true. I actually find that I had far more autonomy in academia than in industry. There are far fewer deadlines, less time pressure, and more curiosity-driven projects that are entirely owned by you.

>and get no respect

Might be true, but I find a lot of people in industry feel they get no respect as well. As an academic, I actually found that I respected academics more than I did people in industry. Though this is entirely anecdotal.

I was an academic until my 30s before going to industry, and actually find that the autonomy is the number one reason people like academia. YOU drive the projects because only YOU know the research that deeply. YOU get to be at the forefront, and YOU know things nobody else might ever know, until you get to share them through publications and presentations. Academic projects have essentially no deadline (projects are on multi-year long timescales rather than quarters or months in industry).