Why It’s Better To Be A Research Scientist In Industry Than In Academia (It’s More Than The Money)

For years, I grinded my pipetting thumb to the bone at the bench in academia.

I spent nearly a decade as a graduate student and a postdoc working mostly alone.

I worked on a project in graduate school and a project during my postdoc.

Some days I would do many experiments, filled with a sense of urgency thinking that this year I might graduate, or this year I might finally transition into an industry job.

Other days I would putter along, going at my own pace because I was stressed or depressed by how slowly my career was moving forward.

I was never quite clear on where I was going in academia.

I was never clear on whether or not I was making progress either.

Tangible feedback from the principal investigator and department head was few and far between.

There was no real ladder to climb and no real measurable goals.

Do a postdoc, eventually. Become a professor, eventually. Keep doing experiments.

These were the only guideposts I had in academia.

Finally, I made a decision to leave academia behind and get a job in industry as a research scientist.

It took me a while to figure out how to start getting interviews for R&D positions but eventually I was going to interviews every week.

At this point, I knew getting an entry-level job was imminent.

But now I had a new problem.

What would working in industry be like?

Would I be able to adapt to a completely new environment?

After all, I had been in academia my whole life.

I had an academic mindset and even though I knew things were different in industry, I didn’t know exactly how they were different.

Most of my friends had been working in industry for years and years.

I was getting a very late start compared to them.

The questions came into my mind over and over again.

Would things be better in industry?

It wasn’t until I was hired at Estée Lauder as a research scientist that I learned just how different (and better) it was to work at the bench in industry versus working at the bench in academia.

Working At The Bench In Industry Versus Academia

There are too many academic research scientists.

According to a report by Nature, the number of academic research scientists jumped by 150% between 2000 and 2012 in the U.S. alone.

But the number of tenured and other full-time faculty positions has plateaued and, in many places, declined.

Of the more than 40,000 U.S. postdocs in 2013, almost 4,000 had been so for more than 6 years.

Can you imagine doing a postdoc for 6 or more years?

Again, there are too many academic research scientists.

But there’s not enough research scientists in industry.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, industry employment of biotechnology and biopharmaceutical scientists is projected to grow 13% from 2012 to 2022.

The population as a whole is increasingly reliant on technology and pharmaceuticals.

The population is also becoming more affluent, allowing for more spending on medicine.

As a result, industry employers need PhD-level research scientists.

The problem is that few PhDs know how to get hired into industry R&D positions and even fewer know what life will be like once they’re hired.

I had both of these problems until I joined the Cheeky Scientist Association.

The Association taught me what I needed to know to get hired and has continued to support me in my industry career.

As a member, I get access to the Association’s materials and private group for life, which is a big advantage.

Why Working As An Industry Research Scientist Is Better

Industry research scientists still actively work at the bench.

They are responsible for many different experiments and projects.

If you want to escape the bench then do NOT transition into a research scientist role.

Instead, transition into one of these other top 20 industry positions.

But if you enjoy benchwork and just want to be paid better, a research scientist position is for you.

As an industry research scientist, you will get to do meaningful benchwork and be paid well.

Yes, you can have both.

Not only can you be paid well and do meaningful work, but you can also work with a supportive team in a supportive environment.

There are many advantages to working as an industry research scientist over an academic research scientist.

The money is nice, but there are many other benefits.

Here are the 3 biggest advantages of working as an industry research scientist versus an academic research scientist…

1. Your progress is measured accurately and consistently based on performance.

Career advancement in academia is a black box.

You never really know how you are performing and you get very little feedback.

This is because the only things that are valued in academia are the number of years you’ve accrued in the system and the number of publications you have your name on.

Occasionally you’ll hold journal clubs, lab meetings, and thesis, postdoc, or even tenure meetings, but these all amount to little more than someone telling you to do more experiments faster.

Is there any worse way to measure progress?

If you’re a good little researcher and stay in the system for an extra year, you might make an extra few hundred dollars the following year.

Wow, thanks.

As a result of academia’s foggy measuring tape, many graduate students are forced to spend 10 years or more working towards their degree and many PhD graduates are forced to spend 6 years or more postdoc-ing.

It’s a disaster.

The root cause of this is the complete lack of enforcement Universities and other institutions show to their academic advisors and principal investigators.

Professors and academic administrators in management positions are rarely held responsible for promoting the progress of their graduate students and postdocs.

This is not the case in industry.

In industry, your performance on assigned work and shared goals is used to accurately measure your progress.

Your performance is also used for determining promotions, salary increases, and bonuses.

Not only this, but there are specific people designated for measuring your progress and they are actually held accountable to it.

As a research scientist in industry, you will report to a manager who will be responsible for advancing your team’s goals and the company’s vision overall.

To this end, at the beginning of every fiscal year, you will write a Performance Development Plan (PDP), or similar, with clear business and personal goals.

These goals must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Result-Oriented and Time-Bound, also known as SMART goals.

Your goals will represent specific projects that take advantage of your specific skills.

Finally, you will rate your goals according to the possibility of achieving them by the end of the year (as estimated by you).

The PDP represents your effort to write down strategic goals aimed at an end result.

The PDP is also a symbolic “checklist” that allows both you and your manager to stay focused and aligned with the company’s vision of growth.

Most importantly, it helps you and your manager stay aligned in terms of timelines and expectations overall.

Progress is tracked throughout the year, including a mid-year and end-of-year review where you and your manager will check the status of your goals and what progress you’ve made on each.

The mid-review provides the perfect time to modify goals that are not advancing and report potential pitfalls.

If your end-of-year review shows strong progress and the completion of key results, you can get prematurely promoted and receive an increase in salary or bonus.

The important takeaway here is that you know exactly how you are doing at all times.

Your goals, your manager’s goals, and the company’s goals are aligned, which helps manage expectations.

Don’t underestimate the motivational power of this kind of clarity and feedback.

It’s powerful and it leads to a much happier personal and professional lifestyle.

2. You are rewarded for being a leader and showing initiative.

In academia, your project can drag on forever.

Some days, it feels like you’re just going in circles.

Yet, no matter how dire your project seems, you must continue to work on it.

This is because most academic projects are attached to long-term grants and your principal investigator must continue to collect relevant data, even if YOU know the project is a dead-end.

Working on a project you know is going nowhere is exhausting.

This kind of work eats away at you until you’ve completely lost your motivation.

It’s something all academics have faced at one time or another and it’s the main reason why so many PhDs end up poor and unhappy.

The academic system teaches you to be passive.

The system teaches you to follow what everyone else is doing.

Instead of encouraging you to differentiate yourself, you’re told to tow the line—to do the next experiment in line with the grant’s objectives, even if the grant is 5 years old.

In industry, however, you will work with a very fast work pace and be expected to deliver accurate results quickly.

This is a good thing. It’s even enjoyable.

The reason working at a faster pace is enjoyable is because you are working with a team whose goals are aligned with your goals.

It’s also enjoyable because you are rewarded for finding better ways of doing things.

If you take the initiative to improve the workflow of a system, improve a product, or make any part of the company better—you’re rewarded.

The more confidently you take initiative, the more you are rewarded.

This is very difficult for most academics to understand.

How can initiative be so valuable? How can confidence be valuable?

The answer, in short, is—time is money.

Not only that—relieving pain is money and boosting team morale is money.

The more time you give back to your boss, like by making a particular workflow more efficient, the more you are rewarded.

Likewise, the easier you make your boss’s life and the happier you make your team, the more you are rewarded.

True leaders are promoted quickly in industry. This isn’t always the case in academia.

3. You are part of a supportive and structured work environment.

One of the biggest problems with working in an academic lab is that you feel very alone.

Sometimes, there’s too much independence in academia.

For example, when you’re a fifth year graduate student and your academic advisor won’t support you.

Or when you’re in the middle of your second postdoc and your principal investigator hasn’t been in the lab in three months.

In these situations, it’s easy to feel like you’re completely alone.

It’s easy to forget why you’re even working in science.

What’s the point of my project? Does anyone care? Why am I here?

As a result, your morale drops and your career loses momentum.

On top of all this, you never really know where your career is headed in academia.

For PhDs, the academic ladder consists of being a graduate student, postdoc, or professor.

That’s it.

All that distinguishes one graduate student, postdoc, or professor from another is the number of years they’ve been working.

As an industry research scientist, or as a professional in any of these non-academic careers, you are NOT alone and you know EXACTLY where you’re going.

In industry, every scientist has their own project. At the same time, ever scientist helps each other with their projects.

They don’t just help in the academic way by letting you borrow a little bit of a reagent or showing you where the cold room is.

They really help you.

Everyone is trained to support each other.

In fact, the ability to work well independently AND as part of a team is the main requirement of getting a job as a research scientist in industry.

Industry teams are not only very supportive, they are highly structured.

To start, an entry level research scientist works to get promoted first to Senior Scientist and then to Scientific Director.

Scientific Directors are people who have a strong ability to manage different projects and support team members.

These people are rewarded by having other research scientists report directly to them.

Scientific Directors are responsible for both managing the laboratory and liaising with the local and global R&D, Regulatory Affairs, and Legal departments, as well as external vendors.

Scientific Directors report to Executive Directors who report to company Vice Presidents.

Executive Directors have in-depth knowledge of the company’s values, goals, and strengths.

They know how to effectively navigate and manage different internal departments as well as external entities.

Executive Directors travel first class or business class and work to establish long-lasting collaborations with other companies, vendors, and suppliers around the world.

These directors often sit on company advisory boards alongside company Vice Presidents and Senior Vice Presidents.

Each company Vice President is effectively a spokesperson for an entire arm of the company.

These people excel at translating science from bench to product and are masters of every aspect of bringing a product to market, supporting customers, gaining favor of key opinion leaders, and more.

Overall, there is a clear and defined corporate ladder in industry. The key to climbing this ladder is to take initiative and show leadership skills whenever possible. This means going out of your way, without being asked, to improve company systems and to relieve your boss and the company in general of tedious work. By achieving your goals and staying aligned with the company goals, you can move your career forward past the research scientist position and on to bigger and better roles.

If you’re ready to start your transition into industry, you can apply to book a free Transition Call with our founder Isaiah Hankel, PhD or one of our Transition Specialists. Apply to book a Transition Call here.