My question regards the career choice between academy and industry. I am now close to complete my master (only 1 year left), and I have to choose between doing a Ph.D at the Uni, like most people do, or get a job somewhere in the industry.
It is a couple of year that I have been thinking about this problem (I started with the idea of getting a Ph.D.) and I am now thinking that getting a job is the best option (financially speaking for sure, but also from the job satisfaction point of view). However I would like to get the opinion of more experienced people, and see if they agree with me. My reasoning include:
- Ph.D. is a financial suicide (3-4 years with a pay that here is just enough to pay the rent and utilities)
- Having had more experience with research at university, I can say that in many ways it looks pointless to me. People here are doing strange film on strange semiconductor surfaces for very vague goals. I do feel most physics research (and university research in general) is done by people that like playing with their research field for no reason other than they enjoy it. I do not feel like this. If I want to research something, I want to bring a contribution to the progress of humanity, an I feel I must have a goal and work toward it. I asked a professor what they do and he told me they do "spectroscopy just for fun". I cannot really get the mentality of this.
- I am now working part time in a internet company and even tough I find the task sometimes boring (I think every job has some of those), I enjoy it much more than going at the university, since it is "getting things done" rather than only study books and read research paper. Moreover it is easier to handle mentally, because when I'm done with working and I go home, I don't have to think about it any more. I can concentrate on other things (consider I have been writing my report for the uni labs for the past 4 weekends).
I would like to go ERE because this opens up possibilities (founding my own business, refining my DIY skills, travel, get involved in organizations like WWF, moving to another country, change job without worrying, etc), but I do realize it is not easy (may need many years of work, here salaries are lower, and in Italy still lower, than in the US). In particular I am a bit worried that after ERE my life would be pointless. So the question is, on the long term perspective, it is more meaningful to go into academy or industry?
I need some opinions on the above!