Key Similarities and Differences between Academia and Industry
Based
on my personal experience, other people who work in the industry may have different
points of view and experiences in this regard.
Intellectual
freedom and project ownership
During
my bachelor's, I was entirely responsible for coming up with ideas and carrying
out experiments to advance my project. There used to be rumors I'd heard while
in academia about industry research: that industry research is boring because
scientists do mundane and repetitive tasks and don’t get to lead their own
projects or contribute their own ideas to the projects they work on.
In
my experience, this rumor is completely false. Much like being in academia, I’m
leading my own research project, coming up with ideas, doing the experiments my
manager and I design together, and taking ownership of my own project and
progress.
Documentation
In
academia, it seems that every lab has its own way of keeping records. In my
experience, the most common method of documentation in academia is having a lab
notebook (electronic or written) and lab servers to upload your documents into.
However, it never seemed like everyone documented their research in the exact
same format, and the amount of detail included in the documentation varied from
individual to individual.
At
my current company, documentation is taken much more seriously. Everyone must
use the same electronic notebook with specific instructions on what information
to document and how to do it. Specific information must be filled in a table
for every strain generated and for every experiment done. Stains and even
specific experiments are given a unique ID, shared, and uploaded. Instead of
making frozen stocks for only my personal box, I have to make a minimum of one
batch of frozen stocks per strain so that they can be stored in the company’s
strain collection.
Collaboration
I
didn’t have much collaboration during my bachelor's, but I expect it for my
PhD, and I was responsible for doing most of the experiments and analysis. If I
didn’t know how to do something, there was a good chance I’d have to learn it
myself through trial and error. It can be very inefficient and time-consuming,
and it might be a better option to let other experts handle that part of the
work to push the project forward.
In
the industry, we need to constantly communicate and work together with
scientists with different areas of expertise to think of effective ways to
progress my project quickly. I’m still learning new skills and coming up with
protocols for my project, but it feels better knowing that I am working together
with experts and that I am not all alone during this uncertain process.
Although some academic research projects also have a lot of collaboration
involved, that was not my experience during my bachelor's, and I really enjoy
working together with scientists from different disciplines in my role.
Work-life balance
When
discussing the work hours and expectations for my industry role, I was actively
discouraged from working weekends. I have more paid time off in my industry
role than I did in my academic role. I was also encouraged to work the hours
that worked for me and not feel pressured to adhere to a specific schedule.
This surprised me because I had heard rumors about the lack of flexibility in
work hours in the industry.
nim_niii
| Nimalsha Hansani
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