[Korayabi90]

I want to know what you think about academic career.
I'm doing a research.
Why would you like to pursue an academic career?
I would appreciate it if you explain it briefly.

I'm going to ask a short question.
What is your academic career in research?
In other words, the first aim of academic career is to teach engineering to new engineers.
But I am wondering, what an academic career means when doing research?

Thank you for your attention.

[Gweher]

Hi Koray,


Well it depends what you would like to do. I think that the best way is to try out both research environments and see which fits best with your professional/personal goals. It’s difficult to cover all the aspects with advantages / drawbacks but in a nutshell I would say that in Academic you’re research is often more “in-depth” as you have more “time” to go into details / theory. On the other hand in industrial world you’re on the payroll to deliver “end-products”, it’s more applied and you may not have time to optimize and cover all the aspects that you would like to.


In general I would qualify the research in the Academic as being more oriented towards “fundamental” research and in the industry towards “applied” research. In academic you’re often at the forefront of research and the “discovery” will later be used as common knowledge in the industry (this can take some years though). In the industry you can already work on optimizing / developing new products that could also be at the forefront in the research field but not axed on the discovery of fundamental research. This doesn’t mean that the opposite is not true.


Moreover, if you like to teach you can do it in both environments, it’s more straightforward if you’re in the Academic world but it’s also common to give lectures as an external lecturer working full time in the industry. I personally found a perfect balance with an applied research institution where I’m working on more fundamental problems but also on technology transfer to the industry with end-user products. I have the chance to cover both aspects (50/50) and I love my working environment / research topics.


Hope this gave you some insights and wishing you best of luck in your decision.


Gwenael

[cdegroot]

Originally Posted by Korayabi90

I'm going to ask a short question.
What is your academic career in research?
In other words, the first aim of academic career is to teach engineering to new engineers.
But I am wondering, what an academic career means when doing research?

Although you’d think that the first aim of an academic career is teaching, this couldn’t be further from the truth in most universities. While most professors do teach, it is hardly important in the evaluation of their performance. Their success is primarily judged by the grant money they bring in and the publications they put out. In addition to running a company, I am also a professor, so I do speak from first hand experience.

[HPE]

I think pursuing PhD is an excellent decision. Yet pursuing academic career might not be as easy and advisable: high competition in the market, and relatively low wages in comparison to the industry.

There will be myriad of opportunities, and paths you will discover during PhD and towards the end of it.

So my suggestion is first get a PhD position in the best possible university in your field, and best and YOUNG possible PhD adviser.