Working in corp vs academia vs govt

[JennaB]

Has anyone worked in corp and academia for developer/technical roles? I was wondering which they liked more and why?

In academia, do you have really smart people, non-slacking and friendly/open? What can you accomplish in corp that you won't be able to in academia and vice versa?

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As an alternate question - corp vs govt? And same question for govt - smart people, non-slacking, friendly/open? What can you accomplish in corp that you won't in govt and vice versa.

Thx!

 

[Pyropyro]

Has anyone worked in corp and academia for developer/technical roles? I was wondering which they liked more and why?

In academia, do you have really smart people, non-slacking and friendly/open? What can you accomplish in corp that you won't be able to in academia and vice versa?

-------------------------------------------
As an alternate question - corp vs govt? And same question for govt - smart people, non-slacking, friendly/open? What can you accomplish in corp that you won't in govt and vice versa.

Thx!

I'm currently working in the academia. There are a lot of smart people and you'll do fine if you can live with a little weirdness... If you can handle people with Asperger's or ADHD then you'll be okay. As for slacking, people are usually hypercompetent and industrious. It's usually the non-academic and "normal" employees like secretaries, managers etc. that I find slacking. You have to coax researchers from their passion just long enough to certain things though. Academics tend to be snobbish not because they're unfriendly, it's just because they're focused on one thing.

 

[JennaB]

That's great to hear, thanks!

 

[bvanevery]

I replied to your post because you left out the major, glaring option. "Work for yourself / none of the above."

 

[Rainer]

I replied to your post because you left out the major, glaring option. "Work for yourself / none of the above."

Seconded! Great option for INTPs since we generally value freedom over convenience.

Regarding academia, please read this: http://100rsns.blogspot.com/ (100 Reasons Not to Go to Grad School)

I have considered government employment or working for a defense contractor because they're much more relaxed environments than private industry. Government employees have so much latitude to fuck around on the job before they're fired. Sounds pretty humane to me.

 

[bvanevery]

Regarding academia, please read this: http://100rsns.blogspot.com/ (100 Reasons Not to Go to Grad School)

Well that's an eye opener. My last semester as an undergrad at Cornell, I took a particularly brutal databases programming course. Like, we coded a database program from scratch, we didn't just use one. I said, I will never work this hard again until I am well paid to do it! No way I was going to pay someone for that pleasure in grad school. I took some money that my folks gave me after graduation (yeah, privilege) and used it to educate myself. Grad school was that road I didn't take. Looks like I didn't miss anything.

 

[Grayman]

Is that government in your title? You didn't mention it in your OP...

 

[Architect]

I've worked in corp, academia and for myself, and have on govt. have worked in govt. sponsored national labs and in aerospace & defense. So I've more or less seen it all.

The difficulty with your question is that as I've said elsewhere jobs vary wildly. That is, working for the IRS isn't at all like working for DARPA. Are there commonalities? Maybe ...

Corporation

Generally more results oriented, but this varies quite a bit. You can work in research for years for a corp and produce very little - no problem. Likewise in academia there's generally a publish or perish mentality.

thinking ... you know I can't really generalize, I give up.

I'd just say that I prefer working for a corporation, at a good job, far more than at academia or govt, mainly based on dysfunctionality. It exists in all organizations but the least in corporations, where people are trying to improve. Govt and academia is stuck in a loop.