Xref: utzoo soc.college:5469 comp.edu:3344 misc.jobs.misc:7302
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!munnari.oz.au!uhccux!ames!ads.com!decwrl!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!hacgate!aic!yamauchi
From: yamauchi@aic.dpl.scg.hac.com (Brian Yamauchi)
Newsgroups: soc.college,comp.edu,misc.jobs.misc
Subject: Academia vs. Industry (for CS PhDs)
Message-ID: <9518@hacgate.UUCP>
Date: 13 Jul 90 18:41:59 GMT
Sender: news@hacgate.UUCP
Reply-To: yamauchi@aic.hrl.hac.com
Organization: Hughes Research Labs, Malibu, CA
Lines: 47


	I'd like to start a thread on what is undoubtedly one of the
most often asked questions in grad school (at least in CS) -- "Are you
planning to go into academia or industry?"  To narrow this question
down to a manageable size, by "academia" I mean a tenure-track
position at a good research university and by "industry" I mean a
position as a researcher at a top industrial lab.

	My perceptions are that the primary advantages of academia
over industry are that you have complete freedom to decide what you
want to research and that you are your own boss.  The primary
disadvantages seem to be that you spend an inordinate amount of time
chasing grant money and that you have to teach (which may not be a
disadvantage to everyone).

	Industrial positions seem to vary widely depending on the
company and the lab.  At the best labs, you may have almost as much
freedom as those in academia (although you still have a boss).  On the
other hand, at some labs this freedom may go hand-in-hand with the
need for chasing grants.

	Both universities and industrial labs tend to be well-equipped
and to pay competitve salaries, so these areas don't seem to present
major differences.

	Another issue is politics.  While I've never been in a very
bad political situation, I've heard horror stories from grad students
and professors about the level of internal politics at some
universities.  Of course, I'm sure internal politics also exists to a
certain degree in industrial labs -- but I'd be curious as to whether
people think it tends to be worse in academia.  Conversely, it seems
as though industrial labs may be more affected by external politics
(defense R&D cuts, corporate restructuring, etc.).

	I'm currently a PhD student in CS at the University of
Rochester (working at Hughes over the summer), and my perceptions are
based on 2 years of grad school, 4 years of undergrad (Math/CS at
CMU), and 2 summers working in industry, so clearly, I've had more
experience doing research in the "academia" side.  I'd be interested
to hear whether others (grad students/professors/researchers/etc.)
have similar perceptions.

______________________________________________________________________________

Brian Yamauchi                          Hughes Research Laboratories
yamauchi@aic.hrl.hac.com                Artificial Intelligence Center
______________________________________________________________________________