What You Should Know Before Quitting Academia for Industry

You’ll need to get into the trenches and get your hands dirty

How does one escape academia?

How do you move from a life in the ivory tower to life in the real world? If you clicked on this story, you might be thinking of transitioning from academia to industry.

Or perhaps you are now beginning to struggle with the consequences of leaving academia.

If you’re not sure what it entails, or how to successfully deal with the shift, I hope I can offer some advice to help you manage the transition.

What makes me qualified to give you this advice?

Well, it’s a path I’ve walked. It was 2013 – I had accepted my first corporate job and stepped into the office, unsure of how to carry myself.

To be clear, I didn’t graduate with a Ph.D. — only a master’s degree.

Not an MBA, nor even a master’s degree in STEM, but a “classical” academic degree in sociology.

The transition was difficult all the same.

After spending close to seven years in the academy – including over two years in graduate school pursuing my master’s degree – the academic way of life had become a part of my identity.

So, when I left academia and joined the business world, that part of my identity was torn from me.

Advice #1 — Execute, because no one cares about theory

In business, you can be sure that for every idea that you’ve had, someone else has already thought of it.

Ideas are easy to have. Doing is the hard part.

No one cares about theoretical frameworks. Your bosses only care that you get the job done. Everything is beautiful on paper until you execute.

Plans will not go according to plan. Frameworks are just representations of reality. Never confuse frameworks for reality itself.

Academic essays and long-winded footnotes? Not needed and not wanted either.

In business, execution beats theory every single day.

And oh yes. You need to proactively sell your ideas to get approved to execute your plans. Your ideas are not going to speak for themselves.

Remember, sell, and get things done.

Advice #2 — Simplify, because no one cares for complexity and layers

Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Let’s say you want to explain why the sales of product category A increased during the pandemic even though the sales of all other product categories decreased.

You stammer and start to say something like this:

“Product Category A has been already growing strongly even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the lockdowns and work-from-home, Product Category A saw growth in usage since it is a home-use product.

Furthermore, because of the Great Resignation, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, lots of people quit their jobs to join the creator economy.

This gave birth to new social media influencers who became overnight sensations.

With a massive influx of creators, there was a much larger pool for new influencers to arise.

Since people have nowhere to go, they watch more YouTube videos, which further drove the viral growth of said social media influencers.

The reach of these influencers grew, and they started to promote the growing Product Category A as well, creating a positive feedback loop.

Thus, the trends combined to drive the growth of product category A.”

Too confusing, too many layers, and definitely too long.

In the business world, people are busy and tired, and they don’t have the patience to figure out your multi-layered argument. Just say this:

“Due to COVID-19, people stay home more often. Hence, the demand for Product Category A, which is used primarily at home, increased. The consumption of YouTube also increased since people stayed at home more.

They got more exposed to advertisements for Product Category A, which influencers were also promoting during this period.”

People don’t want to know everything. They just want to know enough.

Just say enough without lying.

Advice #3 — Avoid hedging your statements, because they make you sound less confident

I know you learned in academia not to overstate your claims. Academic honesty and the noble pursuit of “truth,” right?

Academics, scholars, and scientists often hedge their statements and make sure that they are probabilistic.

Ask yourself, how many times have you used these words?

• “It is probably the case.”
• “It might be true to some degree, but I think more evidence is required to show the connection.”
• “The risk of this happening is low, but not zero.”

Here’s a quick tip: In business, you need to be giving recommendations. Your boss doesn’t care about the theory (see #1), nor the complexity (see #2). Your boss just wants to know what the best course of action should be.

What you think the best course of action should be, and why you think so.

Businesses can decide without all the facts. People are guessing all the time. Facts are dynamic and can change depending on the rapidly evolving business situation.

So, no one is expecting every single thing you say to be the gospel truth.

Honestly, no one even cares if it is 100% correct or not.

The question your boss wants to know is this: Are you confident in your plan? If so, can you convince me? Hedged statements make you appear unconfident.

In business, the appearance of confidence is more important than people believe.

But note this — there is a world of difference between sounding confident and outlying lying. You don’t need to lie to be confident.

Advice #4 — Prioritize speed over correctness, because you can (usually) fix mistakes later

In academia, one might take months or even years to produce some research output.

In the business world, you do not have this luxury of time. You will be hounded by deadlines — left, right, and center. And if you don’t start delivering, your bosses are going to start to wonder why you take forever to produce something.

Remember, in business, you don’t need to be 100% error-free. Unless you’re building a rocket ship. Or a plane. Or medical equipment and drugs.

For most industries, your mistake will not kill someone. Just get it done.

No one is going to die from a tiny typo on your pitch deck. Does it make you look unprofessional?

Yes. But delivering in 4 weeks with zero errors is worse than delivering in 1 week with 2 minor errors. And, by the time you wait for 4 weeks, the situation may have evolved, and you might need to update all your data.

If unsure, prioritize speed. Create, deliver, review, and adjust if necessary.

Advice #5 — Get into the trenches and get your hands dirty, because it earns you respect

Get out of your ivory tower mentality. In the business world, things are not so “clean” and well-compartmentalized.

The recruiter that landed me my first job had this to say about the business world. Compared to academic life, business is “muddy and dirty.” Things are not so straightforward.

No work is beneath you.

Data entry. Hauling cartons. Cold calling. Scheduling appointments. Filling in forms. Requesting quotations. Processing invoices. Managing budgets.

You’ll need to do whatever you need to do to get the job done.

Believe me, when your colleagues see you “suck it up” and roll up your sleeves, it shows that you’re fighting in the trenches alongside everyone else.

And if you think routine work is beneath you, then you should think about staying in academia. But are the costs of staying in academia worth it?

It’s simple, but not easy to trade a life of ideas for a life of constant doing. But trying it sure beats not knowing.

In giving up academia, you also gain a new perspective, and more likely than not, a better-paying job.

Ultimately, we are people — made of flesh and bone — before we are thinkers, researchers, writers, and scholars.

We hunger and we need a roof over our heads. Every new day, life makes its rigorous and practical demands, and we have to rise to answer its call.

© Alvin T. 2022

Author’s note:

I was inspired to write this after my interview with Ashley, published in Coffee Times Substack.

To discover the transferrable skills you may have developed in graduate school that businesses will find valuable, read Ridley Cooper, PhD’s How I Defected From Academia.

The author is an editor of Japonica and also writes on a wide variety of topics. His key topics are society, culture, modern work, and cryptocurrency, with the occasional fictional story, creative piece, or reflective essay. Discover his most-read stories here.

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