2014-01-18

Hi all,

I have a dilemma to chose between two career paths: to switch to IT industry or to remain in academia.
To be concise I list here the facts:
1. I have a PhD degree in theoretical material science; obtained the PhD degree at a Uni in Germany; I am 36 years old.
2. I have been a postdoc for 5 years in Ireland.
3. I've got an offer for another postdoc position in an institute in Spain.
4. I have 15 publications in peer-reviewed journals incl. 3 in Phys. Rev. Letters and 1 in Nano Lett. (these are quite respectable journals).
5. I don't have other scientific merits yet that appear to be important for getting above-postdoc-level academic positions.
6. During last 1.5 years I have been rejected from all junior professorships / tenure track positions that I have been applying for (Emmy Noether grant, Max Plank group leader, SFI Irish Early Research grant, a few lecturer positions in the UK, Germany, Austria, etc).
7. During last 5 years I was applying to IT and a bit less to other industries. I got shortlisted at IBM in Ireland but did not get any interview in other companies during the 5 years. After 3 interviews and passed tests at IBM I got a job offer from them.
8. As I am not a citizen of EU getting the job at IBM would give me a chance to get the Irish citizenship, which may be of use for future job-hunting.
9. I would really like to stay in academia but I afraid that it is too late to get some higher position than a postdoc in future, as it passed full 5 years after my PhD graduation.
10. The position at IBM assures relatively good employability (is it so?), while programming is not what I was schooled for. Also I am not sure how would I feel to work at a a "drone farm" with many bosses above, the way I am not used to during the 10 years of my scientific career.
11. It is a choice between my heart (research) and mind (IBM).

What would you chose?

Thanks in advance!

Statistics: Posted by P.V.S. — Sat Jan 18, 2014 6:13 pm

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