Career search gradually starting!

My friend is looking for a job after working as a grad student for 5 years! That is exciting. I feel really happy for her, and I cannot wait to do it myself.

Industry has more money, you can produce something tangeble, departments are better structured than university labs, often times. So, it will be clearer whose responsibility is what, and who you should go to when you have a problem. On the other hand, university enjoys more freedom, not limited by profit, you may be able to do more innovative. If you want to do basic reearch, academia is your home.

Issue of job insecurity - it is the same wherever you go. There's always a possibility of being laid off in companies, and post-docs and early stage profesors are fixed term as well. The important thing is to do your best and keep trying to improve your resume. Getting a job is not the end; it's a start. You will need to work hard to have something that you have accomplished, which then will appearl to your next employer. This mindset is rare to find in Japan, where you find one company and you stick to it forever doing whatever you are assigned to.

I first thought the freedom of the university environment appealing. You have the key, you can work at whatever time you would like. But that also means rules are not always followed and less organization. Also people aften go missing and you cannot reach someone when you need them. This is especially true about working in the lab. Equipment is sometimes not well maintained, cleaned or ready for the next user; if it is shared, you may be the one who is always cleaning it because there is almost no system.

Maybe I prefer a company employee again. There is a better system, and again the responsibilities are more clearly assigned. Academia makes things complicated because student employees are transient and we always train new people, but it's hard to instill an attitude to maintain equipments for longer use because they are there only for a short time and they only need it to work while they are working on it.

It is a really good experience to work both in a company and at a unviersity. I see differences, pros and cons, and whcih may be better suited to me. Let's see what I will find.