Moving from Corporate IT to Science?

EdinBear asks: "I've been working as a SysAdmin in an increasingly corporate internet services company, which has been hit hard by the fallout from the .com bust. When I started some years ago, I felt I was helping small and interesting companies get benefit from the burgeoning Internet through useful and attractive web services. However, since the Internet became 'normal', the focus has been purely commercial - and instead of helping an enterprise get exposure in an interesting way, it's all about money and finance. I now feel I want to move into Science to use my skills in a productive, 'big picture' kind of way, rather than just helping a client get more rich through financial services. I'm interested to hear if other people have found themselves in a similar position; is the transfer to Science/Research/Academia difficult? Is the grass greener on the other side? The money is less, but is the job satisfaction more?"

Re:The politics of Academia

[Verizon Guy]

No doubt, the battle in growing a professor's beard and maintaining it is an uphill one.

rags to riches

[paddyponchero]

SO basically you've been pedaling bullshit for a few years and now you want to be an authority.

Re:Moving from Corporate to Not-So-Corporate

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Never underestimate the power of a fat pipe.

Once I was thinking of leaving, but my wife loves my fat pipe. Money doesn't matter to her. She loves the fat pipe. The fat pipe makes me happy too. We will sit up late at night, she and I, playing with the fat pipe.

Remember kids, as much fun as a fat pipe is to play with, use protection [linksys.com].

Re:Of course, I did the opposite...

[mc6809e]

The pay is about 20% lower than the corporate world, but the benifits made up for half of that. Job security was great....there is no chance for layoffs. :)

Job security IS great. I've worked at a university for a number of years and the fact is, if someone should be fired, they won't be. I have never seen it happen.

The worst that can happen to you for anything is that you'll be suspended with pay.

You don't even have to do your work. It is so difficult to fire anyone that they'll just hire someone else to do the work you were supposed to do.
The hours are great too: its strictly 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. You also get plenty of time-off. Where I'm at its 8 hours leave every two weeks = over 5 weeks off per year. You might have to tell them you have a tummy ache to get 2.5 of those weeks off.

You can even say things like: "Jihad is our path! Victory to Islam! Death to Israel! Revolution! Revolution until victory! Rolling to Jerusalem!"
without much consequence. Or maybe you'll
help found the governing council of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and then served on it.

Ooops, until you end up on O'Reilly factor shortly after the slaughter of 3000 people. Thats when the suspended-with-pay thing kicks in.

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20020701-7405733.ht m [washtimes.com]

You'll also get plenty of support from the faculty.
[usf.edu]
http://w3.usf.edu/~uff/AlArian/

Of course, this is only if you share your co-workers' political views. If you don't -- well, you wouldn't have been hired in the first place so it doesn't matter.

The best academia job...

[mshiltonj]

The best academia is to be the guy that mops the floors in the math department at night. That way, in your spare time while the floor dries, you can solve the unsolvable equation left for the students on the chalk board. Maybe you will get to meet Robin Williams.