If you plot all the Ph.D level tech jobs on a map, and then plot all the academia jobs on a map - do you think the latter is way more spread and diverse? I would imagine that for the former, those jobs are heavily clustered on each of the coasts, along with some smaller clusters here and there in "emerging" cities.
Not everyone wants to live in SF/NYC/Boston, and for most people, where you live is a pretty damn non-trivial point.
Second - if you get tenure in academia, you have a pretty safe position. For many it does mean work for life, good pay, and high-risk/high-reward research. If you chose to work in the industry, you are exposed to market movements. They can promise you the moon, but can still go straight out the window every 5-10-15 years.
Some enjoy academia, others enjoy the industry. If your dream goal is to live in SF or NYC and make $500k / year for the next N years, by all means purse industry. If you enjoy the thought of making $100k - $150k wherever, with minimal teaching, long vacations, and selective research - do pursue tenure.
The caveat is obviously that it is hard to get tenure, statistically speaking you have a 1 in 5 shot - but then again, landing a top research position in the industry is probably even more unlikely.
You work on topics you enjoy to improve the society and extend the knowledge of our civilisation ?
Your advisor is there to help you, you don't work for them as a slave. Not all people want a carrot that is designed to make them work hard, RSUs/Stock options ? No thanks I will take money and continue having fun without thinking much about accountants stuff such as the company profits.
But I agree, some places do not offer great salaries and permanent contracts and it's a big issue.
I speak from experience, and I'm glad if you don't have similar experiences
Working on things that improve society and discovery doesn't have to be done in academic contexts, quite the contrary. A lot of times with more freedom and less BS
Anecdotally, I’ve encountered far too much BS for one lifetime in the private sector as well. “Mission-driven” at that. Freedom was much easier to come by back when I was getting my foot in the door and taking jobs I was overqualified for. Aside from special occasion important projects (a few weeks per year) there would not be the kind of incessant nail-biting pressure and fear-mongering from above, such as that I’ve seen from companies that follow the Elon playbook (without Elon success of course).
These are the companies that will work you *literally* to death’s door to get their perceived money’s worth (despite being unable to objectively measure, not for lack of trying on my part). Then when you are too sick to work they will toss you aside like used trash. They will fight tooth and nail to keep the official headcount just under the limit of having to adhere to labor regulations like providing medical leave of absence. Maybe it’s just the wrong product space or something.
Definitely not denying these. But there's an extra layer of pressure/sunken cost fallacy that makes the cost of dropping out of a PhD much higher than it is
If you leave a job that's it, but leaving a PhD feels like a defeat
