Last year, after completing a research degree in computing education research, I started a new job at Aico as a software developer. In this blog, I will briefly discuss the similarities and differences between my new job and my earlier studying and working life in academia. My personal experience was that the transition to an industrial job does not necessarily have to be a huge culture shock.

My Transition to Industry

While still drafting my doctoral dissertation at the end of 2021, I started to look for industrial jobs. After a while, I happened to notice a job advertisement of Aico and applied straight away. For my pleasure, I became selected and agreed to start in my new role after my employment contract with the university would end.

When I started at Aico in June 2022, the first few weeks were full of internal trainings and introductions. Also, the preliminary examination of the manuscript of my dissertation had arrived at completion and I had nearly finished the version that I would submit as the final one.

Little by little, I was able to better concentrate on my first development tasks while simultaneously learning about development tools and the product. Of enormous help was another developer, who had agreed to help me to learn the ropes. I also submitted my doctoral dissertation for publication and soon had a pile of printed copies in my hands.

Before my public defence at the end of August 2022, I had to take care of this and that regarding the defence, the defence party, and the graduation. After the day of the defence, I was free to fully concentrate on my new job and start to learn the new world, in which I am navigating as a new Aiconaut. The only thing left was to retrieve my degree certificate from the university in October

Similarities and Differences

For a general treatise, search engines can reveal articles related to the transition from academia to industry. Below, I will briefly discuss seven aspects that are most obvious to me when comparing my current job to that of a doctoral candidate.

Responsibilities. During my doctoral studies, my responsibilities were researching, publishing papers, studying, and being a teaching assistant on two courses. Although the R&D department of Aico is not conducting scientific research, my work has similarities with it. For instance, I am studying technologies, conducting small-scale research on various approaches for solving a problem, documenting my work, and communicating with other employees.

Flexibility. Work in academia can be flexible. Outside the regular teaching and meetings, one might be free to work when and where one wishes. At Aico, we can work from home, but I often like to be at the office. I could also work from any of the foreign branch offices of Aico or, for short periods, from other applicable countries. However, deadlines are omnipresent, whether they are based on a schedule of a university course, publishing a journal article, applying for funding, or releasing a new software version.

Collaboration. My earlier work as a doctoral candidate did not include extensive collaboration with other candidates; often my supervisor and advisor were the only ones taking part in my research projects. At Aico, I currently work independently but as a part of a project team that works for a common goal.

Internationality. I experienced an increasing amount of internationality during my studies, depending on the study group and the educational institution. While studying for my bachelor’s degree, I befriended the only foreign student of my class, and during my master’s studies, I sometimes worked with foreign students. Finally, during my doctoral studies, I was communicating in English regularly both in the weekly meetings of my research group and when instructing foreign students and supervising their work as a teaching assistant.

Currently, I am working in an international company, whose personnel represent multiple nationalities, languages, and geographical areas. To me, it is most visible in everyday communication. First, people have meetings via video calls instead of being in the same office. Second, when people with varying first languages are present, the fallback language is English. For this reason, the R&D team usually holds its weekly status meetings in English as well.

Office Culture. The people at Aico and in academia are professional and mostly easy-going and helpful, so no big differences there. At the university, parties at the office were quite rare. At Aico, however, usually every month has included something, such as a breakfast, a dinner, or a game night.

Practicality and Impact. In academia, theory and the necessity of continuous publishing can be driving factors even without immediate practical applications for the results. In comparison, my current tasks are practical and have direct impact in the lives of the users of Aico as they get new or improved features in the product. Although it is rewarding to discover new facts through scientific research and see one’s research paper published, my current job offers similar satisfaction from seeing the results of one’s own development in use.

Learning. Being a doctoral candidate is all about researching and learning. However, the completion of formal education is only a waypoint on the journey of continuous lifelong learning. Especially, the natural continuous development of technology dictates that the developer’s job is to continuously learn and research into emerging technologies and approaches with the intent of applying them in their daily work.

Conclusion

Overall, my transition from academia into my role at Aico was easy, and although my daily tasks are obviously different, the higher-level mindset is like in my earlier job and makes the job to feel natural to me. Thus, I am looking forward to continuing as an Aico developer and seeing Aico to grow.

Have a sunny summer!