<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>It's maybe not the right place to ask the question as I am not a student, in fact I finished my studies a long time ago. However I hope I may have some fresh insights here anyway.
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:</p>
<ol>
<li>I have PhD in material science; obtained the PhD degree at a Uni in Germany; I am 36 years old.</li>
<li>I have been a postdoc for 5 years in Ireland.</li>
<li>As my current postdoc project has just finished I got an offer for another postdoc position in an institute in Spain.</li>
<li>I have 15 publications in peer-reviewed journals incl. 3 in Phys. Rev. Letters and 1 in Nano Lett. (these are probably the best journals where one theoretical material scientist can publish).</li>
<li>Besides the relatively good publication record I don't have other special scientific merits yet, e.g. haven't been a member of conference committees, etc.</li>
<li>I was awarded by one local prize for my PhD studies.</li>
<li>During last 1.5 years I have been rejected from all junior professorships/stipendiums and 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).</li>
<li>During last 5 years I was applying to IT and a bit less to other industries. I got shortlisted only a month ago from IBM in Ireland. After 3 interviews and passed tests I got a job offer.</li>
<li>In parallel I got an offer for the postdoc position in Spain.</li>
<li>The salaries at IBM as C++ programmer (the offer I got) and as a postdoc in Spain are nearly equal.</li>
<li>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.</li>
<li>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 during which time I did not develop some academic merits important for getting a higher positions in academia (except the publication record). In most cases only candidates with less than 5 years experience after their PhD studies are eligible for higher-than-postdoc grants (basically tenure track i.e. junior professorships). Although some exceptions may appear, who knows.</li>
<li>But still the hope dies last.</li>
<li>The position at IBM assures relatively good employability, while programming is not what I was schooled for. Also I am not sure how would I feel to work at a "drone farm" with many bosses above, which is opposite to academia how I am used to work during last 10 years.</li>
<li>This is a choice between the reason (IBM) and heart (physics).</li>
</ol>
<p>In a nutshell my chances to get an over-postdoc position in academia are quite small (but still I have some hopes) while this is what I always wanted to do in life. In contrast I have the chance to switch to IT industry and work at IBM as a programmer, which has its own benefits regarding perspective. What would you chose? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>