>>11321330am not at that phase yet but your question about leaving a lab scientist job in favor of academia is interesting. as far as i can see, lab scientists have a decent job for life if they can make it through the first few years. and in the same place without moving around. OTOH assistant professor jobs usually aren’t tenure track (usually the lowest level tenure track prof is an “associate” prof, and even then you still need to prove yourself before being set for life). but full prof is a much better job than lab scientist from about 45 onward. the pay is much better and you get to do bullshit teaching and grant writing while you can have grad students and post docs do all the grunt work for the papers you want to write.
anyhow i have NEVER heard of a lab scientist going straight into a tenure track position unless it is some crappy paying teaching job at a liberal arts school (glorified high school teacher type stuff) but if you have a real offer for something that is a real tenure track research prof job i would definitely not turn it down, despite the somewhat tougher “job security” prospects.
just a PD tho, so just speculating
