Ask HN: How valuable is a position as Academic Research Fellow?
Basically I was gonna change job in these months and as soon as I wrote on Linkedin that I closed my position with my previous employer, the university Professor with which I made my dissertation for my bachelor degree some years ago informed me they want to offer me a position as Research Fellow.
It is well paid (not industry level "well paid" but it's good enough and it's 3 days a week remote work + flexible hours and I get _A_LOT_ of tax deductions that I usually would not get... basically I should not pay a single euro of taxes. Also they promise to improve it year over year) and they offered me to "sponsorize" my master degree + eventually a phd because they have a lot of research projects right now (especially related to blockchains projects + virtual reality + augmented reality) and not enough researchers.
Note that since some weeks ago I was working as web/mobile developer, so this is a very different skillset.
Now, I don't really know if I am interested in a phd, but the master degree seems a good opportunity.
What I don't know, at all, is: how well is seen in the eyes of the industry and HR-people a position as researcher in academy? I mean, do I risk to go back in a sw dev position in the next years and see my salary/perceived_value/expected_skill downgraded? Do you have any experience, stories, knowledge about this?
Thank you a lot.