Start-up vs. Corporate vs. Consulting vs. Combination Platter
vladlokshin.com
vladlokshin.com
At least in Europe its, very well payed if you're an engineer. Depending on your advisor you can have a lot of freedom and still earn similar to the start up work he did. In Germany, as an engineer, you usually you get a full position at a lab which is, according to the contract, a bit less than 40 hours, starting at around 38k Euro per year. Thats about 54k USD. I don't have the exact numbers but I think after tax and considering life expenses its not to different for US Grad Schools.
Even if you have to do some course work or teaching, I think its a good base for starting new projects that can become companies. We all know famous examples.
I guess my view on it is a bit skewed since with while pursuing an undergrad degree, it's hard to be taken seriously.
In most subject areas here, depending on the school, you'd need to get sponsored by an employer to have the schooling itself paid for. Unless you're on a full scholarship or having someone else pay it, you're subtracting 20-50K from that 54K salary.
That, and personally, I'm just not an academic. I learn faster on my own and from a blog or lynda.com than I do from an actual course...
Even now, I'd either pursue an MS for pure tech core knowledge to build bleeding edge tech around or a top 10 MBA -- but that would be purely to meet and work with the individuals that worked hard enough to get to the same point.
Given the scenario you've outlined however, that sounds like a perfect setup. It'd be even more perfect if one could study something in the field related to their startup project and learn subject matter directly related to their business ventures 24/7
But watch out for an appropriate Professor! If you're lucky you don't have to do any teaching. This is usually the case for non-university research institutes like those who belong to Max-Planck, Fraunhofer or Helmholtz. At universities it depends. In some cases, TA'ing alone can be a fulltime job. Other professors see you as cheap labour and you have to do lots of work for them that you're neither qualified nor motivated to. Examples could be applying to grands, doing PR or managing the labs computer network.
I've lately seen many top tier professor and students from the US coming to Germany. Part of it, I think is that the government has invested a lot more money on carefully chosen projects in an effort to catch up with the US. Another reason, is that they have become a lot opener to non German speaking scientist. When I took classes two years ago, even the young Professors where all German. But recently, I hardly see a German post-doc or Professor landing a job. They are all foreigners.
Anyway, in my experience, the German Diploma and Doctorate Systems is perfect for people who like to learn by them self. For the Diploma, you have lots of choices after the first years and often there is only one final exam. No assignments or midterms. You can pass a class with an A* without knowing how the Prof. looks like. How you learn the required content is totally up to you. I've often chosen good American books and video lectures over the lectures here. And again, for the Dr. you can do what ever you like as long as your advisor is cool with it.
Actually, I found your quote quite confusing. "I'm just not an academic. I learn faster on my own and from a blog or lynda.com than I do from an actual course..."
English is not my first language but academia = higher education / research, right? To me this is almost a synonym with learning and discovering on your own.
PS: Its all not roses and unicorns, though. For instance, becoming a Professor right after your Dr. is very uncommon if not impossible. A US Phd from a top tier school usually is worth a bit more.
We also got to do regular travel in Europe - we went to Paris, Milan, Copenhagen, Bilbao, San Sabastian regularly - it was hell :-)
Ah great. I'll ride my unicorn to work every day.
These exist. If you really have a problem finding them, look for European based companies. The work/life balance there is much more reasonable.
Kill it doing your 40 hours, and no one will have any complaints with you. If you're REALLY passionate about entrepreneurship, you won't be there for more X years anyway (different for each person) so making a 30 year career out of it doesn't really matter.
Again, these exist -- just filter through opportunities correctly and stay confident. If you do good work, you shouldn't have any problem finding such a fit.
And with these gas prices, a unicorn would be sweet too. I'll google what's available later.
Somewhat related: reasons to leave the corporate world for a startup: http://feefighters.com/blog/5-reasons-to-leave-the-corporate...
Maybe I wasn't so clear about this point, but it's also about doing something that may not perfectly fit your passions because of a more reasonable work/life balance and in turn a more doable corp work/start-up balance.
It becomes adjustable risk.
How much more money can a corporate job pay? How much more free time do you have now that you're not putting your own heart into someone else's project? How much do you really need to survive? Now comes the factor that's adjusting your risk.... Salary - Necessity = Liquidity.
How much of your liquidity are you willing to invest in your start-up dreams and how much of that are you willing to invest in your "normal" life? I think that's what really separates the hobby entrepreneurs that never make it and the guys that can in fact make it building something on the side.