Should You Quit Academia?

Depends on your motivation. I love doing research, I love doing basic research. Thus I can stay in academia world, given the opportunity. But I don't like doing administration work. This is what I dislike about academia.

Ah, dynamic website content that provides an answer fitting my personal profile.

I think this heavily depends on your field. I did work for my university in a non-scientific position before graduation and it was an awesome job for that matter, but leaving university is just plainly more profitable for engineers and if you want to stay you need compromise on compensation and expect a lot of work and responsibility.

There is also a lot of knowledge, mostly practical, that you only learn in certain enterprises. Also think about your own profs and instructers. I think the best ones do it out of passion instead of as a career choice.

With tenure, probably not. Without tenure but with a good shot of getting it, probably not. Grad students and post docs? That’s training and a different discussion. Adjuncts? I would choose something else if there’s any realistic alternative available. Administrators or other non-professorial white collar workers, never - ride the gravy train.

Some people are constrained by their personal situation to a geographic area, or in a discipline by interests. Everybody else, hopefully, has better alternatives that provide a better return on effort.