Quantum Computing: Working in Industry or Academia?

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0:00 Industry vs Academia
1:09 The Goals Are Different
3:31 Pace
6:12 Thank you Anker!
7:12 Collaboration
9:33 Time Distribution
10:50 Finding Quantum Jobs

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#1 The Goals are Different

First of all, industry is a business. A business needs to make money. Forget about all the startups that go IPO with no business model. It happens, but a business needs to create a product. That product needs to be valuable and be sold to people.

In academia, the goals are about publishing and sharing knowledge. Also a great goal! Just a very different goal.


#2 Pace

I saw my advisor maybe once a week when I was doing research. I had friends who saw their advisor once a month, or even once a QUARTER. The iteration cycles were not great - you’d have to wait a long time to get some feedback on your work. Some labs and groups have weekly meetings, some don't.

Industry moves fast.

We have standup once a day. In standup, you say what you did yesterday, what you’re going to work on tomorrow, and if there are any blockers. That way, your team can help unblock you. Maybe they have a seen a similar bug in your code, or know a paper that can help you with what you’re working on. Of course, there’s some cases where you may need a day or two to unblock yourself, but the point is you’re checking in EVERY DAY. Goals are broken down to daily action steps.


#3: Collaboration

In physics research, physics labs tend to be full of physicists. In physics startups, we have physicists, software engineers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, product managers, consultants in all sorts of fields.

You get to work with a ton of different people and different backgrounds.

#4 Time Distribution

Theorists who end up coming to industry may end up spending a lot more time doing simulation work or coding work. Again, that’s totally fine, it’s all personal preference.

You’re also probably not going to spend a ton of time teaching, in general. If your goal is to spend a lot of time in a formal classroom, teaching students, academia is a way better suited option for you!

But that doesn’t mean teaching doesn’t exist in the quantum space. Hey, I’m doing a youtube channel on quantum, so obviously, I’m teaching, and I’ve run workshops for people of all ages and expertises on quantum tech.

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