Industry or academia? Many budding engineers and scientists will ask themselves that question at some point in their career. In the past five years, I have had the pleasure of experiencing both.

After getting my masters degree, I worked on semiconductor characterization at IBM for more than two years. Last year, I made the difficult decision to leave a comfortable salary and nine-to-five schedule to return to academia for a Ph.D. Although readjusting to life on a stipend can be difficult, a pregraduate stint in industry often can provide an invaluable perspective to prepare students.