AfterMath: My Time in the Industry As Told on the “It's Not Just Numbers” Podcast

My friend Marcello Seri's podcast is now well into its second season, and when he asked me to join, my response was “What took you so long?” My only condition was that he kept the working title AfterMath, very inspired. The podcast is aimed at students of mathematics of all vintages (and I am including researchers and professors here!).

The topic of the podcast is very timely: In the last two weeks, I had discussions with three different people about whether/how/why to make the transition to the industry. The erratic behavior of the Trump administration with its punitive measures against academia, budget cuts in countries like the Netherlands, the UK and Italy, mean that the academic job market has contracted significantly while at the same time, sudden policy shifts have led to more people needing to look for their next contract. That is a bad job environment to be graduating into, I am not envious of this generation.

Even during “normal” times, this is a topic that is often avoided. Many people feel that the industry is (compared to academia) a somewhat lesser choice. The shift is something they have had to do, because they feel they were not “good enough”. Despite that, the overwhelming majority of students will leave academia for a job in the industry. Even those who do not plan to stay in academia will often be unsure as to what they ought to be doing with the next 40ish years.

Marcello (one of the hosts), the two other guests, Oskar and Sven, share our stories how we have transitioned from academia to the industry at various stages in their academic career. Even though Marcello and I have since returned to academia, we both feel very strongly that our time in the industry has enriched our lives. We both had had jobs that were intellectually stimulating as we needed to tackle very challenging problems that were just at the edge of what is possible.

In my case, I had found a job at EV Group, world market leader in wafer bonding, which is one crucial manufacturing step in the production of semiconductors, CMOS image sensors and e. g. MEMS. I really loved my job there, my boss and my colleagues were great. They took a chance on me, and I will remain thankful for that. Had I known the opportunities that were out there, I would not have approached going into industry with as much trepidation and anxiety.