I can take issue with an awful lot of academia, but was fortunate to have an incredibly supportive dissertation supervisor who did (and continues to do) his best to ensure that I landed either in a good academic, government, non-profit, or corporate position. And there’s never been a stigma attached when I’ve pursued these various options (really: there’s just been support and encouragement!)
But I know that my experiences aren’t common. The series that Karen is running over at her website on leaving academe is useful in just exposing what it’s like to leave an academic ‘life’, and the baggage that is often associated with that choice. Allesandria Polizzi’s pieces, in particular, strike me as explaining to academics and non-academics alike what it’s like to straddle academe and corporate life, and the difficulties that a lot of people face in simply trying to explain themselves to their academic and corporate colleagues.
Source: How I Left Academia: A Recovering Academic’s Introduction – Polizzi 2