I’m going on my fourth month at a new job in the engineering industry working for a small company. My background is mostly materials research and I was working on a PhD in that field but the lab culture I was in was terribly toxic so I left. I was close to finishing the masters portion of my degree program but decided my mental health was more important. I was in a highly specialized field of materials science and my work has ended up in at least one publication, although not first author. I left my program and ended up on a different university research team, adjacent to engineering but still heavily involved in data collection and analysis. After that research program ran its course, I left the university with the hopes that industry would be a better experience.
Fast forward to now, I feel like my employer and managers do not recognize or value my time spent in academia. I learned I am getting paid the same as our other new hires fresh out of undergraduate school where the bulk of their experiences are excel laden internships. I’ve also been referred to as someone “fresh out of school” and while yes, I’m coming out of university research, I don’t think the experience is the same as just taking classes to finish a degree. I was a full time research assistant who had to take classes, not the other way around. I don’t think it helps that no one in my company has any experience in academia. Sometimes I wonder if they even read my resume.
I’ve gotten positive feedback on my evaluations so far. The job is easy compared to research. Though it seems very early to ask for a raise but I also feel a bit slighted that my prior experience wasn’t valued when ever they made an offer. On top of that, I might be getting bumped into a cubicle from a spacious shared office soon because the company is hiring more people and they need to accommodate them. I have almost no issue with the people I’m working with, but they don’t put a ton of effort into changing corporate culture.
I’m already looking for another job with the intent of getting a pay raise and to actually work on R&D like this job promised (but hasn’t delivered).