I didn’t always plan a career in industry. In fact, for most of my academic career, I assumed I would become a professor. This was primarily because it was the traditional route for a scientist, and it just seemed like the natural career to follow when you have a degree in science.

But after five years of watching my advisor and the other professors in the physics department, I decided that career was not for me. I didn’t like the idea of working in the same building, in the same office, with the same colleagues for the next 40 or so years of my career. I wanted something with more variety. Also, as much as I enjoyed working on fundamental physics research, I was beginning to feel a lack of satisfaction with simply producing publications that only a handful of people around the world would ever read. I wanted to make something tangible that people might use in a few years. I wanted to see the results of my work. So, I decided to head into the private sector.