Apply. I myself was contacted by a recruiter on LinkedIn. It’s absolutely normal to switch.

It will be largely dependent on your industry. But I do have a couple general comments:

1. If you’re coming from academia, you almost certainly value your degree more than an employer will, at least at first. Certainly, some industry positions will require a Masters and some may even be PhD preferred. But this is going to be an extreme minority of positions, such that there are far more people with MAs and PhDs than positions (same problem as professorships in academia). You will almost certainly need to cast a wider net than you might feel is appropriate.

2. Getting a foot in the door is almost always more important than finding the perfect role early on. Plan to iteravely improve your positions and “fall up.” Just as lecturing or adjunct positions are a reality of academia, job hopping is increasingly a part of industry life. If you do it right (try and stay in positions around 2 years, then start looking at other options) you’ll get a significant raise every time you hop – typically way more than you would get staying put. The perfect role may come, but it won’t be your first. Probably not your second either, so focus on building industry experience rather than one specific job.

3. Since you’ll need to cast a wider net, you may be applying for roles which do not require postgrad stuff. It will be necessary to show transferrable skills rather than relying on academic experience or accolades. I’ve felt that my academic experience has been helpful everywhere, but people don’t tend to get hired for that alone for most positions. It is imperative that you are able to show your worth in a way that is not pointing at a piece of paper. From a hiring standpoint, if it is between you with degree(s) and another applicant who may have far less academically but showed the skills, the employer will pick the other person most times, because they likely suspect you want more money on the basis of having the degrees.

Just a few things that come to mind. But of course, once you get those first couple roles under your belt, it’s a different story. “This person has years of good experience and results AND they have a PhD?” That’s when you start looking for the perfect role.

And especially for #2: job hopping is infinitely easier if you can land remote roles. I have been lucky enough to have been in remote roles for nearly 10 years. The same logic applies: show your worth. And, take that remote contract to start. The need to build experience is annoying, but it is a necessity, and if you’re coming from academia, it’s one thing for which you are automatically behind the curve.

I wouldn’t be opposed to more funding but there would still have to be some way to decide who to fund and making a good case that one’s research is worthwhile is always going to take a long time.

I wonder what you’d might call that “figuring out” thing

Not to mention people managers. Oof.

It’s almost like the two skill sets are not actually equivalent.

Maybe some graduate-level classes need to be taught by a researcher in the field and so students will simply have to deal with any deficiencies that researcher may have as a teacher, but IMO undergrads will probably learn more at a community college because the professors are actually there to teach.

I still wouldn’t recommend the community college because the diploma from there won’t get the graduate as much respect, but I do know a community college graduate with a bachelor’s who makes way more than I do. She had trouble getting her first job but once she had some work experience, employers cared a lot less about where she studied. I also know and another graduate who got her associate’s at a community college and then transferred to somewhere more prestigious; she saved money without compromising her education.