One of the biggest misperceptions of industry is that industry pays more than academia.

Today, I want to share with you a more realistic picture of industry salaries for PhDs looking to transition into their first non-academic job.

Industry Doesn't Necessarily Pay Better Than Academia

Early/mid-career industry positions pay better than adjunct professorships and humanities assistant professorships. They're on par with social science assistant professorships at R1 universities. They lag behind assistant professorships at R1 business schools.

Starting assistant professorships at R1 business schools in the U.S. can pay anywhere from 160K to 220K.

For reference, an assistant professor position in management at Wayne State University with a 4-1 teaching load pays a base salary of 160K.

Assistant professor positions at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business pays 250K-270K:

Keep in mind that this is base pay. Many business school faculty make extra💰teaching EMBA courses during nights, weekends, and summertime. They also take on consulting gigs, industry partnerships, media interviews, or speaking engagements that can pay anywhere from 10K to 100K per speech.

Here's a run-down of business school salary budgets for universities across different tiers: 2023-2024 Business School Salary Budgets​

As you may have guessed, business faculty (non-tenured or tenured) often have to take a pay cut to break into industry and (re)climb the corporate ladder. This is because...

Your First Industry Job Won't Pay Much

If you're a newly minted PhD, have done a FAANG internship, got hired straight out of your PhD program, you can expect to be paid 100K-130K at a big tech company like Meta.

At small- and medium-sized companies, expect to be paid less.

My friend Summer Kim has compiled a comprehensive salary database of PhDs' first non-academic jobs. The average base salary is around 95K. The average total compensation is about 110K.

That's about the same as an assistant professor position in psychology at an R1 university.

Not too shabby, but nowhere near a glorified Silicon Valley paycheck.

How Industry Salaries Work

Industry salaries generally have 3 components: Base, Bonus, Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)

• Base salary is what you see on your bi-weekly paycheck. This is the "base" upon which everything else gets determined (e.g., bonus, promotion).
• Bonus can come in the forms of "Sign-On Bonus", "Year-End Bonus", and "Performance Bonus":
  • Sign-on bonuses are given to incentivize candidates to join. For example, by joining this new company, you may have to forgo RSUs at your current company. Sign-on bonuses are then given to "bridge the gap".
  • Year-end bonuses and performance bonuses are given to reward you for meeting or exceeding performance expectations.
  • Some companies may have a "profit share" or "revenue share" program, where they give you a cut of their profits each year.
• RSUs are shares of a company's stock. These are typically given at large public companies with a vesting schedule. Most RSUs will not vest until you've been with the company for at least a year. This is to incentivize you to remain with the company for as long as possible.

The sum of the above is what's referred to as total compensation, or "total comp".

What Determines Your Salary

Many factors go into your salary determination: your education level, years of work experience, size of the company, salary budget, leveling of the position, whether you have competing offers, if the company has to shell out extra 💰to sponsor your visa/green card, market condition...

This is why Jane and John can have the exact same role, perform the exact same job duties, all the while being paid drastically different amounts. Sometimes, it's discrimination. Other times, it's simply how the market works.

My base salary at my first industry job (Amazon) for a mid-level UX position was 190K, total comp 250K. I had completed a 2-year postdoc at a business school, worked on industry projects, and had a competing offer from Toyota.

And, 2022 rode the wave of the Great Resignation. UX was still hot. Market was employee-favoring.

Then, 2023 came around.

Market took a nose dive. I leveled up to senior at a different company. With more experience under my belt, I received an offer of... 150K. A whopping 100K PAY CUT.

How To Get Paid More

In my Academic Trailblazer LIVE Program last week, we dissected a puzzling researcher listing that paid 302K-455K/year:

​

This was the very first Amazon position I interviewed for. There wasn't anything remarkably demanding about its qualifications.

Many PhDs in data science can do SQL and data warehousing in their sleep, yet are paid under 100K a year.

Many PhDs in UX know R, SPSS, SAS from top to bottom, yet none are paid anywhere near 300K.

The reason this position pays so much is that it tapped into an overlap of skillsets shared by a narrow pool of candidates. Most UXRs aren't proficient in data warehousing. Most data scientists aren't expert at formulating hypotheses from complex, vague problems.

If your skillset falls in the intersection, and you have a PhD in psych, stats, or survey research, you've struck gold.

Success in getting paid more isn't just about what you do during negotiation. Rather, it starts at the very beginning of your job search: sussing out roles that you're uniquely positioned for, where you have a competitive edge.

​

Before We End

1. If you missed the last cycle and are looking for a comprehensive blueprint to break into industry, consider joining my Academic Trailblazer: Career Clear program by submitting an application today. We go in-depth in gaining clarity on your career path, targeting roles that highlight your competitive advantage, writing a resume that effectively communicates your skills, and acing interviews.

2. If you need in-depth help now, book a 1:1 Strategy Session. We will analyze your current situation and develop a step-by-step plan to overcome your immediate roadblock.

Want More Advice like this?

Salary has always been a taboo subject. I hope this letter sheds some light on the reality of industry pay. If you find this letter helpful and want more advice like this, subscribe to my free Letters to The Academic Trailblazer for insights on pitfalls to avoid at every stage of your job search.

Until next time 💕

​