Working in an Industry Lab

While not as common, there is a growing neuroscience industry making it a great time to explore working in industry. Here you will work for a company (such as a pharmaceutical company or a small startup) doing the same sort of research you would be doing at an academic lab, though with a slight difference in goals (making/proving a product vs discovering new knowledge). You will likely be more focused on the data collection and cleaning, with any writing coming in the form of grants or technical internal reports. If you got to a smaller company/startup, you may also interact directly with customers or help create scientifically accurate marketing materials.

These positions typically have similar titles to the academic lab but are just working for a company rather than a university.

Industry lab positions can still be a great stepping stone for PhD programs but they don’t have to be. There are often promotion paths through industry that may allow for a career in research without a graduate degree. My opinion is that the PhD path is actually shorter, allowing you to skip ranks in the industry world, but you will be making significantly more money along the way by staying in industry so whichever path you take will depend on you.

One final note is that, unlike an academic lab, many industry lab positions do not have the same timeline expectations and may not provide the same support and time to prepare graduate school applications. This does not mean they are a bad option (I worked for 3 years in industry before starting my Ph.D. and I loved it), but know that you will have to be self-motivated to get the graduate school applications done because the expectations and norms are not the same. If you think that a PhD is in your future, do check out the applying for a PhD program section as there are some practical things you can do now.