Hi,
2 years ago, I moved from a barely-2-years-old post-doc into an industry job. The job was not ideal, but it was the only thing I had then, and I looked at it as a foot-in-the-door opportunity.
Now, I think accepting this job offer was the worst mistake of my professional life. It seems I have pigeon-holed myself into a non-scientific, operational, manufacturing-focused role which I feel is slowly closing doors on me. For the record my current compensation is a-ok, work environment is decent and I have no major non-technical complaints.
On the negative, I'm not really doing science (I know it sounds romantic, but it's technically true) and have to drag myself to work every day. On the positive, I'm getting "industry experience" and "people-management skills" (which I personally don't care about, but may be considered assets for future employers)
I have 2 questions:
1- What are my options to get out?
2- Is time spent at a "bad fit" (how some interviewers later referred to my current job) an issue in future positions? Basically does staying longer diminish my chances of "escape"?
I can think of the following options:
(1) Wait for the next best opportunity at the same level, in the right field: I have had 2 in-person interviews at other companies, one at my current company(lateral move to a different technical field), and some phone interviews here and there, but nothing panned out.
(2) Go back to another post-doc: I left my post-doc without a first-author paper, and hence, I don't have solid proof that I know some of the things I claim to know on my resume. The aim with this option would be to gain hard skills.
(3) Quit and start over somewhere else as a contractor (i.e. take an associate level job): This is similar to (2), but perhaps looks less desperate on my resume. We have quite a number of PhDs as contractors in RA/SRA level roles in my current company. The goal here would be career trajectory correction.
(4) ?
I'd appreciate some feedback from people who have had a longer experience in industry than me and perhaps seen how these moves can affect one's long-term career.