[quote]Who says you can’t accumulate great experience in academia? I didn’t mean fresh out of grad school.

I know at least couple folks in UCSD that are Senior Programmers for at least 5-8 yrs and I consider them excellent. Some people like the laid back lifestyle of academia, the flexibility and the unbeatable benefits of academia and for them money is not an major consideration.[/quote]

When I interviewed with google two years ago, they mentioned that they preferred hiring IT folk from Uni environments.