A hard science education is a great preparation for a ton of intellectual jobs. I think this exodus from academia shows that the modern world "industry" now offers problems just as complicated as solving Schrodinger's equation.
That's not what I said. I said outside of academia which you switched to non-research. There's plenty of research done outside, from Boeing air tunnels to biotechnology to (some) computer technology startups.
Plus, there are definitely some non-research jobs for which it's useful. Financial markets. Programming. While I wouldn't recommend doing a Ph.D. to become a better programmer, having done a minimum of research gives a different perspective on some problems.
The vast majority of jobs outside of academia are non-research. Moreover, the few corporate research jobs tend to be just as competitively sought as faculty positions, because the positions are so few relative to the supply of PhD-trained applicants.
Maybe it's because I'm too recently out of the system, but I think it was a nearly complete waste of time. Whatever skills I gained while doing my PhD, I would have gained working in industry for the same period of time -- and today I would be extremely well-connected (and far less poor). I'm proud of finishing, and there were certainly intangible benefits (mostly related to being surrounded by coeds for so many years). From a practical perspective, however, it was a terrible decision.
