How do you make the switch to industry?

My last post elicited two very interesting comments and I am really glad that Miko and Anonymous added their thoughts. It made me wonder about how one makes that transition into industry. I would be really interested in those of you who are currently in industry telling the story of how you made the transition.

In particular I'd want to know:

Without giving too much away, what type of work do you currently do, i.e pharma, energy, or agricultural etc? Do you work for a big or small company?

Why did you make the switch from academia to industry? What were your motivations?

Did you have a good experience in your PhD or was it difficult? Was your PhD related to applied research that the transition seemed natural or was it in a basic science?

What was difficult about this transition and what was easy?

How did you make the transition? Did you know someone at the company or did you just send out your resume to job postings?

I think many of us would benefit from these stories. So if you are currently in an non-academic position and want to write a guest post detailing your journey from academia into industry, please contact me at girlpostdoc@gmail.com or just leave a comment in the comment section.