My personal experience: the academic world can be vicious, and the in-fighting and the status manoeuvring, intense. I was awarded a full-time position in a very academic environment. Wow: the pressure (they would say, "helpful advice") I received from Masters and PhD. guys and gals to "go to university and get a degree" was obvious, early on.  They didn't want to improve me, necessarily (I had all the experience and skills to do the job) but rather, I believe, to validate their own career choices...and accepted credentials. Being successful without a degree, I flew in the face of all their preconceived notions...

I had a great time during my four-year term but I was ready to leave when it ended.  It ended, not so incidentally, because the academics failed to manage their corporate funding properly and the funding body forced them to cut back in extreme ways.  One way: they closed my office and never hired a replacement for me...