What put me off academic research was essentially the utter lack of &quot;genuine&quot; teamwork - when a lot of interactions with a colleague become negotiations about whether your name goes on their paper and if so in what place it all becomes a bit tedious.<p>That might have been the lab I was in - while everyone was nice there was a distinct weird cutthroat element to it that I haven&#x27;t encountered anywhere else.<p>Edit: I should correct that - this was in the UK so everyone <i>appeared</i> nice, I know there was a bit of back stabbing from on high directed at anyone who looked likely to be too successful.