I followed the inverse path: first academia in non-CS and then tech engineering. And though it hasn’t been that many years after academia, I wouldn’t be able to do it again after my gap. Granted, academics will probably don’t care about my experiences doing something else, but personally I have forgotten so many things that I’d have to start with master-level courses to refresh my memory. And then spend months to catch up with the advancements in the field I was working on.

But then again, I might be comparing oranges to apples here.