I have only been working in industry, so I cannot speak to the differences between academia and industry. However, I can speak to what I have experienced in industry. My job is very structured, in that I am assigned to a project(s) and have specific parts of the project that I am responsible for. It is also structured in the sense that we work through very regimented design controls with each project. If this is something that appeals to you, I would recommend a job in industry. I would also add that having this structure does not mean that it gets boring and every project is the same. Every project is very unique, there are constantly challenges that you run into, and I can guarantee that you will not be bored working on a New Product Development (NPD) project in my role. In R&D we work on the development of the product from start to finish, which is really cool because you get to see all phases of the project and get the satisfaction of seeing the final product and launching it into the market.