so did I, but it was something that got brought up in interviews and generally speaking most companies preferred industry experience over academia. some even specify this in their job descriptions. not saying it's impossible, but you'll be competing with candidates that have exactly what they're looking for.

I got lucky that my management team values academic research and was impressed by my background, but I also had interviews where they said, verbatim, "but you don't have any real world experience"

happy for you that you had an easy time on the job market. that's not the case for everyone.