Can lecturers work in the real world?

Do they want to? :-)

Seriously though, congratulations to my old mate Stephen Mcglinchey who has just got a job with Eurocom as a core graphics programmer - http://www.eurocom.co.uk/. All he needed to do was get a good degree in Computing, complete a PhD in neural networks, lecture for around seven years in game development, and develop a skill in PS2 low level programming!

Lecturers can work in the real world :-) and its possible for PhD students to get a job in the games industry if they really want to.