Letter from Employer Well Known in Academia

[kashyapa]

Hello,

I am a junior in college and I plan to pursue a PhD in Computer Science. I have a question about obtaining a Letter of Recommendation from an employer. Let me begin by saying I am aware PhD admission committees prefer letters from academic faculty, and I apologize if this is a repeat question. Here's my dilemma:

So I interned at a robotics startup this summer, and they want to me come back next summer. However, I explained to them that I want to do a research internship under a professor next summer for grad school. They told me that they would give me some research-like robotics/ML project to work on and that the CEO, who happens to be a very well known name in robotics industry and academia, could provide me a letter of rec. I am not sure if a letter from her would be as good as a letter from a professor or research scientist and if my experience there would count as undergrad research experience. I'm on the fence about whether I should accept the offer, only since the employer is well regarded in academia.

Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you very much!

Edited September 20, 2016 by kashyapa