WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

real world
    n 1: the practical world as opposed to the academic world; "a
         good consultant must have a lot of experience in the real
         world" [syn: real world, real life]

The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):

Real World
 n.

    1. Those institutions at which ?programming? may be used in the same
    sentence as ?FORTRAN?, ?COBOL?, ?RPG?, ?IBM?, ?DBASE?, etc. Places
    where programs do such commercially necessary but intellectually
    uninspiring things as generating payroll checks and invoices.

    2. The location of non-programmers and activities not related to
    programming.

    3. A bizarre dimension in which the standard dress is shirt and tie and in
    which a person's working hours are defined as 9 to 5 (see code grinder).

    4. Anywhere outside a university. ?Poor fellow, he's left MIT and gone into
    the Real World.? Used pejoratively by those not in residence there. In
    conversation, talking of someone who has entered the Real World is not
    unlike speaking of a deceased person. It is also noteworthy that on the
    campus of Cambridge University in England, there is a gaily-painted
    lamp-post which bears the label ?REALITY CHECKPOINT?. It marks the boundary
    between university and the Real World; check your notions of reality before
    passing. This joke is funnier because the Cambridge ?campus? is actually
    coextensive with the center of Cambridge town. See also fear and loathing
    , mundane, and uninteresting.

    [cobol]

    ()


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

Real World

   1. Those institutions at which "programming" may be used in
   the same sentence as "Fortran", "COBOL", "RPG", "IBM",
   "DBASE", etc.  Places where programs do such commercially
   necessary but intellectually uninspiring things as generating
   payroll checks and invoices.

   2. The location of non-programmers and activities not related
   to programming.

   3. A bizarre dimension in which the standard dress is shirt
   and tie and in which a person's working hours are defined as 9
   to 5 (see code grinder).

   4. Anywhere outside a university.  "Poor fellow, he's left MIT
   and gone into the Real World."  Used pejoratively by those not
   in residence there.  In conversation, talking of someone who
   has entered the Real World is not unlike speaking of a
   deceased person.  It is also noteworthy that on the campus of
   Cambridge University in England, there is a gaily-painted
   lamp-post which bears the label "REALITY CHECKPOINT".  It
   marks the boundary between university and the Real World;
   check your notions of reality before passing.  This joke is
   funnier because the Cambridge "campus" is actually coextensive
   with the centre of Cambridge.

   See also fear and loathing, mundane, uninteresting.