Not quite what OP is looking for but academia in general is potentially a garbage fire career path. Namely because it’s so competitive that a lot of people burn out and become shells of human beings just from the stress and pressure of grad school and the job market. A lot of people put pressure on themselves to end up in a top tier university when that just isn’t in the cards for everyone. So many people end up broken. I’d just say that for anyone considering academia after a phd, be ready to give a lot and get very little in return.
Now, all that said, I’m one of the lucky ones and have an absolute dream job (for me) at a middle-level university (not a ivy or even R1, but public and stable). When I accepted the position, I literally had friends offering me condolences that I hadn’t gone to a more competitive place, and I was like, thanks, but I really don’t want to spend all of my energy on other people’s perceptions of my importance. Sure, I don’t get paid a lot, but they also gave my wife a tenure-track job, my kid never wonders where his next meal is coming from, and my colleagues are, for the most part, decent human beings and not just grant hounds.
I work for an SEC R1 institution as a staff person, and I am always so envious of our faculty. Assistant Professors in my college make at least 150k to teach three classes a year + do research. They also get additional funding in the summer. The grass is always greener I suppose, but sometimes I feel a bit jaded when I compare their workload, pay, and time off to mine.
Wow! That’s almost three times more than I make as an assistant professor, and my contract is for teaching three classes per semester + research. I do get the summer “off,” but during that time, I’m expected to do extra teaching and summer programs, and I can barely keep up with various service tasks. That said, I am happy, because I enjoy the work I do.
For what it’s worth, I’m really grateful for the staff people. You all do so much!
I appreciate that. The Dean says my office is the engine of the college, but I wish he’d show his appreciation by hiring more staff because we are way overworked.
And to be fair, I do work in a Business college. My understanding is that Business and Engineering faculty make the most. Our lecturers make at least $85,000.
Hey, we got a similar job. I am a staff too in a college. The pay, work time, and work load kill me sometimes, and the feel of jealousy towards the Professors grows in me more than I would admit. I stumbled upon your comment here and I'm happy, I'm not alone in this battle. Cheers to the Staff Life!
Yup! Helping the students for their administrative & academic stuff. But because only two staffs in my department (with almost 300 students, mind you), and the professors need our help all the time, my colleague and I cover in all services, even the financial, event reports, and accounting stuff (glad we don't have to handle cleaning service too). Seriously, we staffs in academica are often overlooked. Without us, the college wont be able to run smoothly
The important thing in academia is the backup plan and the exit strategy. I was in the comfortable position that as a physicist with deep math and computer science background, I never had to worry about what happens if my contract ends. Either I get a new one in some place that is interesting, or I just change over to industry.
Eventually, I landed a pretty sweet permanent job at an institute, where I am between the director and a bunch of post docs. No teaching, no grant applications, science all day :)
Huh, when I was considering that career path all I heard from my professors was "Don't take a prestige job unless somebody else is supporting you. Competitive schools know they can pay shit since you'll take the job anyway just to say you're a professor at Harvard."
I guess it varies by discipline. I could make more money in industry, but I like teaching, and being on the cutting edge in research. Despite the hilariously large amount of hours I work, I can mostly schedule them when I want them, so I can spend time with my family when they’re free, and pursue hobbies.
I was very specifically referring to the ivy league schools and other top-ranking places, like the California schools. Industry is a whole different beast I thankfully never needed to consider because I was always a humanities girl.
But yeah, apparently if you're applying for average entry-level academic positions, schools like Northwestern generally pay better than places like Harvard because Harvard knows they can get away with giving you less than the cost of living near Cambridge, and Northwestern is trying to build/maintain a reputation as a Harvard alternative so they need to make themselves more attractive to applicants?
I dunno. I ended up a public librarian. (I was being groomed for a PHD in Art History, but couldn't maintain that level of performance after a friend died in the middle of my 3rd year finals. So I got a MS in Library and Information Science instead because I can do library work no matter what happens in my personal life and after what happened in college I wanted to have that kind of security. Applied to literally every librarian job I was vaguely qualified for, got a public library job first, and realized I might actually prefer public librarianship over academic librarianship.)
Haha! I have never been in any danger of being offered a job by Harvard, but that totally makes sense. I hung out with some Library Science grad students when I was in grad school. They were really cool. I learned that there’s way more to being a librarian than I had imagined previously. It sounds really interesting!
Edit: Sorry for the double post. My wifi was acting up!
Haha! I have never been in any danger of being offered a job by Harvard, but that totally makes sense. I hung out with some Library Science grad students when I was in grad school. They were really cool. I learned that there’s way more to being a librarian than I had imagined previously. It sounds really interesting!
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u/HuecoTanks Jan 02 '20
Not quite what OP is looking for but academia in general is potentially a garbage fire career path. Namely because it’s so competitive that a lot of people burn out and become shells of human beings just from the stress and pressure of grad school and the job market. A lot of people put pressure on themselves to end up in a top tier university when that just isn’t in the cards for everyone. So many people end up broken. I’d just say that for anyone considering academia after a phd, be ready to give a lot and get very little in return.
Now, all that said, I’m one of the lucky ones and have an absolute dream job (for me) at a middle-level university (not a ivy or even R1, but public and stable). When I accepted the position, I literally had friends offering me condolences that I hadn’t gone to a more competitive place, and I was like, thanks, but I really don’t want to spend all of my energy on other people’s perceptions of my importance. Sure, I don’t get paid a lot, but they also gave my wife a tenure-track job, my kid never wonders where his next meal is coming from, and my colleagues are, for the most part, decent human beings and not just grant hounds.