Would you become an academic if you could do it all over again?

[ciao_yall]

"Academia" (if Community College counts as such) basically found me. During dot-bomb, when I and a whole bunch of other techie-types were unemployed, I found out I could teach with an MBA at a local CC. They hired me at the last minute when a faculty member quit 2 weeks before the semester started.

Didn't pay much, but it was more respectable and a better use of my education than folding sweaters at Target. Eventually I went full-time and got tenure, which has been nice for job security.

Now I'm an administrator which would be a better use of my business-y skills, except... what can I say? College administrators have a reputation for a reason. People with PhD's in Biology or MFA's who probably were pretty good teachers and researchers don't know much about profit-and-loss statements, contracts, planning, marketing, information technology...

Not that I should be allowed to dissect a frog or even near a pottery wheel, still, specialization of skills does have its purpose.

[spork]

I often spend more time in meetings than I do in the classroom, and I'm a full time faculty member teaching beyond my contractual load every year because of bad 1) curriculum design, 2) past hiring decisions, and 3) academic leadership. If I had pursued a career on Wall Street I'd be retired by now with a summer home and a boat.

[Ruralguy]

Extra homes and vehicles are generally more trouble than they are worth, and some are worth a lot!

Anyway, although its not quite what I though it would be, some of it is better than what I thought and only a bit is worse. I think if you think you wouldn't enjoy the challenge of teaching and generally helping under-prepared and under-interested students, then probably most of academia probably isn't for you, no matter how brilliant and talented you are in your sub-field. Brilliance and talent can certainly help you in teaching, but you have to want it to.

Also, as many a thread will show, the profession can be OK on compensation, but it certainly isn't always so, and often can be terrible, and is rarely great for compensation. For dual income and no or few children in an inexpensive area, its OK, much of the time. For a one income family, 3 or more kids, expensive area, you'd be better of doing something else, most likely.

[Kron3007]

I had to face this choice recently when a company tried to recruit me, making me question what I wanted to be when I grow up.  While I would almost definitely have made more money if I had joined them, I ultimately decided to stay because I generally like my job, love the freedom I have on many levels, and appreciate the job security tenure provides.  So, while I still dream about the yachts etc., I would be very hard pressed to leave academia or choose a different path.

That being said, some of the factors that contributed to my choice include the fact that I have what I consider to be an ideal academic appointment where I can generate and own IP (perhaps the yacht is still in my future...), have a relatively light teaching load, make decent money, and am in a great (albeit cold) location.  If I had to choose between many other academic positions and something else, I would likely leave academia.

[secundem_artem]

If you want my Power Point clicker, you'll have to take it from my cold, dead hand.

Seriously, looking, dressing, thinking and acting like I do?  The only other way to get a consistent paycheck would be if I were the bassist for Blue Öyster Cult or something.  And let's face it, all I know how to do is read, write, talk, and some fairly rudimentary mathematics.

Somehow I stumbled into a job that pays more with better working conditions than the licensed allied health professional I trained to be.

[lillipat]

I've had an excellent life as an academic, though as ciao_yall mentioned, that's assuming community college counts as such.  I was always going to teach, and it was apparently evident to people around me that I was going into music from about age 12 or so.  With those 2 things apparently as givens, certainly academe was the most sensible way to go.  But as I've told my kids (now in their very late 20s) many times over the years, even though it's been good to me, I cannot recommend it for them.  The nature of the job and of the academy itself has changed so significantly, that I wouldn't make that choice today.

[wwwdotcom]

I initially worked in industry for a few years while going through my master's program, then gave it up for a GRA position through doctoral studies.  Have been in a faculty position ever since and wouldn't change one bit of it.  It's rewarding intellectually, socially, financially.  I understand that this isn't the case for many and wonder if there isn't a bit of field-dependency to responses. When I look around at colleagues in my department, you won't find many who are clamoring for other gigs.  There have been several poaching attempts over the years, yet we're mostly all still here.  We've had four 30+ year retirements in the past two years, plus two current faculty who've been here 35+ years.

[Parasaurolophus]

Probably? I really enjoyed my time as a PhD student, and I think I'm much better for it. And I love my subfield's community to death. But I'm in the humanities, and my field has one of the worst humanities job markets, so...

I'm lucky to have something pretty decent at the moment. It's non-ideal in a lot of ways (I'm essentially an adjunct with decent pay and great benefits, but no guaranteed courseload--and thus no guaranteed salary--until I get seniority), but my long-term prospects here are pretty good, despite a few potential short-term hiccups. This isn't really the kind of job I want for myself long-term, though, and I place a higher premium on other life things than I do on my (paid) work.

So yeah. Probably, because I think I'd do the PhD again. But I can't rule out opting to do something else after (nor, indeed, can I rule that out for myself now). I need to feel challenged, and I'm not sure what to do about it once I stop. The academic life only has so many inbuilt challenges.

[Golazo]

In contrast, in my current job, I spend most of my time doing things that are genuinely interesting or necessary to get to do the interesting things.  Academia was the place where I didn't fit at all, despite being bookish, loving school as a student, and wanting to talk about ideas.  Instead, most days were the horrible lifestyle lampooned in Office Space and Fight Club in trying to meet arbitrary requirements clearly put in place by morons who were more concerned with keeping their jobs and the form of education than actually providing an educational community in which people were learning, discussing, and being modified by that learning and discussion.  I was busy all the time, but seldom was I doing something that was long-term important.  The least intellectual places I've been have been universities and that's not just Super Dinky.

I'm sorry, Polly, that this has been your experience. I taught at a place kind of like Super Dinky though somewhere warmer on a FT/NTT contract while I was finishing my PHD, and that was generally not a rewarding intellectual experience, though not full of administrative nonsense. My current place has way less bureaucratic BS than my work at the think tank. Not that it dosen't have it, but my experience with both government and the non-profit sector is that both have it worse than well-functioning academia.

[Kron3007]

In contrast, in my current job, I spend most of my time doing things that are genuinely interesting or necessary to get to do the interesting things.  Academia was the place where I didn't fit at all, despite being bookish, loving school as a student, and wanting to talk about ideas.  Instead, most days were the horrible lifestyle lampooned in Office Space and Fight Club in trying to meet arbitrary requirements clearly put in place by morons who were more concerned with keeping their jobs and the form of education than actually providing an educational community in which people were learning, discussing, and being modified by that learning and discussion.  I was busy all the time, but seldom was I doing something that was long-term important.  The least intellectual places I've been have been universities and that's not just Super Dinky.

I'm sorry, Polly, that this has been your experience. I taught at a place kind of like Super Dinky though somewhere warmer on a FT/NTT contract while I was finishing my PHD, and that was generally not a rewarding intellectual experience, though not full of administrative nonsense. My current place has way less bureaucratic BS than my work at the think tank. Not that it dosen't have it, but my experience with both government and the non-profit sector is that both have it worse than well-functioning academia.

Yeah, it seems that there is so much diversity among universities that there is no real typical experience. 

I have been dealing with a lot of companies recently and am amazed at how much beaurocracy they often have.  I had assumed that they would have far less of this, but it seems they often have it worse than I do with legal teams, NDAs, MTAs, and all sorts of red tape.  It has been a bit of an eye opener...

[mamselle]

I worked for a lab director at a pharma once as his EA.

It took a year to get a particular MTA worded, signed, processed, and set up so the material could be delivered.

Then they laid off the entire lab that was going to do the work.

So, yeah.

M.

[HomunculusParty]

I came from a STEM discipline, worked in industry a little bit, went back to STEM for my Ph.D., had an ethical freakout, and now I'm in the humanities. When I went into my humanities Ph.D. program, and then again when I went on the job market, I told myself, "If this doesn't work out I'll just go back to industry." I got amazingly lucky on the market, and have a wonderful job with great colleagues and many extraordinary students.

Whenever I think what I'd do if I won the lottery... I'd just keep doing what I'm doing. I love writing and I love teaching. I love hearing from former students years later about what they're doing with their lives. I love the flexibility and freedom - right now I'm on the precipice of a new big project that just crystallized for me, and nothing stands in the way of my doing it. I don't love meetings but I'm not overly burdened with them (and sometimes there are free sandwiches!). But I'm conscious every day of how lucky I am and I try to live up to my good fortune.

[polly_mer]

In contrast, in my current job, I spend most of my time doing things that are genuinely interesting or necessary to get to do the interesting things.  Academia was the place where I didn't fit at all, despite being bookish, loving school as a student, and wanting to talk about ideas.  Instead, most days were the horrible lifestyle lampooned in Office Space and Fight Club in trying to meet arbitrary requirements clearly put in place by morons who were more concerned with keeping their jobs and the form of education than actually providing an educational community in which people were learning, discussing, and being modified by that learning and discussion.  I was busy all the time, but seldom was I doing something that was long-term important.  The least intellectual places I've been have been universities and that's not just Super Dinky.

I'm sorry, Polly, that this has been your experience. I taught at a place kind of like Super Dinky though somewhere warmer on a FT/NTT contract while I was finishing my PHD, and that was generally not a rewarding intellectual experience, though not full of administrative nonsense. My current place has way less bureaucratic BS than my work at the think tank. Not that it dosen't have it, but my experience with both government and the non-profit sector is that both have it worse than well-functioning academia.

How much well-functioning academia is there?  I interviewed at exactly one place where I'd seriously consider taking a faculty job if the department called tomorrow and offered it to me (8 years after I applied).  My current employer is the happy recipient of many people leaving tenured positions at R1s in relevant fields.  I'd much rather deal with "we've made the decision; here's your role" than spend a year discussing whether we need a decision in a participatory, shared governance model.

I'd go back to any of my professional non-academic jobs before I took a job with death-by-participation democracy that is the hallmark of academia again.  A bad manager can be managed; a bad shared premise on how the world should work is forever.

[Wahoo Redux]

Well Polly, at least you're not bitter.

[Ruralguy]

Though I've had a more positive experience, or maybe just deluded myself more, I do think there is a certain tyranny to autonomy that isn't really supervised and democracy without true vision.