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

[mahagonny]

I may not be talented at teaching or research, but I figure I can contribute as I close out my career by using the power that comes with being a tenured man to create a better environment for my colleagues and students.

How do you make things better for lazy students is one of your problems, and mine, despite other differences in our jobs.

I became an academic because I thought it was a meaningful occupation. I've mostly wasted my career on service, teaching, and research. When I retire, the world will be no better or worse. There will be someone else to respond to email, write papers nobody cares about, and teach classes that students don't want to take. Nobody will care that the employee id of the person doing those tasks has changed.

If the world will be no worse when you retire, chances are good you've maintained something that needed maintaining. In my field, people are taking silly things and elevating them to the status of art, through tenure, accreditation, publications, awarding degrees. (Yes, I am a big fat snob).
"Where mediocrity is the norm, it will not be long before mediocrity is the ideal."

[0susanna]

There's always something, isn't there? I can't think of any other job that would give me this amount of time and space in which to pursue my own research and reward me for the results of that research, as unusual as they might be, without requiring me to bow and scrape for money somehow--if you don't count filling out a few "travel funding" request and reimbursement forms per year as "bowing and scraping." Teaching has mostly seemed worthwhile, too. I have managed to avoid being promoted to administration, a role I'm ill-suited for because I have few organizational skills, except for a brief stint as department chair.

Back to the cluttered desk!

[nonntt]

Even after failing out of a never-TT career, if I'm honest I'd have to admit that I'd do it again because I'm still a sucker for the same stimuli and rewards that got me to this point in the first place. I love weird little historical/linguistc problems in literature that are amenable to poking around in archives and databases. My grad school, postdoc, and NTT years gave me lots of time to do stuff like that.

I spent nearly all of my career living in one of those states or the other, and I taught for several years at one of those schools. And all in all, it was pretty great. If that place called up and offered me a job, I'd go back tomorrow, just so I can spend more time fiddling with weird historical problems.

[tyroscholar]

When my undergraduate students tell me they hope to end up where I am some day, I point out that I started on the tenure track 17 years after I graduated from college.  In between, I taught high school in a large public school district for several years (got tenure there, or the equivalent, anyway), had kids, and then adjuncted for many years, all before returning to a final round of grad school for my Ph.D. and landing a TT position.  Honestly I wouldn't trade any of it.  I am also fortunate to be tenured now, which is a HUGE psychological shift into job security, and I make a point of advocating for my untenured colleagues, especially adjuncts, as much as I can.  I know I have been very lucky, and I see that in the humanities, especially, going into academia is mostly a losing bargain.  But-- I never complain about my working conditions, pay scale, nor nothing.  Even at my Tier III public regional college, this is truly the easy life, and I get to do what I love every day.

[pepsi_alum]

Probably not, if I had been given a crystal ball in 2004 that showed exactly how the next 16 years would be filled with events beyond my control (the meltdown of my own graduate program, the Great Recession, Trumpism, and so on). At minimum, I would have chosen a different graduate program than the one I did. If I could have pushed the crystal back even further, I probably would have majored in accounting and never gone to graduate school.

That having been said, when I started grad school in 2004, I believed that I was making an informed decision. I knew that academic jobs were tight in many fields and I tried to choose a less competitive field and a doctoral program that had a "good" placement reputation. Multiple mentors assured me that I was choosing a strong doctoral program, and in fact the program had an excellent record of TT placements right up until the Great Recession. (Every single person in my department who successfully defended their dissertation in the 2007-2008 academic year found a TT job). The 2008 global meltdown changed everything, and I suspect that's a common theme across academia.

[ciao_yall]

Probably not, if I had been given a crystal ball in 2004 that showed exactly how the next 16 years would be filled with events beyond my control (the meltdown of my own graduate program, the Great Recession, Trumpism, and so on). At minimum, I would have chosen a different graduate program than the one I did. If I could have pushed the crystal back even further, I probably would have majored in accounting and never gone to graduate school.

That having been said, when I started grad school in 2004, I believed that I was making an informed decision. I knew that academic jobs were tight in many fields and I tried to choose a less competitive field and a doctoral program that had a "good" placement reputation. Multiple mentors assured me that I was choosing a strong doctoral program, and in fact the program had an excellent record of TT placements right up until the Great Recession. (Every single person in my department who successfully defended their dissertation in the 2007-2008 academic year found a TT job). The 2008 global meltdown changed everything, and I suspect that's a common theme across academia.

Same here. I chose my specialty (financial services) with the eyes towards knowing I would always have a job in technology because hey, banks are just computers with a building around them, right?

Then came dot-bomb, 9-11 and the 2008 financial market meltdown. So my skills became less and less desirable as time went on.

[tuxthepenguin]

Even at my Tier III public regional college, this is truly the easy life, and I get to do what I love every day.

This is somewhat orthogonal to your post, but I'm not sure why you put "Even" at the start of this sentence. The former students that are happiest with their academic jobs are the ones at places I'd consider Tier III public. They don't have the stress of having to publish in the top journals for tenure, teaching expectations are easy enough to meet, and the students are mostly nice. There's usually time for research each week and money for travel to regional conferences. There are some that would be miserable with a heavy teaching load and limited hours for research, but they don't often get those jobs. The students that get jobs at places that pretend to have an R1 research environment are often miserable. I know because I'm constantly writing letters for them (in many cases they're applying for Tier III public jobs).

[Caracal]

At the risk of going into "Its a Wonderful Life" territory, what's the point of regretting decisions made a long time ago? When don't go to grad school essays were in vogue a few years ago, this idea of regret was really central. The theme was that somehow going to grad school was this terrible life altering mistake that ruined the writer's life, rather than just a thing they did that didn't turn out the way they had hoped and imagined it would. Lots of things don't turn out the way we think they will.

I'm not dead yet, so I could certainly decide to go do something else. Maybe at some point, I will.

[lightning]

I

At the risk of going into "Its a Wonderful Life" territory, what's the point of regretting decisions made a long time ago? When don't go to grad school essays were in vogue a few years ago, this idea of regret was really central. The theme was that somehow going to grad school was this terrible life altering mistake that ruined the writer's life, rather than just a thing they did that didn't turn out the way they had hoped and imagined it would. Lots of things don't turn out the way we think they will.

I'm not dead yet, so I could certainly decide to go do something else. Maybe at some point, I will.

I found the survey to be very illuminating. It turns out, at least according to the respondents, that academe is not as bad as some people make it out to be.

It's a nice counter to the ex-academics who, in their heart, harbor some regret over entering and/or leaving academe, and spend an inordinate amount of time trying to convince people that academe sucks, because they can't get over their own regret.

[Wahoo Redux]

I

At the risk of going into "Its a Wonderful Life" territory, what's the point of regretting decisions made a long time ago? When don't go to grad school essays were in vogue a few years ago, this idea of regret was really central. The theme was that somehow going to grad school was this terrible life altering mistake that ruined the writer's life, rather than just a thing they did that didn't turn out the way they had hoped and imagined it would. Lots of things don't turn out the way we think they will.

I'm not dead yet, so I could certainly decide to go do something else. Maybe at some point, I will.

I found the survey to be very illuminating. It turns out, at least according to the respondents, that academe is not as bad as some people make it out to be.

It's a nice counter to the ex-academics who, in their heart, harbor some regret over entering and/or leaving academe, and spend an inordinate amount of time trying to convince people that academe sucks, because they can't get over their own regret.

Shazam.   

[mahagonny]

I

At the risk of going into "Its a Wonderful Life" territory, what's the point of regretting decisions made a long time ago? When don't go to grad school essays were in vogue a few years ago, this idea of regret was really central. The theme was that somehow going to grad school was this terrible life altering mistake that ruined the writer's life, rather than just a thing they did that didn't turn out the way they had hoped and imagined it would. Lots of things don't turn out the way we think they will.

I'm not dead yet, so I could certainly decide to go do something else. Maybe at some point, I will.

I found the survey to be very illuminating. It turns out, at least according to the respondents, that academe is not as bad as some people make it out to be.

It's a nice counter to the ex-academics who, in their heart, harbor some regret over entering and/or leaving academe, and spend an inordinate amount of time trying to convince people that academe sucks, because they can't get over their own regret.

Shazam.

If you're an ex-academic, you're not reading the forum, chances are. So we didn't hear from you. Higher ed teaching employment conditions have  been mostly either trashed or neglected, take your pick of terms, but most certainly, willfully. 'Getting over regret' does not mean denying that you saw the handwriting on the wall and then took decisive steps to repair your life because not doing so would have been intolerable.
Not to push my point, but you can't both tell people who think their job sucks to quit complaining and get a different one, and then complain later that they're telling people why they changed careers. They did what you asked them to.
I could tell you a lot about the talent that walked away from teaching and never looked back. I guess I'm not flattering myself. But facts are facts.
Shazam??!

[downer]

At the risk of going into "Its a Wonderful Life" territory, what's the point of regretting decisions made a long time ago? When don't go to grad school essays were in vogue a few years ago, this idea of regret was really central. The theme was that somehow going to grad school was this terrible life altering mistake that ruined the writer's life, rather than just a thing they did that didn't turn out the way they had hoped and imagined it would. Lots of things don't turn out the way we think they will.

I'm not dead yet, so I could certainly decide to go do something else. Maybe at some point, I will.

Wallowing in regret would certainly be counter-productive. But keeping in mind the options one had and the choices one made can also be helpful in assessing one's ability to make good decisions, and the kinds of errors one makes. [All these "one"s -- makes me sound like the Queen.]

It can also be helpful in giving advice to other people who are considering going into academic life.

I'm in favor of reflecting on life's choices, past and future.

[mahagonny]

At the risk of going into "Its a Wonderful Life" territory, what's the point of regretting decisions made a long time ago? When don't go to grad school essays were in vogue a few years ago, this idea of regret was really central. The theme was that somehow going to grad school was this terrible life altering mistake that ruined the writer's life, rather than just a thing they did that didn't turn out the way they had hoped and imagined it would. Lots of things don't turn out the way we think they will.

I'm not dead yet, so I could certainly decide to go do something else. Maybe at some point, I will.

Wallowing in regret would certainly be counter-productive. But keeping in mind the options one had and the choices one made can also be helpful in assessing one's ability to make good decisions, and the kinds of errors one makes. [All these "one"s -- makes me sound like the Queen.]

It can also be helpful in giving advice to other people who are considering going into academic life.

I'm in favor of reflecting on life's choices, past and future.

Agree with that. Regret is the past tense of worry and both are bad for you. At the same time, higher ed culture has cultivated a relationship with its workforce that is highly controversial. Part of that (most?) is the practice of growing a workforce that barely has a relationship with the institution. I'm referring, of course, to part timers. No one can change this without changing what higher ed does. The controversy was foreseeable and deserved.

[marshwiggle]

If you're an ex-academic, you're not reading the forum, chances are. So we didn't hear from you. Higher ed teaching employment conditions have  been mostly either trashed or neglected, take your pick of terms, but most certainly, willfully.

...

I could tell you a lot about the talent that walked away from teaching and never looked back. I guess I'm not flattering myself. But facts are facts.

This raises an interesting question, related to the Colleges in Dire Financial Straits thread. Given that the adjunct situation is most dire at the places which are struggling to keep the lights on as enrollment declines, would it be better in the long run to close down a bunch of these struggling places with mediocre (or worse) jobs, and consolidate to a system with many fewer (but larger) institutions with better jobs for the faculty they need?

In other words, if "the system" were only able to employ half as many people as it currently does, but all of those jobs had decent pay, benefits, and workload, would people consider that a success or a failure?

[mahagonny]

If you're an ex-academic, you're not reading the forum, chances are. So we didn't hear from you. Higher ed teaching employment conditions have  been mostly either trashed or neglected, take your pick of terms, but most certainly, willfully.

...

I could tell you a lot about the talent that walked away from teaching and never looked back. I guess I'm not flattering myself. But facts are facts.

This raises an interesting question, related to the Colleges in Dire Financial Straits thread. Given that the adjunct situation is most dire at the places which are struggling to keep the lights on as enrollment declines, would it be better in the long run to close down a bunch of these struggling places with mediocre (or worse) jobs, and consolidate to a system with many fewer (but larger) institutions with better jobs for the faculty they need?

In other words, if "the system" were only able to employ half as many people as it currently does, but all of those jobs had decent pay, benefits, and workload, would people consider that a success or a failure?

People who had the good jobs at those colleges that were limping along would consider it a tragedy, and would howl about it. Because they think the tenure track is the center of the universe and the salvation of the free world. Or the matrix of a human progress.