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What is the most challenging aspect of being a college professor?

#college #professor #phd #tenure

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Austin’s Answer

Hi Hailey good question.

As a college professor you are going to work long hours. Being a teacher, especially a college professor, is not a 9-5 job. You will be working definitely 50+ hours a week and I know a few who work over 60. You will be spending lots of time at home or in your office creating lesson plans, grading assignments, and meeting to help students. It is a job that requires a significant time commitment so it is something that you definitely should be aware about going in. Being a professor is a lot more than just showing up to class and instructing, there are many out of class roles and responsibilities that you will have to deal with.


I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck!!


Best,

Austin

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Paul’s Answer

I agree with Austin's answer. Being a professor, especially early in your career (the first 10 years after earning your PhD), is probably going to require 50+ hour work weeks. For professors in the United States, it's very likely that you will have to move several times in order to advance your career, going from one 9-month or 3-year visiting position in one region of the US to another. Depending on the region you are in and the institution you are affiliated, your income will be somewhere between $36,000 and $76,000 per academic year. Much of your work time will be uncompensated. You will be expected to provide world-leading research and assess the work of other world-leading experts for free.

There is very little support for professors in terms of career growth. Mentoring is exceptional and you ought not expect it from others.
What's worse is that, because so few people ever earn a PhD (about 1% of the US population), very few people understand what it means to have earned a PhD. There are many people in the professional world who have attended college and so they think that because they've been in a classroom they understand what a professor does for a living—it's like eating at a restaurant and assuming you know how to run a restaurant. The result is that PhDs generally aren't able to communicate effectively to non-experts what they can provide to employers outside of academia. It's a shame, but it's not an insurmountable problem.

Paul recommends the following next steps:

Meet with your professors and ask them this question.
Reach out to people with PhDs who are working outside of Academia
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