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He's leaving a well paid job that gives him considerable influence because there are serious problems in academia that cant be solved easily. I find it difficul

He's leaving a well paid job that gives him considerable influence because there are serious problems in academia that cant be solved easily. I find it difficult to imagine that he will find a alternate career path without that issue. Every profession/industry has serious systemic problems. I think the author needs to either search his heart more deeply to find out the real reason why he's leaving his job, or reconsider his decision to leave it if it's not too late.

baby 11y ago
Completely agree with you > I think the author needs to either search his heart more deeply That's the problem with graduating so early and following your initial studying path. You didn't have time to think about what you were doing, was it the right thing, was it what you wanted, etc... I always wondered how that kind of case usually ends. The people who've been doing one thing only in life, and ends up in a job right away. I guess your world can crumble in your mid-life.
- jleyank 11y ago
  I might be misreading the story, but (a) there should be some mention of (staggering?) tuition debt from Law and Grad School or (b) did he transition from tenure-track to tenure? "Walking away" from failing to get tenure is merely a step ahead of the moving vans. Tossing tenure, however, is a significant personal and career move that should be discussed in some depth. And going through two professional post-graduate schools (in the US anyway) costs serious coin. Can such debts be forgiven or delayed in any way, or did the author split from both a job and regular meals? Hopefully, this isn't a "poor little rich kid" story following the path he was told to follow and then realizing that the result's not beer and skittles? If so, I hope the author finds out what he'd like to do... Should be well-trained for the law or politics. Politics with training and a heart would be a nice change!
- nashashmi 11y ago
  > That's the problem with graduating so early and following your initial studying path. I don't think the choice of study path is a problem. After all, he was doing this for 20 years and does not have a problem with what he was teaching. He has a problem with the people that benefited or did not benefit from his work. ... "Why don't you do something more meaningful with your life?" ... The real problem is he thought life would be perfect, that there would be no problems he would have a hard time solving, that everything would be as imagined. And the early success did give him false visions of grandeur and an amazing world. Early success just was not sustainable. In the end, the reality that overcame was that life sucked and will continue to suck. Only little pockets of joy exist here and there. Especially when you are a bleeding edge researcher.
  - estefan 11y ago
    > In the end, the reality that overcame was that life sucked and will continue to suck. Only little pockets of joy exist here and there. Ever considered a sideline as a motivational speaker?
- at-fates-hands 11y ago
  >> That's the problem with graduating so early and following your initial studying path. You didn't have time to think about what you were doing, was it the right thing, was it what you wanted, etc... This is a great point and one I think clearly happened to the author and to a lesser degree myself. I was all about going into academia, being a professor, travelling the world on other people's money and studying romantic cultures in far away places. I was warned about the environment then (early and mid 00's) and the lack of pay, but I wanted to experience it so bad. I had blinders on and all I wanted was my doctoral degree and then kickstart myself into a PhD program. I burned out in epic fashion and took a few years off and regrouped. In the meantime, a half dozen of my friends graduated and landed teaching jobs, and others started in their doctoral programs. Within a year, they were all out. Either pivoting and going back to school for a completely different major, or pivoting into some other field and out of academia completely. I was lucky and avoided most of it - but without my burn out, I'm afraid I probably would have been in the same place as the author. Without a real examination of where I was going and what I really wanted to do with my life, I almost lost several years finding out academia really wasn't the place I wanted to be. I look back and see I really dodged a bullet.
bko 11y ago
Perhaps his problem is that he's not really generating any value. He's just spinning his wheels. I would be frustrated in a job where I'm not helping generate anything of value, regardless of the perks. Many people try to find meaning in their work.
- mcguire 11y ago
  "...he's not really generating any value..." Please define "value".
scott_s 11y ago
Academics do not have large salaries. They have two primary things that make up for it: freedom in what they do, and the feeling of having a positive impact on their students specifically, and society in general. So, if we consider his entire compensation, think of it as salary + freedom + positive impact. This essay is explaining why he thinks that the freedom and positive impact parts of his compensation are significantly less than he initially thought. When that's the case, the next obvious question is: is this worth it? He's answering no. All occupations have problems, but he may find another occupation where he feels all aspects of his compensation (not just monetary) are worth it.
- reagency 11y ago
  Tenured academics also have long term job security and increasing amounts of paid free time as they get older, past the age that they would have a hard time holding a senior job in industry.
- PaulHoule 11y ago
  Tenure track professors get paid pretty well, adjuncts get paid like Scientology staff.
  - amyjess 11y ago
    The example he used in that article was an adjunct making $15k and a professor making $60k. If that $60k is actually his salary, that's not great. Now, if one of the other commenters is right and he's at UT Arlington, $60k is a perfectly liveable income here, but any professional job with more than a few years experience is going to surpass that. As a software engineer in the same metropolitan area with about 6 years experience, I make $66k/year. I'm not even that good, and I'm probably younger than him.
    - bachmeier 11y ago
      60K for an assistant professor in history sounds about right. Pretty much any assistant professor position in the humanities is going to have a starting salary at that level or less in a not highly ranked university.
blakeyrat 11y ago
To be fair, the guy's fully qualified as a lawyer. It's not like he's going to work at McDonalds.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

baby 11y ago

Completely agree with you > I think the author needs to either search his heart more deeply That's the problem with graduating so early and following your initial studying path. You didn't have time to think about what you were doing, was it the right thing, was it what you wanted, etc... I always wondered how that kind of case usually ends. The people who've been doing one thing only in life, and ends up in a job right away. I guess your world can crumble in your mid-life.

jleyank 11y ago
I might be misreading the story, but (a) there should be some mention of (staggering?) tuition debt from Law and Grad School or (b) did he transition from tenure-track to tenure? "Walking away" from failing to get tenure is merely a step ahead of the moving vans. Tossing tenure, however, is a significant personal and career move that should be discussed in some depth. And going through two professional post-graduate schools (in the US anyway) costs serious coin. Can such debts be forgiven or delayed in any way, or did the author split from both a job and regular meals? Hopefully, this isn't a "poor little rich kid" story following the path he was told to follow and then realizing that the result's not beer and skittles? If so, I hope the author finds out what he'd like to do... Should be well-trained for the law or politics. Politics with training and a heart would be a nice change!
nashashmi 11y ago
> That's the problem with graduating so early and following your initial studying path. I don't think the choice of study path is a problem. After all, he was doing this for 20 years and does not have a problem with what he was teaching. He has a problem with the people that benefited or did not benefit from his work. ... "Why don't you do something more meaningful with your life?" ... The real problem is he thought life would be perfect, that there would be no problems he would have a hard time solving, that everything would be as imagined. And the early success did give him false visions of grandeur and an amazing world. Early success just was not sustainable. In the end, the reality that overcame was that life sucked and will continue to suck. Only little pockets of joy exist here and there. Especially when you are a bleeding edge researcher.
- estefan 11y ago
  > In the end, the reality that overcame was that life sucked and will continue to suck. Only little pockets of joy exist here and there. Ever considered a sideline as a motivational speaker?
at-fates-hands 11y ago
>> That's the problem with graduating so early and following your initial studying path. You didn't have time to think about what you were doing, was it the right thing, was it what you wanted, etc... This is a great point and one I think clearly happened to the author and to a lesser degree myself. I was all about going into academia, being a professor, travelling the world on other people's money and studying romantic cultures in far away places. I was warned about the environment then (early and mid 00's) and the lack of pay, but I wanted to experience it so bad. I had blinders on and all I wanted was my doctoral degree and then kickstart myself into a PhD program. I burned out in epic fashion and took a few years off and regrouped. In the meantime, a half dozen of my friends graduated and landed teaching jobs, and others started in their doctoral programs. Within a year, they were all out. Either pivoting and going back to school for a completely different major, or pivoting into some other field and out of academia completely. I was lucky and avoided most of it - but without my burn out, I'm afraid I probably would have been in the same place as the author. Without a real examination of where I was going and what I really wanted to do with my life, I almost lost several years finding out academia really wasn't the place I wanted to be. I look back and see I really dodged a bullet.

bko 11y ago

Perhaps his problem is that he's not really generating any value. He's just spinning his wheels. I would be frustrated in a job where I'm not helping generate anything of value, regardless of the perks. Many people try to find meaning in their work.

mcguire 11y ago
"...he's not really generating any value..." Please define "value".

scott_s 11y ago

Academics do not have large salaries. They have two primary things that make up for it: freedom in what they do, and the feeling of having a positive impact on their students specifically, and society in general. So, if we consider his entire compensation, think of it as salary + freedom + positive impact. This essay is explaining why he thinks that the freedom and positive impact parts of his compensation are significantly less than he initially thought. When that's the case, the next obvious question is: is this worth it? He's answering no. All occupations have problems, but he may find another occupation where he feels all aspects of his compensation (not just monetary) are worth it.

reagency 11y ago
Tenured academics also have long term job security and increasing amounts of paid free time as they get older, past the age that they would have a hard time holding a senior job in industry.
PaulHoule 11y ago
Tenure track professors get paid pretty well, adjuncts get paid like Scientology staff.
- amyjess 11y ago
  The example he used in that article was an adjunct making $15k and a professor making $60k. If that $60k is actually his salary, that's not great. Now, if one of the other commenters is right and he's at UT Arlington, $60k is a perfectly liveable income here, but any professional job with more than a few years experience is going to surpass that. As a software engineer in the same metropolitan area with about 6 years experience, I make $66k/year. I'm not even that good, and I'm probably younger than him.
  - bachmeier 11y ago
    60K for an assistant professor in history sounds about right. Pretty much any assistant professor position in the humanities is going to have a starting salary at that level or less in a not highly ranked university.

blakeyrat 11y ago

To be fair, the guy's fully qualified as a lawyer. It's not like he's going to work at McDonalds.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]