Your second paragraph sums everything up perfectly. I am a tenure-track lecturer, and love my job for all the reasons you mention, despite the relatively poor p

Your second paragraph sums everything up perfectly. I am a tenure-track lecturer, and love my job for all the reasons you mention, despite the relatively poor pay. I essentially have the freedom to work on whatever the hell I want; and that to me is priceless. I would also mention teaching: some academic staff hate it because it takes time away from research. This is true but my experience is that if you put time into being a good teacher then you get to take your pick of the brightest students to help you with your research, which can lead to interesting Masters projects which lead on to PhDs.