Most people who love undergraduate teaching choose to work at teaching colleges (of which there are many excellent ones). The downside of going to the colleges

Most people who love undergraduate teaching choose to work at teaching colleges (of which there are many excellent ones). The downside of going to the colleges is that, in most cases, it involves sacrificing research progress. Step 0 in getting a tenure-track position at an R1 research school is to have an excellent research track record. Step 1 is having a plan that is likely to yield at least a decade of reliable research success and grant funding. A strong desire to teach undergraduates is somewhere between Step 3 and Step 10, depending upon the school. There are a number of reasons why I haven't pursued a faculty position. Among them is that I love working closely with graduate students, but am not fired up about teaching large classes of undergraduates. Another is that doing a reasonable job of research and running a research group is already more than a full-time job. To layer teaching on top is, for me, a guaranteed path to burnout and sadness. So, I've ridden the research/postdoc train about as far as it will go -- I'm leaving my postdoc position in mid/late summer.