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It sounds like you’ve been heavily influenced by the tone regarding academia here on HN. It’s one of the nuances of HN that people “hate academia” here. (Admitt

It sounds like you’ve been heavily influenced by the tone regarding academia here on HN. It’s one of the nuances of HN that people “hate academia” here. (Admittedly CS has a strange relationship with academia in that the pay discrepancy is so outrageous between industry.) Some people love academia. My PhD mentor is as happy as a pig in mud in his academic role. He only has to teach every other semester, and his course/lecture plans are solidified such that all he has to do is recite his notes beside slides and answer questions. He has to schlep to the classroom two days out of the week in these semesters, but his classes are back-to-back so that even those days are spent mostly where he likes. All of the rest of his time is spent happily “doing research” in a domain in which he’s a world expert. Publishing is a specialized sausage-production manufacturing domain, but if you enjoy the subject matter like he does (and I do) it can be a low-effort byproduct of effectively playing with code and ideas.

goodcanadian 4y ago
It sounds like your PhD mentor is one of the lucky ones. My understanding is that academia used to be like that, but it is unusual to get away with such a light teaching load these days. Academics also tend to get loaded up with other bureaucratic "service" tasks that heavily take away from the available research time. Finally, getting the job in the first place is next to impossible (though that might start to change as the people who have been holding the positions for decades are literally starting to die).
- enriquto 4y ago
  Fwiw, an entry-level tenured professor in France has to teach about 200 hours/year. This is a bit daunting the first year, but as you gain experience it's not that hard. Notice that this also includes hours for mentoring undergrad interns, masters students, etc. So if you are active in research, it's quite easy to cover nearly half of this teaching load for "free", thanks to students that want to work with you in your little projects. It's an awesome environment to be honest!
- comfypotato 4y ago
  Your point about bureaucratic service positions rings particularly true I think. It’s part of the job description and actually why I’ve decided the career path is not for me. The academics I’ve seen thrive all seem to enjoy that part of the job (my mentor, for example, goes out of his way to get involved in standards organizations and other international/academia-related groupings of bureaucratic process). At my research university, even associate professors (not sure about the details of what’s tenure track) don’t have to teach that much. There are actually “teaching professors” here who’s sole responsibility is teaching without research pressure, and they still only teach two classes per semester (admittedly, those classes might have 300 students).

goodcanadian 4y ago

It sounds like your PhD mentor is one of the lucky ones. My understanding is that academia used to be like that, but it is unusual to get away with such a light teaching load these days. Academics also tend to get loaded up with other bureaucratic "service" tasks that heavily take away from the available research time. Finally, getting the job in the first place is next to impossible (though that might start to change as the people who have been holding the positions for decades are literally starting to die).

enriquto 4y ago
Fwiw, an entry-level tenured professor in France has to teach about 200 hours/year. This is a bit daunting the first year, but as you gain experience it's not that hard. Notice that this also includes hours for mentoring undergrad interns, masters students, etc. So if you are active in research, it's quite easy to cover nearly half of this teaching load for "free", thanks to students that want to work with you in your little projects. It's an awesome environment to be honest!
comfypotato 4y ago
Your point about bureaucratic service positions rings particularly true I think. It’s part of the job description and actually why I’ve decided the career path is not for me. The academics I’ve seen thrive all seem to enjoy that part of the job (my mentor, for example, goes out of his way to get involved in standards organizations and other international/academia-related groupings of bureaucratic process). At my research university, even associate professors (not sure about the details of what’s tenure track) don’t have to teach that much. There are actually “teaching professors” here who’s sole responsibility is teaching without research pressure, and they still only teach two classes per semester (admittedly, those classes might have 300 students).