3 ms·

It's great that the author found a good job and is happy, but being a tenured professor has its own advantages (at least in the US system)... 9 month years (thr

by ftyers 3y ago

It's great that the author found a good job and is happy, but being a tenured professor has its own advantages (at least in the US system)... 9 month years (three-four months holiday/year), essentially no boss, salary (maybe lower than equivalent in private sector, but is sufficient), paid sabbaticals, unpaid leaves, 2-days/week teaching and the rest of the time on pet projects, job security, ability to do contracting on the side. But to get that there is quite an upfront commitment and its uncertain. Probably if you did the same amount of effort in the private sector you could get some of those things, but I doubt all of them...

squidgyhead 3y ago
The summers are when research happens - this is not a holiday. Sabbaticals are also for research. "Pet projects" is actually just research. Did I mention research? There's also grant proposals.
- ftyers 3y ago
  Yes, pet projects is research. For me at least it's a holiday, I get to set my hours, I can do what I want, read what I want, be where I want. That sounds like a holiday to me.
bonniemuffin 3y ago
In what field do tenured professors take 3-4 months of holiday per year? In the hard sciences (US, R1 research universities), I saw tenured professors doing long hours of research all year, and treating summer as a time when they could focus more-fully on research and grant-writing with less of those pesky classes getting in the way.
- ftyers 3y ago
  That's because they like doing research, not because if they don't do it they'll get fired. If they wanted they could just take that time off, they have tenure after all. No classes basically means no work outside of the work that you want to do.
  - kaitai 3y ago
    Do you understand what it takes to get tenure in the US? Generally 10 years post PhD of grinding, working summers and weekends. (That's from 3 years of postdocs and 7 before tenure.) By the time you get tenure you don't know how to not work through the summer, and you have graduate students who need to be supervised (they'll be doing a substantial portion of their research over the summer and you need them to get through). You'll have grant funding for summer research (because if you don't, you didn't get tenure) and you'll need to ensure that the work you've promised to the granting agency gets done in some form or another, not least so that you can get the renewal or extension of the grant, which is needed to pay the graduate students. You'll have some conferences that will require travel, and you'll need to get things done with your collaborator before she goes on sabbatical and your other collaborator before he becomes dean of students. You'll have a revise and resubmit or three, and you'll be trying to finish another article before the August 1 submission deadline for the special journal edition (yes it'll be pushed back but if you let it slide, the grad student working on it will start teaching mid-August and then progress will slow to a crawl and you'll really run into trouble, that student is supposed to be transitioning to another project as well due to a grant you have starting at the beginning of the academic year). Heck, I have been out of academia 4 years now and I still have minor revisions to a paper complete in the next week!
    - ftyers 3y ago
      I'm 5th year TT at an R1.
- karmakurtisaani 3y ago
  In academia, work means teaching and other less pleasant duties. Vacation means working only on research for maybe only 8 hours per day.
stocknoob 3y ago
In the private sector, you have to invest your higher salary and try to reach Financial Independence. Then you’ve bought yourself tenure, more or less.
ecshafer 3y ago
I know a couple people who are tenure track professors at R1 universities. The amount of work they put in is absurd, and they would probably be directors at most big companies. 80 hour weeks is a norm for them

by ftyers 3y ago

squidgyhead 3y ago

The summers are when research happens - this is not a holiday. Sabbaticals are also for research. "Pet projects" is actually just research. Did I mention research? There's also grant proposals.

ftyers 3y ago
Yes, pet projects is research. For me at least it's a holiday, I get to set my hours, I can do what I want, read what I want, be where I want. That sounds like a holiday to me.

bonniemuffin 3y ago

In what field do tenured professors take 3-4 months of holiday per year? In the hard sciences (US, R1 research universities), I saw tenured professors doing long hours of research all year, and treating summer as a time when they could focus more-fully on research and grant-writing with less of those pesky classes getting in the way.

ftyers 3y ago
That's because they like doing research, not because if they don't do it they'll get fired. If they wanted they could just take that time off, they have tenure after all. No classes basically means no work outside of the work that you want to do.
- kaitai 3y ago
  Do you understand what it takes to get tenure in the US? Generally 10 years post PhD of grinding, working summers and weekends. (That's from 3 years of postdocs and 7 before tenure.) By the time you get tenure you don't know how to not work through the summer, and you have graduate students who need to be supervised (they'll be doing a substantial portion of their research over the summer and you need them to get through). You'll have grant funding for summer research (because if you don't, you didn't get tenure) and you'll need to ensure that the work you've promised to the granting agency gets done in some form or another, not least so that you can get the renewal or extension of the grant, which is needed to pay the graduate students. You'll have some conferences that will require travel, and you'll need to get things done with your collaborator before she goes on sabbatical and your other collaborator before he becomes dean of students. You'll have a revise and resubmit or three, and you'll be trying to finish another article before the August 1 submission deadline for the special journal edition (yes it'll be pushed back but if you let it slide, the grad student working on it will start teaching mid-August and then progress will slow to a crawl and you'll really run into trouble, that student is supposed to be transitioning to another project as well due to a grant you have starting at the beginning of the academic year). Heck, I have been out of academia 4 years now and I still have minor revisions to a paper complete in the next week!
  - ftyers 3y ago
    I'm 5th year TT at an R1.
karmakurtisaani 3y ago
In academia, work means teaching and other less pleasant duties. Vacation means working only on research for maybe only 8 hours per day.

stocknoob 3y ago

In the private sector, you have to invest your higher salary and try to reach Financial Independence. Then you’ve bought yourself tenure, more or less.

ecshafer 3y ago

I know a couple people who are tenure track professors at R1 universities. The amount of work they put in is absurd, and they would probably be directors at most big companies. 80 hour weeks is a norm for them