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Salaries in academia are hardly a strong incentive. It's been a long time since a professor salary would put you anywhere near the top of the middle class. Espe
by cycomanic 3y ago
Salaries in academia are hardly a strong incentive. It's been a long time since a professor salary would put you anywhere near the top of the middle class. Especially if one considers the time and risk that you spend at lower rungs of the academic ladder. Typical professor salaries are in the mid 100ks, and you only get to that point after a PhD and several years as postdoc working 60+ hours a week for maybe $45k.
If your main incentive is financial you would be much better off to go into industry, a starting salary straight out of undergrad I a consulting or software development role is on the same level as a professor salary.
- User23 3y agoThe incentive is that the salary for a tenured professor is a sinecure. At that point you can just produce bullshit and maybe cash in on speaking fees and publishing. Source: TFA. But that's loserthink. The freedom to fuck around and (probably) never find out is considerable. And if you're actually inclined to apply yourself that 100-150k a year plus your grad students basically means you're your own y combinator year after year every year. Tenure is HUGE. It's worth way more than the equivalent salary in industry.