In article <36743D62.CA1E5324 at salk.edu>, nospamforsburg at salk.edu wrote:
>I always ask students that I'm interviewing for grad school admission
>where they want to be in 10 years. To a one, they all say "I want to be
>a professor". I'm curious--what does "being a professor" mean to EFS
>and other students and why do they want to be one?
Do you want the short answer or the long one? Here's the long one:
If you asked me this time last year, I would have given the same career
choice, but I wouldn't have been able to defend it. In the last year,
however, I have taught my first course, served on more departmental
committees than ever, developed a good relationship with my advisor,
watched my mother retire and my father die. There are a million reasons.
I grew up in a University town, and most of my friends' parents and
parents' friends were professors. My dad was a professor; it seems like a
very natural career to me. I have his love of Knowing Stuff and my
mother's love of Helping People (she was a nurse). Unfortunately I don't
have all of my his mathematical ability or my her social ease, but I will
make do. I have a truly unhealthy love of committee work; I'll volunteer
for practically anything that supports my idealistic view of the world.
To some degree, I enjoy working under pressure. I am a weirdo who I can't
imagine wearing makeup, wearing a suit to work, working 8 to 5 on other
people's ideas, or having to leave my work at work. I can't imagine not
having 'summers off.' If nobody will pay me to be a professor, I'll get
a tiresome money-making job and wangle an adjunct position somewhere, or
get some other kind of University job. I like the community; I can't
imagine not having a lovely research library and nice concert hall 5
minutes away, and a great Shakespeare historian, great computer
programmer, great economist or you-name-it just a phone call away. I now
realize that I love interacting with students. I like to see that light
of understanding come over them. I like to talk to them about what they
want to do with *their* lives. I like learning stuff from them and being
asked questions that I can't answer. I do worry about politics; I'm prone
to speaking my mind and I'm not very good at hiding my feelings. I'm also
terrified at the thought of teaching a lecture class to hundreds, and I
know that when the day comes, that will be difficult for me. On
pessimistic days, I wonder whether my current research will blossom into a
long-term research program or will just one day lose all its possibilities
and all my interest. But on the balance, I must say, I still want to be a
professor. I hate to make it sound like I haven't seriously "considered
other options." In fact, I have considered a few; but I have dismissed
them for the time being. Part of the problem is that if you DO think you
want to be a professor, you need to pursue it more or less relentlessly
until you find out whether it's going to happen or not. The system
doesn't give you a lot of time off to 'explore your options.' If five
years go by and I decide I don't love academia anymore (or it doesn't love
me), then I will consider doing something else. But until and unless that
time comes, I don't see how it will help much to diversify. What do you
think?
EFS
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