Disadvantages to Being a Professor

Academic career information about the disadvantages of being a college professor

Jan 1, 2007 Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Thinking of becoming a professor? Read this list about the disadvantages to being a professor. If the list doesn't scare you away, an academic career may be for you.

Thinking about becoming a college professor and pursuing an academic career? Well, there are some very worthwhile advantages to being a professor. However, an academic career is a huge commitment, so you need to be aware of the disadvantages of this career choice as well. In many ways, being a professor isn't just a job. It's a lifestyle choice.

• The pay. Being a professor pays much better than it used to, and professors in the sciences get paid pretty well. But if you consider the years you put into graduate school, the pay is ridiculously low. Starting pay for liberal arts professors in the United States typically is in the $35,000 - $55,000 range.
• Lack of jobs. In some fields, job prospects are better than others. But in many fields, jobs are incredibly competitive and hard to come by.
• Lack of geographical choice. Professors generally don't get much choice in where they live. You move to where the jobs are. This is especially difficult if you have a working spouse and a family.
• The years of schooling. Six plus years of graduate school is a long time.
• The hours. Yes, your schedule is flexible, but you also have to work long, long hours. Unlike many jobs, you don't get to leave your work and your job at the office. It's truly like being a student with an endless homework assignment.
• The stress. "Oh my God, will I get tenure? Will my book ever get published? Will that journal accept my article? Will I get the grant? Will I meet that deadline? Will my colleague down the hall stop hating me because I have a different view on Kant than he does? And back to the most stressful question of them all: will I ever get tenure?" You get the idea.
• The politics. All jobs come with politics, but things that professors quibble over can be incredibly petty. Professors may hate each other because they have a different opinion about a theory. Professors may hate each other because their graduate advisers hate each other. And professors can be very jealous of each other's success. And that doesn't even touch the issue of college-wide politics, or the politics between the school and the state.
• The nutjobs. You'll meet plenty of fabulous people in academia, but you'll meet others who are truly nutjobs. And some of these nutjobs are tenured nutjobs, so they have power and you're stuck with them.
• The ivory tower. You're required to write articles that are so filled with jargon that only 73 people can understand them. You talk about important issues with your students and wonder if what you do makes a difference at all.
• The scrutiny. Academia is not for the thin-skinned. There's always someone evaluating you, especially if you don't have tenure. You'll accumulate a collection fo rejection letters from journals, publishers, and conference paper reviewers. And, of course, there are teacher evaluations. Now, thanks to college professor ratings websites, the whole world can have access to the opinions of a student who thinks you're a moron.
• Unmotivated students. Now, they're not all unmotivated. But a certain percentage of your students are going to do as little work as possible to get by. They'll attend class sporadically and turn in papers that are not even spell-checked. And there will always be students in class who aren't listening to a word you say and simply do not care about this topic you are so passionately trying to teach them. There's a lot of anti-intellectualism in the modern world, and some of your students will reflect that.
• Whiny students. "What do you mean, I got a C? You gave my friend a B and she wrote it the night before! The other professor who teaches this class doesn't assign this much reading! The reading is so hard! It's not fair that you take attendance! My printer stopped working and I can't turn my paper in! I need an extension! The study sheet is too long! The study sheet is too short! Why won't you make us a study sheet? This class is so hard and I'm suffering so unbelievably much!" You get the idea. They're not all like that, but there will be days when you feel like you are teaching kindergarten.

Next: If this didn't scare you off, read advantages to being a professor

Related articles:

• Should you go to graduate school?
• Six things you should know about professors
• Professor pet peeves
• College teacher resources

So, does being a professor suck? What do you think? Join the discussion!

The copyright of the article Disadvantages to Being a Professor in Campus Life is owned by Naomi Rockler-Gladen. Permission to republish Disadvantages to Being a Professor in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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Jan 2, 2007 10:16 AM

Joni Rose :

Hi Naomi,

I read your articles - advantages and disadvantages of being a prof with interest. First, because I am a career coach and often have clients who are interested in the career and secondly because I have experience (past and currently) working as a college and university instructor. I have also worked in a corporate environment so I understand the differences.

Your sense of humour is terrific as I laughed many times while reading your articles. Thanks!

I think a career as an academic instructor is something that suits a person who a)likes an intellectual challenge, b) has the patience for the slower pace (than corporate decision making) and the politics (politics are different than corporate as in any union environment plus the whole research component), c)likes structure with creative freedom (I really like the balance of knowing clearly what my course description and job role is but having the creative freedom to present the information the way I think is best/uses my background to the fullest.) and d)likes to constantly grow professionally.

For some it is a perfect fit and weathering the storm of tenure stress is worth it for the chance to secure yourself in a job you love and really make an impact in academic research and the lives of students!

Dec 10, 2008 10:19 PM

Guest :

I've been a professor in molecular biology at two major research universities for the past 17 years. Training in my field typically requires 5-6 years of graduate school and at least the same amount of time as a post-doctoral scholar: i.e., 10-14 years post-baccalaureate training. One receives a salary through this entire period, but it’s not exactly plush. Virtually all of the successful applicants for faculty positions in my department are at least 35 years old when they start as an Assistant Professor and have already published a pile of papers. We generally receive 250-300 applications for each faculty position. And when one is fortunate enough to land a position, there is the intense pre-tenure phase as an Assistant Professor, when publish or perish is an absolute truism, not to mention winning large grants from the National Institutes of Health (current success rate <15%) and juggling teaching, committee work, and no shortage of flipped-out graduate students. Earlier in my career -- particularly as an Assistant Professor -- I simply could not understand why professors generally claimed to feel so positive about their jobs, as reported in job satisfaction surveys. I was stressed to the limit, my family suffered terribly, and I was hard-pressed to imagine a more intense and anxious job. I considered leaving the profession and getting “a real life” on a regular basis (i.e., daily). My typical work week from grad school through tenure averaged 12-14 hours and a weekend off was truly an unusual occurrence. I do not exaggerate when I state that I typically worked 70-80 hour weeks for 15 years. Having said all of that, at the ripe age of 52, I now simply cannot imagine a more rewarding, exciting, stimulating, enriching, fulfilling, or satisfying profession. And during this period of agonizing economic uncertainty, the stability of tenure more than compensates for those many years of uncertainty and anxiety. I am fortunate to have a full lab of a dozen dedicated and interesting postdocs and graduate students from all over the planet doing cool experiments, I have no boss, I travel frequently to wonderful places, including a sabbatical year in Paris and New Zealand, I can publish as frequently as I choose, my salary is on par with that of a family physician, I have enormous freedom, and I have had the great pleasure of getting to know some of the most interesting and brilliant people in our society, including many Nobel laureates, brilliantly creative

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