Career as a research professor

[Amanda Lewone]

I was just thinking that academia may be a good avenue for many of us. 

I am assuming a lot of common traits I’ve seen over and over. 

Many of us are quite introverted, some have social anxiety and some just prefer to be alone (no anxiety). It would allow you a mostly solitary work life. Collaboration is done via email and 2-3 day workshops. Meetings depend on how involved you want to be in faculty. So if you aren’t too involved don’t expect to be the head of the department anytime soon. 

Individual offices pretty much from day one. Many jobs don’t give private offices until executive or managerial levels (even high profile jobs within investment banks etc have open plans). 

No direct supervisor/“boss”. A lot of universities expect a certain level of research output, but that’s all communicated through letters or general meetings. 

Yes you have to teach students, which will be stressful for the first few years (especially if you didn’t tutor during graduate school, but after a while it’s the same theories, models etc over and over. So eventually this is something you could do in your sleep. Some medication might help with speaking anxiety for the first 10 or so lectures. In any case, lecturers aren’t expected to act like TV hosts. 

Research. Here you get to follow some of your interests. Maybe even daydream a little to generate ideas. Either way, you can read a little, analyse data and write. If you work quickly, you can continue the life in your mind with ease. If you are too absorbed with your internal life, some colleagues might think you’re weird, but this is the kind of environment that attracts quirky characters anyway. Research professors can be weird. (Actually most people in academia these days are actually quite normal, sociable nerds, so you may be a bit of a social outcast if you don’t get involved, but this is the one place where it does not matter.)

Schedule. Now you need to be in the office for a few hours a day, but no one really monitors how long you’re actually there. As long as classes are taught, scripts marked and paper published…no one will comment on the number of hours you spend in the office. So if you’re a night owl, you could do most of your work at night when you’re most comfortable and only come in around 11 or when the first lecture. 

Contribution to society. Not all research will change the world, but you will be producing some new knowledge which is good!! This is especially good for people who feel they don’t make meaningful contributions in their family life. (I know I struggle with socialising; I now almost never talk to my cousins/aunts/uncles. I just don’t have it in me to pick up the phone and call them. What do we even chat about? And I don’t have extrovert energy in me these days.) So if you aren't helping others with your warmth, kind words during tough times, companionship at least you are assisting humanity (in whatever small way) move forward. 

The hard part of course is graduate school. You may have to spend a a few years in school after your Bachelors. With all the motivation problems, problems concentrating, tiredness etc… it will take some creative ways to overcome avoidance of work but the goal in mind, you can try. 

If academia gets boring or you’re tired of teaching, you could always join a think tank or a small consultancy (and skip the junior levels), or even be an independent consultant or author (non-fiction). 

What do your guys think? I know other suggestions have been:

-Author (I can’t write fiction longer than short stories)

-Programmer (I don’t think I could get into that now, it’s a bit late and I lack interest)

[Ivy White]

I can give you a reply to this, but it might not be what you'd like to hear.

The problem with research and academic tracks is that competition is fierce and a lot of people want those positions. So you need to be on top of your game, both intellectually and socially. You need to network and be known, so attend events, give lectures, publish or perish. You need to put and pull favors with people who know people in journals, in the organisations that give funding, etc. You have your hours of teaching, and then everything else needs to get done in between, the students, the emails, the events, etc. It means that you split time between your office and your lab, and you're not going to be working a mere 8 hours a day, but a lot more than that if you factor in things like prepping classes, writing and correcting articles, conferences, papers and everything. 

Individual offices, not really. Even our tenured professors here still share their office. They also don't get to pick their lecture hours. We had this professor who is a patented night owl, and they gave him 8 am lectures 3 days a week. The offices are also open only a number of hours a day for security reasons. Granted, they close quite late but you need to be out by then. Also, the more you work in one place, the more your "tools" will be there and it's difficult to work anywhere else. Sometimes, if you do things where you need a lab, it's not possible at all to work some place else.

Considering the contributing to society? Well, depends on things. But basically, you become an expert about a very small field and that often feel ludicrous and useless. 

Also, for me, the DD is one of the biggest challenges because it hinders me all the bloody time. I can't concentrate on what I am supposed to be doing. When I'm alone, without my supervisor, it's even worse. I often DD a day away and then have to catch up later in the evening. I constantly feel like a fraud.

Anyhow, sorry if I sound super negative about this, but academia is really hard, and you don't get by with working just 3 hours a day and DD the rest away. I know I will probably not make it because of the DD and ADD thing. I'm not a proper professor, and when I see how much stuff they have to do, I'm not even certain I want to be. 

[Amanda Lewone]

Hi! Thanks for the response. You make a lot of valid points. I tend to be very idealistic! I guess I was trying to be optimistic about my job prospects.

I did an internship at JP Morgan during my final year. I was supposed to be with the economist but she was very busy so they put me on the trading floor. I still got to see what goes on in some of the other areas though. Anyway, I just felt that I could not fit in that environment socially. 

Although I didn't tell anyone, I was so relieved when it was over! And I was concerned. What would I do exactly? 

So I thought the academic route might have more flexibility. You are right about all the points you made but I wonder if that level of stress is mainly at highly ranked research universities, in which case I would have to apply appropriately. 

What are your plans? Are you a lecturer or grad student right now? By the way, thanks for aligning my expectations with reality! 

[Ivy White]

So far I'm pretty bummed because it seems like no job will ever be a proper fit. Academia comes close because my research subject actually interests me, but the fact it is so high-stress makes me DD even more. And it's not so much the type of university. Everything is always about money, there is not enough money in the department so everyone that does get on the payroll needs to put in a lot of effort to keep themselves there, or to make up for the fact we're understaffed.

The worst, the absolute worst had been working in a store for me. How I ever thought that would be a good fit, I don't know. I was in the middle of people all the time, couldn't set my own pace, was constantly getting interrupted, long hours, and I loathed it. I was miserable and burnt out after less than a year. Another really horrible job was when they expected me both to be in charge of people, as in, be a manager, and where everyone was always super friendly and talking about their lives and wanting to know more about you. It felt so intrusive to have people invade my private self, and to try to become my friend. I can't turn colleagues into friends, I hate that. Also, I was never left alone like ever. Always interrupted as well by people who came by your office to chat. You were expected to attend office parties and sometimes even go clubbing with your colleagues.

The most fun as far as "small" jobs go was translating. I was good at it and it was pretty flexible, I could work from home or not, made up my own schedule, and it was low responsibility. All I had to do was finish x translation at y time.

For me the content of a job is only marginally important, it's more the environment I need. I need to be somewhere people will not object to my being not so sociable and where I can set my own schedule, working from home is really necessary too as commute stresses me out to no end. If I could really start all over again I'd probably get into something ICT-ish, like coding, where I don't deal with people (so no customer service). I've always loved logic and computers but it "wasn't a girls' thing" so I didn't push further. The problem is that once again you're just confronted with your own mind and a computer.
Maybe manual things, like working the land or plumbing or something like that might have been better, because you can't just stare at a screen all day, you have to do the actual work, like move and feel yourself doing things. But I'm afraid of being too idealistic and since I have never done it, I can't really know if it would be good or not.

[ThisIsNotAName]

Hi Amanda,

I am actually a researcher, I work in an important research center for physics here in Europe. I'd to say I am there from few months (I graduated last year), and I am surprising by the amount of daydreamer I found.

I can usually spot them because they sit in the back of meeting rooms, clearly thinking about something else and smilining and kinda-of-moving. With this description I was just thinking of the behaviour of a guy I recently met, who is also super famous in his research field.

From my experience:

- I got my master degree in Physics without too much problems, I admit I haven't socialized a lot, and also, had to studied a lot (I suppose, more than the average), so, you better chose a field of study you really like

- My master thesis and my current research are actually near as you describe, expecially in astrophysics, where there are tons of unconsistencies, we really need new ideas to the many problems of astrophysics. Creative persons are always welcome and no one really care on the socialization-part as soon as you _are productive_.

I stressed the "being productive" words, because it is still a competitive environment, some people says "publish or perish". And I feel like many people here have a so deep DD that they are not able to sit and _just_ get things done.

But I guess it is a matter of learning being productive than a DD consequence.

[Ivy White]

Yeah, I guess I should have mentionned that I am not working in exact sciences but in the cross-section between humanities and health care. Especially within the humanities competition is awful.

[Helen Douglas]

I am a teacher. I enjoyed my life at university. I have considered your points and I concur. At this stage of my life I did little day dreaming. In fact I found the holidays too long and yearned to be back in a studying/working environment. When I went teaching, I enjoyed it and went out of my way to fit into a school life. In a classsroom setting  I couldn't do any daydreaming. I have retired now. I live alone and I go out everyday. I do guided tours in a museum and I play cards and mahjong. Mixing with people and stimulating my brain. I become very depressed when I stay at home and garden, So my garden is a jungle.(Recently I have employed someone to work in it)  It appears that there is a vacuum in my brain. If it is not filled by rational thinking and mixing, I become depressed and resort to daydreaming.

[Amanda Lewone]

ThisIsNotMe thanks for the feedback, it is good to hear that some departments have daydreamers! Ye, I think to be successful if you aren't doing enough networking, you have to compensate by at least being super productive. 

Ivy, I guess it varies across departments. Academics are seen as these relaxed thinkers, meanwhile there's a mini rat-race going on there too. 

Helen, that's so nice to hear that you found a career you found both stimulating and enjoyable.  I remember the few times I unintentionally stopped daydreaming were high pressure situations in groups. I wonder if I'm not stimulating my brain enough. (Although I don't wish to enter those social high pressure environments, I just mean stimulation from better research, finding work that really interests me).   

[Elizabeth]

You know I saw this, and I had to reply, because joining academia has actually been by dream job for the past couple years (I'm 17). I plan to be a Classics professor (as in Ancient Greek and Roman history, language, culture, etc.). This had been a passion of mine literally since elementary school. 

Obviously the job would have its drawbacks for those of us with MD, as pointed out above. But when you compare it to other careers out there, it's not that bad. It's certainly better than being a lawyer or a doctor. Lives probably aren't on the line if you do mess up and drift off in the middle of the day without meaning to. It gives more flexibility than a lot of careers (although still not quite that much). Also, professors are stereotyped as being flight and unfocused, so maybe people wouldn't notice it as much and think we are less odd!