Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Life as a Professor

Systers just started a 'best of' blog that highlights useful conversations that have happened on the popular mailing list for technical women.  The first post, Life as a Professor, is all about what being a professor is like, particularly in the work-life balance sense.

Balancing lady 

I find the responses either depressing or encouraging. One thing's for sure: it's not a 9-5 job. As one person said,"It’s a huge part of your life even when you aren’t in the classroom or lab." Whether that's good or bad depends on the individual (after all, I'm always thinking about teaching, learning, and outreach, so if you love what you do you may not want to leave it completely at work).

For me, the words of wisdom in that post solidify that I would be much happier as an instructor without the added pressure of running a research lab.  Plus, if I don't want to be a professor, I can skip that whole post-doc phase, which suits me just fine.

Do check out the post if you are at all considering an academic career.
at

2 comments:

  1. David KlappholzFebruary 21, 2012 at 10:13 AM

    I read most of the posts and haven't really found anything that a man in the same position wouldn't feel. Had there been any/much discussion of gender balance in child care, I'm sure that that would not be the case. (I'm at the grand parenting stage of life, and have the same sorts of work/family issues, but this time around it's about time I can('t) spend with grandchildren.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gail CarmichaelFebruary 21, 2012 at 11:58 AM

    Totally agree! I always say that the things women talk about and want to see changed in tech and academia would benefit men, too.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are moderated - please be patient while I approve yours.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.