[spindle]

> places won't hire you as a professor unless you have at least a Master's -- relevant work experience be damned

I believe this is largely to make sure that professors have plenty of experience of what it's like to be professored AT, at the relevant level. I've actually changed my own mind about whether that's a good argument or not (you can have fun guessing in which direction I've changed my mind), but anyway, having been a professor myself I'm pretty sure that's what they're thinking.