[NoMoreNicksLeft]

At the state university in my smaller city, an actual professorship (not some adjunct) earns up towards $200k/year salary. Maybe pretty modest by FAANG standards, but for many people outside of tech that sounds like a lottery jackpot. So it's not just prestige, though that's on offer too.

[pohl]

Especially once you factor in the lower cost of living (relative to FAANG jobs) in that smaller city.

[hyperbovine]

Don't forget 3-4 months off in the summer too.

[Fomite]

Professors don't get the summer off. If you have a heavy teaching load, summers are your one window to get research work done. If you don't, like me, the difference between the summer and the rest of the year is its easier to find parking.

[hyperbovine]

Fine, 3-4 months to think about interesting things all day long with basically zero expectation that you’ll be anywhere or show up to anything. Call it what you will.

[Fomite]

That you think this is true betrays a complete lack of understanding about what a modern academic job requires.

[hyperbovine]

I am speaking from firsthand experience. The level of manufactured contempt the site has for higher ed is almost comical.

[aydyn]

I mean, its not completely untrue. You do not have set hours. You can offload as much work as you want to grad students and postdocs, depending on how despotic you want to be.

[Fomite]

I do not have set hours, but I do have obligations. When a program officer wants to talk to you, and it's 6 AM because you're on the west coast, you say yes.

"You can offload as much work as you want to grad students and postdocs" is just untrue - there's always more work than there are people to do it, and I'm pretty sure a number of committees I'm on would be more than a little annoyed if I sent a postdoc.

Is it a job that has some nice properties to it? Yes. But the idea that we have summers "off", or that it's all time to contemplate blue sky research ideas, rather than go to curriculum meetings and work on monthly grant reports is a fantasy.