Users in this career have rated it a 2.7 in terms of their own personal satisfaction with the career. This figure represents an average taken from the responses of 772 MyPlan.com users during registration.
Users were asked to rate their happiness in their current occupation as being either "Very Happy" (4), "Happy" (3), "Mixed / Neutral" (2), "Not Happy" (1), or "Miserable" (0).
Users in this Career Group
There are 2403 users in this career group. They represent 64 different countries. You can see the list of users in this career group by clicking on one of the links below. You can also join this career group simply by selecting your current status and clicking "Add Me."
There
are 5 reviews of this career. The most recent 3 reviews are listed below. You can see more reviews by clicking on "Read all reviews..." at the bottom of this page.
When I went into this career, I had been told that many professors would be retiring and that full time jobs would become available. As it turns out, this was not the case. They retired, but the administrations filled the vacant spots with part timers like me because they can save money that way. This has led to an overwhelming number of part timers with unsecure positions and no real contracts. To anyone thinking of going into this profession, I would recommend teaching in the K-12 level instead. The jobs would be somewhat more secure and also full time. The pros of being a PT professor are that I have very flexible hours, no required office hours or meetings, no office politics to deal with, and time to work on other things. The cons are that I have no job security to depend on and I have to pay out of pocket for health insurance. Also, I cannot retire since I can't afford to do so. People need to know this before they consider this profession. If I had to do it again, I would probably go into paralegal or some medical profession instead.
Working with college students is very rewarding. I would recommend this career and would choose to teach English at the college level even knowing what I know now. The rewards are obviously not material; no one becomes an educator in order to be wealthy! One interesting benefit is that the student population changes constantly. One expected challenge is the amount of grading that must be done!
It is very hard to be tenured; most universities hire adjunct (temporary instructors) so be prepared to pursue a terminal degree and be creative with your specialization. Submit anything and everything to be published and present as often as you can and don't forget about continuing your professional education!
This is a career for idealists, and people who don't want to earn a lot of money. Getting young people today to care about literature and literary/artistic history is a huge challenge; you must be able to be terrifically adaptable and open to changes in the field, and in your student body. But successes can be sweet, and so can summers off!
