Somewhere in my mother’s files, she still has a copy of the “What I Want To Be When I Grow Up” essay that I wrote in second or third grade. Even that far back I declared that I wanted to be a college professor. I have no idea where I got the idea. My folks aren’t academics, though they both hold degrees, and while many of my relatives are teachers, none are professors. All I can think of is that I was living in a college town and had one friend whose father was a math professor. In any case, I made my mind up early and it was my plan all through school.
I’m always amazed at how many colleagues likewise knew at an early age that they wanted to be professors. Sometimes there are other stories, which sound like semi-religious conversions to the profession, but in my network, at least, I keep running into other early deciders.
So, when did you decide that you wanted to be a professor? Do you remember the incident, the role model, or the epiphany that started you down the path?
Follow On Hiring through your favorite RSS reader:
8 Responses to Early Decisions
superdude - December 1, 2009 at 12:02 pm
My moment is nothing special. Although it was a given that I would earn my PhD (my parents have theirs, and it was a basic expectation of me), my path into academia has more to do with the mundane reality of economic recession.I was an undergraduate in the recession of the early 1990s. At this time, I saw my father, who, with a PhD and more than 20 years of dedicated service to a company, nearly lose his job.To me, that was an unacceptable situation. So I looked around and realized that the one thing that will never disappear is a public university, and that the most difficult person to lay off is a tenured professor.So, sorry, but there’s not “I’m doing it for the greater good” or “I’m following in the footsteps of dedicated educators before me”.This is a career. A job. Nothing more. Ironically, this attitude, I think, has made me very successful. I have mountains of publications, get near-perfect teaching evaluations, and have been in leadership positions on campus for several years now.Free of the pretentious navel-gazing that most faculty suffer from, and free of fanciful notions of what campus work environments should be, I actually get stuff accomplished. Frankly, I find this job so easy that I’m frequently bored.But it’s secure. And I’m not ashamed to admit that the financial security of my family is what I value most.
oldcommprof - December 1, 2009 at 4:26 pm
My path is much different from superdude’s, but similarly mundane. After college I was a newspaper reporter and editor and my later work in that field led me to law school. I practiced law for a few years, made enough to think about very early retirement, but fell into teaching in a paralegal program as a favor to a suddenly ill colleague. I loved it, so started a Ph.D. at 38 instead and, because I knew how to dig up information and write, the diss and subsequent publications were easy. I’m now a tenured professor with 15 years in.
spflores - December 1, 2009 at 4:30 pm
What led up to the moment of commitment to becoming a professor: entered college with double major in English and finance, with intent to pursue law degree (parents attended vocational ‘college’)–after more or less enjoying some accounting, econ, and computer science courses, loved the first analyze literature (poetry) assignment in my intro to composition class (with the instructor’s interest in my essay a pivotal turning point), followed by a great intro survey of poetry course (both of these taught by grad students), so that in conversation early in my sophomore year with my advisor (a Chaucerian, Prof. Kathleen Dubs), she turned to me and said: “my brother-in-law’s a lawyer, do you really want to be a lawyer?” and my prompt answer was “no!”
22286593 - December 1, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I immigrated to the U.S. when I was ten years old and was raised by a single mom working as a seamstress in the Los Angeles garment district. One day–within the first year of our new American life–all my cousins were excited about an outing. One of the aunts decided to organize a Saturday trip to UCLA. The aunts and the uncles decided that inviting my family would amount to a cruel act since they could not imagine two boys raised by a seamstress mom could ever make it to such a prestigious university. When my mother found out she held her two boys and cried what seemed like an eternity. I remember thinking that education was not just a way to a job or a career but a path to human dignity. I suppose both my brother and I (we are both professors) figured that as long as we are going to have dignity we might as well accumulate as much of it as possible and then work to give it to as many people as we can.As an aside, I travel a lot and when people find out that both my brother and I are professors, they almost always assume that our father must be a professor. When I tell them that we were actually brought up by a single mom who worked as a seamstress, they are usually astounded: in so much of the world, academia is a family business. For all our troubles and shortcomings, one of the most wonderful features of American society is the openness and the excellence of the higher education system, and it’s ability to transform lives. When we underfund universities, we make human dignity more out of reach for the most vulnerable.
cwinton - December 1, 2009 at 11:22 pm
My father was a successful prof and that put the idea in the back of my head that I might want to follow in his footsteps someday. It helped that I was interested in math, particularly since I did well enough to be awarded a NASA graduate fellowship that covered tuition and fees in addition to a stipend, finally convincing me an academic career was the direction I should pursue. During college I briefly toyed with the idea of following my older brother by doing a stint in the military, but dropped the idea when a military instructor told me, believe it or not, that my OCS qualifying scores were too high for me to consider any option other than going to graduate school.
a1broom - December 2, 2009 at 12:45 pm
It just happened! I was brought up by a single mom with no college degree but with a commitment to education for her son. In junior college I was torn between English and Chemistry as majors. Mammon won. A B. S. in Chemistry was followed by a Ph. D. and a couple of postdocs, then by a choice between academia and industry. Mammon lost and the lure of independence won. I retired last July from the same institution in which I started, having spent 43 rewarding and (mostly) happy years in Utah. It has been a great life and a great career, but I’m glad I did it when I did. I think life is much tougher for young faculty now, and with ever-diminishing resources, it stands to get harder yet. Good luck, youngsters.Art
11274501 - December 2, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I am the exact opposite! When taking the highschool vocational exams I scored highest on teaching with my preferred vocation- surgeon third on the list. I was gobsmacked- who would want to be a teacher? Are they insane? Put up with all that crap? Me? NO WAY? Several years later, as a premed student, I took a teaching of psychology course as an undergrad and that was the end for me. I loved it! I’ve been teaching college for 22 years now and have another 20 to go! I guess those highschool guidance counselors knew what they were talking about after all!
jon_margerumleys - December 4, 2009 at 10:01 am
In fourth grade, kids called me “the little professor.” It wasn’t a compliment. But I’ve grown into it.