The Jobs

Imagine a job with a four-day workweek and an eight-month year, located in a professional setting filled with highly-educated, talented people, libraries, and research facilities. When you work, the people around you listen intently and furiously scribble notes about a subject that deeply interests you. During your free time, you read, conduct research, and write, publishing articles and books that might be studied for generations of students to come. If that weren't enough, after a certain number of years, you can gain guaranteed immunity from being laid off or fired (this is called "tenure"), and you also get to take a year off (a "sabbatical") every once in a while. Depending on your field and reputation, you might be consulted by leaders of business, politics, and art, and certainly all the students would call you "Doctor" or "Professor."

Now this might sound like an idealized picture, but the occupation of "post-secondary school teacher" (as the Department of Labor calls it) can entail all of the above. If nothing else, a life of the mind, spent studying and learning every day and contributing your own efforts to the advancement of arts or science, has been considered ideal since Plato's era. Those outside the realm of academia might sneer at the "ivory tower" existence, yet the millions of people who enter graduate school every year with dreams of becoming a respected professor demonstrate the continuing attraction of this field.

But, ay, there's the rub.

Historically speaking, entrance into a prestigious graduate program and earning a PhD were virtual guarantees of one day becoming a professor. Today, on the other hand — whether you blame government tax and loan policies that encourage the pursuit of advanced degrees or the schools themselves, which seek to cut costs by hiring many more teaching assistants — those guarantees no longer exist. At some universities, graduate students find themselves identifying more with exploited workers than with academics: recent union drives are historically unprecedented.

Still, the industry does offer benefits more welcome to prospective job seekers. The process of globalization is forcing unskilled Americans to compete against low-wage workers in the undeveloped world. As the gap in wages between unskilled and skilled labor widens, the need for specialized training increases dramatically. The Department of Labor therefore anticipates almost 40% growth over the next ten years in the need for college and university teachers and more than 40% growth in employment for adult-education teachers.

The Department of Labor does, however, warn that most of this growth will not occur in tenure-track positions, so the privileges associated with academic life might slowly fade away into the past. New initiatives in learning, moreover, such as Internet-based distance learning, could challenge traditional means of education. Still, some American universities have survived the Civil War, let alone the Great Depression, so it seems likely that they will remain important centers of research for some time to come.

Opportunities for researchers and intellectuals are not limited to the universities, either. Non-profit organizations such as the RAND Corporation (the original "think-tank") have had a major impact on government and scientific policy since World War II. Scientific researchers, moreover, have opportunities in both private-sector and government research institutes.

Exploring the Field

If the academic world deeply calls to you, you'll probably be aware of it by college. Graduate school is likely the best way to find out whether you're truly cut out for this life. Remember that you do not have to apply to a PhD program immediately: it is typically easier to get into master's programs, which often serve as pipelines for PhD programs in the same field. Depending on your area of interest, you may even be able to find a non-certification program lasting a year or two at a university. These programs generally offer additional training that will vastly improve your eligibility as a candidate for doctoral programs.

Current college students should use their depertment's offices to find out more about specific opportunities. Some small programs might just have a secretary and a bulletin board — and even these can be invaluable sources of information — while larger programs have more formal ways to learn about opportunities and get your questions answered.

Again, depending on your intended field of study, opportunities in the private sector could offer valuable teaching or research experience. These will help improve your skills and help you decide if this is your life's work.

Breaking into the Field

There is no easy way to break into a tenured university professorship. Publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals is the standard method of gaining recognition as an intellectual leader in one's field, but this is certainly difficult to accomplish. At the same time, however, it is perhaps only a lack of initiative that prevents many from beginning the process today. An undergraduate may not be able to publish her recent essay about Shakespeare in a prestigious literary journal, but what prevents her from organizing her friends into a campus literary journal? If the articles are of solid quality, they can gain some attention from the academic world.

Aspiring professors should also consider opportunities across the nation. Some rural universities may have tenure-track positions available, while big-city schools have several applicants for every opening. On a more fundamental level, specializing in a less popular field could bear dividends later in your career. If you have about the same interest in philosophy and mathematics, consider that some philosophy PhDs drive taxis in New York, whereas math professors generally work within their field.

Getting the most prestigious academic positions often begin with studying at the most prestigious academic programs. College dropouts sometimes end up as leaders in technology and business, but earning good grades and fully perfecting your application to academic programs are particularly important in this field.

Web and Print Resources

There are a number of websites one can track down on Yahoo that list jobs in academia. For example, HigherEdJobs currently lists thousands.

Peterson's Graduate Channel has authoritative information on the many graduate programs out there. If you find a program you like, peruse the school's website for further information on its policies. Some schools recruit their own PhD students for professorships. Others have a policy specifically against this.