Maybe you’d like to combine the two loves of your life, teaching and scholarship, and perhaps build a satisfying and profitable academic career, but you’re not sure if this is really what you want or how to go about it. Or maybe you’ve made up your mind but need some good advice on how to succeed. If so, this book is written for you. So You Want To Be a Professor begins with a discussion of jobs in academia and how to find them. Chapters cover a wide range of political skills for future academic success, including lecturing, organizing a course, meeting your first class, testing, maintaining a research program, and writing for publication. No other book provides such a practical overview of essential career-building skills. Even junior faculty will benefit from the advice in this engaging, comprehensive book.

The Academic Career

The academic career

Thus far in this book, academic life is described as die life of the assistant professor. Obviously, many assistant professors become associates and then full professors, eventually retiring after glorious academic careers. In this chapter, I discuss how your career might develop and how, during this exciting ride, you are going to keep all the balls in the air.

Keeping the Balls in the Air

This is a true story: A State of Michigan lawmaker asked a professor at a public hearing how many hours he teaches. The professor answered honestly that he was teaching nine hours that semester. “Long day,” said the senator. “Good thing it's light work.”

Most nonprofessors have no idea how many hours we professors put in. They do ...

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