Should I stay or Should I go? When and why you should be an academic?

Over the years many students came up and wanted my advice on whether to pursue an academic career or just get a job and be on their merry way to make millions. Well, when the question is asked like that, there is only one answer: Man, go make your millions. Life is too short to spend it on chasing the unknown. Besides, who cares if you discover or invent something? You still probably will not live to see it return to you with millions.

THIS IS THE WAY:
I came to observe that nowhere in the world academicians make good money. So, if you are in it for the money, forget about it. It is very seldom that an academic (a professor) will invent something that could be commercialized in her lifetime. 

If you are in it for the prestige, it takes years of relentless work to be acknowledged and again only a very select minority get to be applauded for the inventions and discoveries they make. For the public you see every day in the subway, bus train, sidewalk, you are just a professor. A teacher of some sort. Some even don’t know the difference between a preliminary schoolteacher and a professor at the university. So, if you are in it for the prestige, you will need to work till you are a full-time professor (tenured) until people start showing you some decent respect.

So, no money, no prestige, what is left? Why do we want this? Should one want to be an academic? I would like to rephrase this question as: Who is suited to be an academic? In the end, it is the match of your character with the job that you are doing that will make you a happy person. We spend hours at workplace. Why not choose a job and place that you would enjoy coming to every morning?

Dissection of an Academic:

Let’s see what we would find inside an academic if we were to dissect him (psychologically speaking). My observations are based on academicians I met over the last, hmmm I believe say 35 years. Here is the list:

1. Obsessed: Yes, we are obsessed. You can hardly find a relaxed, impervious academician. We are obsessed about our paper, exams, teaching, and even fellow academicians.
2. Detail-oriented: The devil is in the details. Yes, we are like that. Very difficult to find a visionary academician. No, I don’t mean to say that we don’t have visions. We have a very clear vision of what we want to be and what we want but that’s usually it.
3. Critical: Oh yes, we love criticism when it is us doing it. We hate it when someone else criticizes our work. Because we are so sure that what we are doing is the best. Who are you to judge my work?
4. Introvert: Right, we don’t like big parties, going out all the time, meeting friends and doing just nothing! No sir, we like sitting at our table, our bench and do research, read a book, my God even play Solitaire by yourself.
5. Ambitious: Oh My! This one is the most critical ingredient of an academic. If you don’t have it, just step to the side. You are a stranger amongst us. I have never seen a good academician without any ambition. We want to top it. The Nobel prize is mine to take (just in a couple of more years maybe).
6. Impatience: An incurable disease that some of us share in varying severities.
7. Rudeness: A mild condition that can unfortunately turn into a pandemic if not controlled by the superiors.
8. Outspoken: If something is not right, ethical, we are there to name it. Be sure of it. We might end up getting beaten up but at least we have told them that it wasn’t right.

Now you will ask me whether there are any good traits of an academician:

1. Obsessed: We don’t give up easily. No matter the problem is. We are faithful to the cause.
2. Detail Oriented: We find the root cause of the problem. We dwell on the details, a change in hair color, posture, gesture is ours to pick.
3. Critical: We will make sure that you grow learning from your mistakes (of course the dose of providing criticism and the style you present it are important).
4. Introvert: You can rely on us to be happy all the time because we hardly need others to cheer us up. So, hang around us and with us and you will feel happy suddenly.
5. Ambitious: Why settle for less when you can get more. Like squeezing the last piece of paste from the toothpaste. Always aiming higher. To Infinity and Beyond!
6. Impatience: No procrastination around us. Be sure that we will get it done (when you give us a deadline).
7. Rudeness: What is wrong with saying something straight up? At least you don’t need to dig under our lines to figure out what we mean to tell you.
8. Outspoken: Martin Luther was outspoken. Socrates was like that, too. They changed the world

So these are our qualities. See if you match them because the work that you will be doing for the next 40 years demands a character like this. If not, you will feel like someone is dragging you across a rugged road with your hands tied to a horse. So, I tried to answer the when and how parts of the big question. Let me say a couple of things about the “why” question.

It is so much fun knowing that you are probably one of the 100 or so people in the whole world doing and thinking about the same topic. 100 out of 8 billion or so. You are an endangered species. That’s why people will look up to you when you start talking about your research, your students.

You are wondering in the unknown. Think about it, there is no knowledge as of today on the things you are working on. There is no answer that the Mighty Google will be able to tell. No one knows anything about it and yet you are out there, in the darkness, trying to find some answers to some questions that no one might be wondering about. But you know deep inside that when you come up with an answer, the whole world will bow in front of you. You just have to keep on working.

That’s it. I am done.
See you soon