One of the purposes of this blog is to reflect on the journey towards academia. I have been caught up in applying to my next step in that process, namely, doctoral programs. I am, of course, a bundle of nerves, excitement and bewilderment when I think about the fact that I will be somewhere else this fall. I probably won’t be relieved of that odd feeling until somewhere in the middle of the program, I say to myself, “Wait a minute. I’m here.” At that moment, the moment when I realize I really have become a doctoral student at Such and Such University, I imagine the next anxious moment in the academic journey will feel all the more tangible. That next step is, of course, getting a job.

There have been some interesting thoughts on academic jobs floating around. Just this past weekend, you may have heard the debates in New Hampshire. In the debate with the Democratic candidates, ABC’s Charlie Gibson made a false assumption about faculty salaries at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire (the host of the debate). Here’s the bit from the transcript:

GIBSON: If you take a family of two professors, here at Saint Anselm, they’re going to be in the $200,000 category that you’re talking about lifting the taxes on.

(LAUGHTER)

GIBSON: And…

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: That may be NYU, Charlie. I don’t think it’s St. Anselm.

The people at the event thought it was a humorous suggestion. After I came to the realization that my vocation was to be a professor, I talked to one of my professors from my undergraduate days about what salaries are like for new PhDs. He told me, “We’re not in it for the money!” Professors get way underpaid when one considers the amount of training that goes into it. In the article, “ABC Thinks You’re Rich; ‘U.S. News’ Says Your Job Is Cushy,” Inside Higher Ed had an interesting reflection on Gibson’s faux pas (he says a minute later, “Well, I shouldn’t have done that, apparently”) and one other bit from popular media. Here’s one correction from the article:

[Sherman] Dorn checked the annual data compiled by the American Association of University Professors and found that the average salary for a full professor at Saint Anselm is just over $77,000 while the average for assistant professors is under $50,000. Dorn said in an e-mail that the question showed “astounding ignorance” of faculty salaries. . . . He noted that the average salary for full-time professors nationally is about $73,000 in the AAUP survey, and that only about half of all professors nationwide have full-time faculty jobs.

This is all in line with what I’ve come to expect from speculative comments made by professors at both my undergrad and at Fuller. If a new PhD is lucky enough to land an Assistant Professorship, depending on the institution, they should probably expect somewhere in the 40 thousands. An adjunct instructor? Forget about it. That’s a whole other ball of wax.

The article also brought up a U.S. News and World Report feature which names the “31 best careers” for 2008. Along with investment banker and hairstylist/cosmetologists, also on the list were professor, higher education administrator, librarian, editor, and clergy. I think it’s worth taking a look at part of the brief report on professors:

If you can land a tenure-track position at a four-year institution, you’ll enjoy many advantages. You’ll get the pleasure of teaching—but only six to 15 hours a week, so you’re unlikely to burn out. Outside of class, you’re required to meet with students, but that too is just a few hours a week. Most of the time, you’ll do research or write on a scholarly topic that interests you. And in some specialties, you can pick up extra money by consulting. You also get to work in a delightful work environment: a college campus. Plus, after seven years, you get tenure—lifetime job security.

The downside? It’s tough to land a tenure-track job. It helps if you were a star in your Ph.D. program—and it helps more if that was at a prestigious university. It helps even more if you’re a woman or minority with the potential to bring in grant money. Obtaining a Ph.D. typically takes five to eight years once you’ve got a bachelor’s degree.

Also, the national average salary that they quote from PayScale.com is $85,300 (contrasted with the $73,000 in the AAUP survey). Interesting how they make it sound like after a blissful and relaxing seven years of wondrous life at your collegiate home . . . poof! You’ve got tenure. As if there is no question about it. Not to mention that not all institutions give you tenure for life, but some do a once every five year review or the like (I believe my alma mater does the latter). As the Inside Higher Ed article notes, the description omits the need to do class preparation and grading. They also point to a critique of the U.S. News feature by Karl Steel, an assistant professor of English at Brooklyn College, at his blog.

Another article of interest was published recently in Chronicle Careers by Claire Miller, which is the pseudonym of a Ph.D. candidate in religious studies. She reflects on the frustrating process of finding just the right “fit” in job descriptions that seem to be so strangely pieced together by vastly different specialties. Here’s her humorous fictional job description to demonstrate what she’s been seeing:

Nameless University invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track position in church history and applied ethics. Ability to teach ancient Greek and pastoral counseling desired. The successful candidate will also have competence in visual arts and international relations. Candidates with experience in administration and campus ministry are encouraged to apply.

After discussing with her graduate advisor, she reasons, “I’ve decided that if I can do less than half of a job description, I should let it pass. But if I can do more than half, it’s fair game.”

It all seems kind of crazy, how different this profession is from any other. If you include my undergraduate work, I am already in the seventh year of training in my field, biblical studies, and I’m going to near double that with my doctoral work. Then, after my twelve to thirteen years of training in biblical studies, I’m going to try to find a job that more than halfway matches my skill set. At that point, I hope to get paid at least as much as I could have made in my first year out of undergraduate studies if I had majored in, say, computer science or engineering.

Like my undergraduate professor told me, we’re not in this for the money. That’s right, I’m in it for the fame. Okay, maybe not that either. No, I’m on this strange journey because I want to engage difficult scholarly questions about the New Testament and early Christianity, while I also serve as an educator and mentor to students who wrestle with the same questions on the lay level. I’m on this road because I feel this is how I can make the biggest difference in the world.

So, I guess you could say that this post is me wrestling with the messy practicalities of future academic life, while also not losing my idealistic vision for why I’m motivated to enter the field in the first place.