As I wrote on facebook (for the sign of a professional writer is 'reuse words often'):
It's official! As of today I am Professor Antunes, an aerospace engineering assistant professor at Capitol College (capitol-college.edu), newest member of their full-time teaching faculty.
A professorship is perhaps the only job for which I'd leave freelancing. It's 1/3rd the hourly pay rate and 3x the work, and I couldn't be happier. They also agreed to a reduced teaching load for semester 1 so I can finish my O'Reilly satellite eBooks. Woo hoo!
Among the many congratulations was this trio of cautionaries:
- The only problem with teaching, is the students.
- It's over rated. Can't you just call yourself professor? Or cololnel for that matter? It worked for col. Sanders.
- Being a professor is a great job, except for the students, the administration, and some collegues -but working in your area of interests is priceless
Humorously, they all came from the same fellow, himself a professor. Teaching gets an odd mix of respect ('a noble profession') and disdain ('state lackeys', long hours with poor pay). It's interesting to see being a student can often get the same dichotomy.
For myself, I'm very happy to be launching into, what, career #4 now? Four if you count being a student as a profession, that is. And so the cycle is complete.
Prof. Alex
