Slashdot Mirror
From School to Work to Working at School?
torgosan asks: "After years of school and many years of toiling in the corporate world and being laid-off in one of the seemingly perpetual down-sizings [my former company was employee-owned until a corporate buyout a few years back, after which point it all went downhill - a mini-Enron, as it were, including crooked execs, cooked books, SEC investigations, the whole mess], it appears my days of joblessness may possibly be coming to an end. A small university near my hometown has an opening that has my name written all over it. This is all still early in the process and the offer hasn't come yet but that's not stopping me from researching the target city, moving expenses, cost-of-living comparisons, living arrangements, etc. Taking the position would mean a sizable pay-cut but I need to get back to doing what I love to do and this seems to be 'it'. What I haven't been able to find, though, are the insights into university employment and how it compares to working in the 'real world'.
This would be a staff position working with other staff and professionals and with some interaction with the student body. So my question for you uni workers out there is: What sort of adjustment should be expected? Is the uni workplace as structured as the corporate world? Pet peeves? What are the politics like? I ask as I attended a commuter-school with little campus life and have little to draw on for perspective."
co-eds
... as a Research Engineer, building robots and helping out grad students with their thesis work. It's a pretty cool job. I get to travel a fair amount, spend a little time at sea for field testing, it's not all desk work. There are other nice things - I get a good amount of vacation time, the benefits are decent.
Downsides: low pay, not very well organized, always chasing money (i.e., writing proposals). Definitely less structured than the corporate world. Students can be fun or infuriating to work with (sometimes both). University politics can be among the ugliest in the world, it's best to try and stay out of the way.
- There's no fixed hours - it depends on the job, obviously, but lots of people seem to show up pretty casually.
- Zero dress code - eccentricity is praised rather than condemned, and no-one bats an eyelid if you wander around barefoot in heavy metal T-shirts and bright blue hair.
- Self-motivated work - there aren't any bosses prowling the cube-farm looking for slackers, so you have to have self-discipline to get anything done
These are all observations as a research student working with and around employees at my university, so I may be somewhat inaccurate.1. Professors are gods: All ideas come from them, even if you thought them up. Let the profs be the thought leaders and you will do OK.
2. Staff positions may be subject to the whimsy of grant-givers: Your position may be tied to long-term research grants or funding that can dry up.
3. Lots of smart people: Profs and grad students will, by and large, be smart and interesting. If you like thinking/talking about new ideas, you will have fun.
4. Slower pace: Universities don't operate on the same timescale as entrepeneural companies. "I need it soon" might mean "I need it next month."
5. YMMV: as with corporate life, specific situations or bosses might suck egregiously or be ludicrously enjoyable.
Good luck!
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
- You need to show up at work at a regular time.
- They make me use Windows which is preventing me from copying and pasting list item tags from one item to the next because Windows IE is too "smart" to let me do that. Anyway...
- Generally, computers are far more locked down and standardized. On the other hand, as someone pointed out, they're therefore not broken half the time.
- Breakfast and lunch meetings provide food, and it's not immediately stolen by starving grad students.
- I can't wear a t-shirt and jeans every day.
- They pay a lot more.
- Total Slashdot time is unchanged.
OK, the combination of the last two has shamed me to going back to work...What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
The politics are much, much worse. People have 'ownership' of things and places, and this can make your life difficult. Policing the network is harder, because anything you try is 'affecting peoples education'. People with Masters degrees in english think that their education means more than your knowledge and experience.... otherwise, there are advantages. I'm sure the guy who said co-eds will get marked as a troll, but don't knock it till you've tried it...
I work in an IT Division in an institution of Higher Education.
All in all, compared to the corporate world, things are quite a bit quieter, more laid back, and you tend to have more loyalty (you get more of a chance to look at the big picture).
With that being said, this coprorate world mentality of nepotism scams, idiot re-orgs, mass exoduses (exodi?) etc., is beginning to permeate the world of education, which has traditionally been in it's own little world, so I don't know how long things will stay quiet and laid back.
Good luck. It can be the greatest job in the world. It can also really suck at times, as well.
Taking the position would mean a sizable pay-cut
HA! I would love to make what I could in coprorate. But, you don't enter the field of education, even as support staff, to make money. It's just that simple.
I worked in IT for a small company, then switched over to working for a University for a few years, essentially doing the same thing (sysadmin, netadmin, etc). I left that job to come back to the corporate atmosphere about four years ago, and I'm very happy where I am now, politics and all.
At least where I was working, things were very laid back vs. a corporate atmosphere. The pay was less, but it was pretty cushy -- had my own huge office, could pretty much buy whatever I needed, etc. All employees got full tuition reinbursement before having to pay yourself (with no grade requirement), and the courses did not have to do with my job function (I could take piano if I wanted to). Another nice benefit was spouse and children (I didn't have any at the time) get 1/2 tuition at the University.
As for politics, there were some run-ins with the tenured profs, who may have felt a little kingly in their status in the department. Other than that, there really were no politics to speak of.
Why did I leave? Well, I needed to get out and learn more. One frustrating thing I had to deal with was the University's lack of desire to branch out to technology that could possibly do things better for us, or at least test the new tech out to see if it met our needs. Many suppliers would gladly give out free trial gear to a University -- that's BIG bucks for them if they get a sale out of it. Also, since I worked for a smaller department and not the "head" IT department of the University, I felt a bit pushed away from what I really wanted to do. It took me months to convince them I could do a simple copper wiring job in the network closet (which they previously charged our department $200 for each drop we wanted moved or added -- a two-minute job at most!). I wasn't learning anything, and I had too much time available to me to play games in my cushy office (I think I logged more time playing UO in those days than I care to admit). I needed to get my head out of the clouds and get back to a place where I could learn more, branch out more and step back into reality.
Most people I tell this to say I was crazy for leaving such a sweet deal, but they just don't get it. It was a great job to spend one's pre-retirement days doing meaningless, mediocre sysadmin work that never changed, but not for a 20-something trying to make something of himself. If I stayed in that job too much longer, I'd be hard pressed to find a company out there to hire me. As far as I'm concerned, I got out in the nick of time.
Anyway, that's just my experience.
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
Low Pay, but usually Low Stress and Good Benefits. I get decent health care, and an extra week of vacation time. My pay is about 3/4 to 2/3 of what I would get in industry, but I'm not expected to work overtime, have flexible hours, no dress code and a great deal of control over what I do.
Your exact work environment can vary greatly, not only from university to unversity but from department to department. Universities are good about keeping their employees. If you are unhappy or need more money, see about getting transfered to another department.
It greatly depends on your department for a number of things. You asked about how structured it is.. My department is very flexible and casual. We've got a small group, and things flow well. Other departments (Engineering IT support or User Services, things like that) can be fairly strict. If things you are doing involve the University as a whole, you may have to go through a great deal of hierarchy as policies need to be implemented correctly.
Politics seems to be high, from my experience. This is especially true when funding from Grants are involved. There are a lot of people at universities that have been there a long time. These people don't like others impeding with the things that they view themselves as controlling. When it comes to funding you could be competing with a professor next door, or a department down the hall.
You've probably gotten accustomed to good travel perks. If your university sends you to conferences, don't expect these as much. It depends on the department/university, but you likely won't have a company credit card to charge things on, and you likely could be sharing a hotel room with others from your department. Expect to pay all of the bills yourself, in advance, and get a refund later.
Because of the Low Stress and relatively High Politics, you'll likely find that things move slowly. It's hard to get new ideas and solutions implemented. If you are going to a Windows only department, don't think you'll be able to switch them to linux quickly. A lot of people will (a) not want to do more work than they have to (b) not want to learn or do anything new and/or (c) will require any change but pushed through high viscosity red-tape.
You'll need to understand how you get paid and how your department gets paid. It may be simple for you and your department. Or your department may get portions of funding from grants and portions from the unversity or other departments to carry out certain obligations. This is important to your success -- you need to know who the customer is (could be students, researchers, staff, the vicepresident of IT, the NSF or DOD, or some other unversity as part of a collaboration...).
Yes, it's a job. Yes, you have some sort of schedule. yes, you have a boss, co-workers, etc. That's probably about where the differences stop. As another poster stated, politics are huge around a University. Gossipers tend to run rampant, where, while they're present in the corporate world, they can't be so blatant about it all the time (from my experience.) Budgets are extremely important, and you may have to be there for awhile and make friends before you're ever able to acquire extra finances for a project you'd like to pursue. This, of course, depends on what you'll be doing, and how much your boss wants to take care of you (he probably already has the swing to get some extra funding for you.)
All in all, it's a trip. The thing I wasn't prepared for was the amount of laziness all around me. Granted, I worked in the Facilities Mgmt department, so not faculty or directly involved with the academics, and we had almost all of the union employees at the school. But still, the amount of maintenances guys I found napping, the difficulty in reaching half of the managers (most of which have since been fired, thankfully) was rediculous. And infuriating, considering I was a student employee making $10/hr doing helpdesk with four others making $50k, and I did more than any one of them, and usually more than any two of them combined. Now THAT would have been a nice gig. $50k, 40 hours, work stays at work when I walk out the door.
Anyway, I have since left and stepped into the corporate world, so I'm working backwords from where the poster is headed, but it's amazing the differences I've seen. Where I work now, the politics are there, but seem much more elusive, where in the University, the politics are right there in front of you, every day of every week.
Now that I am "staff", and I have a desk and chair designated for staff, and my manager has a desk and chair designated for a manager, and my principal a desk and chair for a principal, I kind of yearn for that laid-back and more enjoyable atmosphere.
Linux: The world's best text-adventure game.
At some universities, administration bureaucracy is a major problem. Usually, larger and/or older institutions are worse, smaller and/or newer institutions are better, but there are exceptions in both directions.
Academic politics is always bloody. Kissinger's "University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small" is apparantly universal. Fortunately, the tradition of lying low and avoiding getting involved is also well established. If you can avoid getting seriosuly involved, that is probably a good thing. If you actively want to get involved, then there is no hope for you :).
Best course of action is almost certainly to talk to few people working there, especially people in the department you hope to be appointed to, and see how they feel about these things.
About the politics of a university.
The Lighter Side of Education...
The Dean:
Leaps tall buildings in a single bound,
is more powerful than a locomotive,
is faster than a speeding bullet,
walks on water,
gives policy to God.
The Department Head:
Leaps short buildings in a single bound,
is more powerful than a switch engine,
is just as fast as a speeding bullet,
walks on water if the sea is calm,
talks with God.
Professor:
Leaps short buildings with a running start and favorable winds,
is almost as powerful as a switch engine,
is slower than a speeding bullet,
walks on water in an indoor swimming pool,
talks with God if special request is approved.
Associate Professor:
Barely clears a quonset hut,
loses tug of war with locomotive,
can fire a speeding bullet,
swims well,
is occasionally addressed by God.
Assistant Professor:
Makes high marks on wall when trying to leap tall buildings,
is run over by locomotive,
can sometimes handle a gun without inflicting self injury,
dog paddles,
talks to animals.
Graduate Student:
Runs into buildings,
recognizes locomotives two out of three times,
is not issued ammunition,
can stay afloat with a life jacket,
talks to walls.
Undergraduate:
Falls over doorstep when trying to enter buildings,
says look at the choo-choo,
wets himself with a water pistol,
plays in mud puddles,
mumbles to himself.
Department Secretary:
Lifts tall buildings and walks under them,
kicks locomotives off the track,
catches speeding bullets in her teeth and eats them,
freezes water with a single glare,
she is God.
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
As somebody who works in a small university, I have to say that it is a great job. Yes, the pay isn't all that great. However, I have all the freedom I need. Most people around me works 35-40 hours/week, but there are a lot of slacking off among some of the staff members (I swear some secretaries work way less than 30 hours/week in actual working time).
Work hour can be very flexible. I know people who comes 7 AM and leave by 3 PM, or 10 AM and leave 7 PM. On the other hand, if you work for non-academic departments, then, you may have 8-5 (or 9-6) job as the rest of the world. IT people tends not to have 8-5 jobs, however.
A few years ago, I left my university job for a while working for a company for a while, then, I came back (to my original job at the same university). To me, the corporate job I had was a dreadful job. It was a 9-6 job, but there were so many restrictions and procedures that I had to follow to do anything.
Now, I work 6 AM to 6/7/9 PM almost everyday, but for the most part, I enjoy my job. I have my own private office (with a lot of space). I get to do a lot of cools things (including just playing around/experimenting with a lot of things). I can even get some research and teaching done. I have never showed up work with tie or dress shoes that I can remember. In fact, during the summer months, I usually show up work with shorts and sandals on.
It is true that in some cases, funding from grants matter, however, in many cases, it doesn't matter. For example, if your posistion does not have a lot to do with research directly, then, it probably doesn't matter. Also, as far as I can tell, in smaller institutions (like mine), it tend not to matter too much (smaller schools are more likely to be teaching institutions where less grant funding research with enough funding to hire people for the research).
Generally speaking, the benefits are good. You can often take the university classes for free (or nearly free in some places). In fact, I know a few people who have gotten their college degrees by taking classes for free a little by little (usually secretarial people with only highschool degree seeking college degree, however).
The downside of working for a college is some people do not have broad skills. My primary responsibility is a chemist/scientist, however, I end up being an IT guy (in local offices), administrator (as business administrator), etc all the time. This is partly so because people who really should be doing that jobs aren't doing it, and they need to be taken care of.
Also, depending upon the each specifics, it may be hard to get things you really need because of the funding issues. For example, it took them over 6 months to get me a reasonable computer to use for my work (although I did get exactly what I wanted in the end). I often have to improvise what I need with what I can get hold of.
There is one thing you should know if you work for a college settings (particularly at a small teaching institution). The college/university is there to teach students. That is the primary function of the institution. That is why all the profs were hired (so that they can teach students). If you are a staff member, then, your job is assists the profs and students to help the students learn better. Even those non-academic departments are there for that purpose. That is a very important concept (unfortunately, many people do not understand that at all).
I was all set to move. Two weeks later when I got the form letter, I was quite disappointed. Save your time and energy until you actually have the job.
When I was sent to a conference in DC for the announcement of the completion of the human genome project, I decided to dye my bright blue hair down to something more normal. They probably wouldn't have even said anything otherwise, but I've got at least an iota of professionalism.
22 days of paid vacation annually is very nice. I take a 3 day weekend every month and still have plenty of vacation time stacked up that I could take a whole week off when I move to a new apartment this summer.
ATTENTION NERD TOY COLLECTORS: A nice perk that offsets the lower salary: Educational employees are eligible for educational personal purchase discounts. This amounts to 10% off Apple hardware and software, and a comparable amount with Dell, etc.
Because my university has negotiated various discounts, I save money on rental cars and hotels when I travel, and get a break on my cell phone monthly charges, too. I saved about $100 on car rentals last time I traveled.
Use your employee ID badge to collect student discounts at the movies!
I believe the retirement plans are pretty generous, too. I know for mine, I was eligible for the university's contribution after a year and I was vested immediately.
HTH.
Life is like surrealism: if you have to have it explained to you, you can't afford it.
I have been working at a university for the last year and a half and am now getting out to get back IN the corporate world. Here's my take on things. Bare in mind, I have been at a religious-based university.
... count yourself lucky ... I work in the basement of a 100 year old building and I have to come in dressed in shirt and tie. (For 1 1/2 more weeks anyway)
1. The polotics are HORRIBLE. Every single things has to go through 10 committees and finance groups and can still be killed on the whims of the CFO. You have to be 100% politically correct all the time or you are frowned upon. My experiences with corporate politics have been MUCH easier to deal with.
2. Hours suck. You basically can not take a system down anytime there MIGHT be a class or students in the labs. For us that means that during the week reboots/service packs/anything minor has to been done remotely at 3:00AM. That's the only time we have gotten approved to boot everyone off the systems. Scheduling major upgrades always turns into a Saturday/Sunday/come in at 10:00PM ordeal.
3. Pay is below the industry average in the area. Whatever this position is making in the corporate arena in your area, subtract 20% to get what the university will pay.
4. Benefits - most universities have great benefits. Mine is an EXTREME exception. Most have good health, vision, dental, and education reibursement. A lot of schools let your children go there for free after you have worked there X number of years.
5. Autonomy - most schools let you do your work at your own pace. Unless your boss is a militant ex-marine who's boss is a militant ex-army officer. Not that I'm bitter about that or anything.
Those are just a few of my major findings. It has not been an enjoyable experience for me and I am looking forward to getting back to the corporate world. Oh, and to the guy that mentioned no dress code
GOOD LUCK!
Knightfall
I've worked both for Universities and in the "real world".
Benefits?
1) Lots of vacation, generally around 20 to 25 days a year, plus holidays, and around 21 sick days. (This of course varies from place to place).
2) Depending on the position you hold, you'll have very flexible hours. If it's not an IT position (mine haven't been), you get a lot of choice on when you get in, and when you can leave. (Of course, this depends on the boss you have).
3) It's pretty laid back, and usually the only pressure comes when funding gets low, or there's some big demo.
4) If you work on campus, generally the places you can go for food are pretty decent.
5) Pay isn't that bad, depending on the position. Many people have said that the pay is lower, but I've never had a problem with getting relatively high pay. I'm probably one of the lucky ones. Pay increases do tend to be low, and there's never a bonus, so get hired at a high salary; don't expect it to increase that much.
6) You'll be able to take classes at a discount, and if you have kids at go to school there, you'll get a big discount.
7) Unless you work at a pretty cool place in the business world, you'll probably have more gadgets and "toys" to play with in academia (again, this varies with position).
8) College towns have pretty good sporting events and concerts that come to town. Take advantage of those.
Negatives:
1) If you don't have anything above a BS degree, they won't take you seriously when it comes time to putting people in charge of things. I don't care if you're the tops in your field at whatever you do, if it's a choice between someone with a BS with tons of experience and a PHD with no experience in that field, they'll go with the PHD.
I've seen this many times.
2) Politics. Several people have mentioned that already. I'm not sure what else I can say, other than imagine the worse politics you can think of (probably marketing vs. engineering), and it's like 10x worse than that. At least with marketing vs. engineering you knew where it was coming from; in an academic environment, you'll constantly have to be on the lookout.
As far as "real world politics": If you're a conservative, learn to bite your tongue. If they figure this out, some (not all!) people *will* retaliate against you just for being a conservative, and no other reason than that. If you're a liberal, there will be many people that agree with your views, so you're probably ok.
3) You'll be used as a step for someone else's career. I've seen very little promotion from within Universities, mainly because the people doing the promoting don't see what benefit it is to THEM. A project that's done will in business might get your promoted at your next review; you might not even get reviews in academia, at least none that lead to a promotion.
4) Parking. You will probably have to pay to park on campus. Some universities charge a LOT of money to park there each month. Plus the waiting lists for parking lots can be long. Like three years long.
5) If you work for an academic department (again, probably not IT), and you write something that will be published, your boss *will* also put their name on it, whether or not they actually wrote anything in it. This seems to be standard operating procedure. Unfair, yes; anything you can do about it, probably not.
Could go either way:
1) Office space. This is always at a premium. Some of my best offices and some of my worst have been a universities. Mine have all been better than in business though.... never had to work in a cube since that time.
I left the corp world several years ago for public school education and have never looked back. Much more flex time, lots of vac time, you'll prob get every holiday listed on the calendar - I get Good Friday - who gets that? Of course there are office style politics, but I don't think they are as bad as the commercial world. Look at the other perks - most universities let you take courses for free - that's how a lot PhD types are born. You will be surrounded by smart, creative, academically like minded ppl - most will love their craft. Some private universities and K-12 private schools include free housing - another major perk if you don't own your own home - no rent, no mortage! There is a private school in my area that offers housing to every employee, whether prof or janitor! Also, most universities allow your children to go there for free, for as long as you are employed! Now that is worth the lower pay right there.
Most of these posts seem right on. I've worked at a university (deskmonkey, not IT) for two and a half years now and these are my rules:
....
1. Most tenured professors have inflated egos. This inflation varies from mild to delusional, and usually varies positively with seniority.
2. Non-tenured new hires usually haven't yet forgotten that they're not grad students, and are much humbler and easier to work with.
3. Most professors have no idea how much work goes into your job, and no idea how to plan anything ahead of time. I have had people ask me, in all innocence, to reserve rooms in, say, the faculty center on four hours' notice on a Friday (when no one teaches and everyone does lunch at the faculty center). I have had people ask me, in all innocence, to proofread and LaTeX typeset a 45-page mechanical engineering treatise "by next week, because it was due last month."
4. Long-term staff (id est, "lifers", people who are not just "working here while getting an advanced degree in something else" like I am) can be the most political, gossipy, backstabbing people I have ever encountered.
5. Union rules are so strict that most people can't just change jobs or start doing new duties without six reams of filled-out forms being vetted by the union. You also usually can't be slotted into a new job that has opened up in your department, rather, an entire hiring process, however illusory (i.e., they interview ten people and hire you anyway) must be undertaken.
6. Similarly, accountng rules are a bitch. Never mind that some people find ways to embezzle tens of thousands of dollars once in a while. You had better be able to explain to Accounts Payable why you're reimbursing a visitor from fucking Washington DC fifty cents for a can of Coke---food and drink are not authorized on that grant account, buster!
That said
7. It is God damned impossible to be fired. You basically have to rape a small child in front of the Dean in order to get fired around here. Simple bone laziness, egregious stupidity or generally being a complete jerk won't do it.
8. In the engineering departments, at least, you can dress any way you please. No dress code. Jeans day every day, baby. In other depts., it may not be so.
Having two parents who teach, I'm gonna have to take offense at that. The cliche is, occasionally, true but is more often used to make people feel better about bad profs or to feel good about not being a teacher. Good teachers (and quite honestly I've had more good than bad) are "doing" and anyone who says otherwise obviously has never taught, or had someone close to them who is a teacher.
In addition, college and university teaching gives profs amazing opportunities to teach AND "do." My father is both a law professor and one of the highest rated defense lawyers in the City of Chicago, having been integrally involved in former Gov. Ryan's choice to put a moratorium on the death penalty. He would not have had the resources (grad students, freedom given by his university to persue his own goals, etc) to persue such lofty goals as aboloshing the death penalty and guaranteeing the rights of the accused (I'll play the Slashdot 'Civil Liberties Card' and say he's probably doing more to protect them that _you_ are) were he not at a university.
Likewise, my mother works with special ed. kids and makes each and every one of their lives better. She may not be changing the world in dramatic or historically significant ways, but I know each child and their family values her and she values them.
You go and contradict yourself, saying that those who work in universities "actually know what your talking about," implying maybe they can "do," but I still dislike your use of the (dead wrong) cliche.
To the origonal poster who is asking the question: I'm a student at an "institution of higher learning", and have no experience working in education. However, having spoken to both my parents I know they both love working in education. Specifically my dad, who works at a university teaching and also is able to practice law through the university loves being able to work with students and shape their futures, as well as actually get down and dirty and do "real" work. As many other posters have indicated, I do know he complains about the political aspects and dislikes the occasional stupidity. Specifically, he says their are profs who haven't actually practiced law in years and instead are satisfied with 'intellectually' persuing law by reading and writing about it. My understanding is there are such people in every branch of education, who find the study of their subject of choice to be more important than the actual practice. This may be where the cliche "Those who can do, those who can't teach" came from, so it may have a grain of truth in it.
But if you're interested in working in at a university, and what other posters have said sounds enjoyable (and from my limited understand, what other posters have said about lower pay but more flexible hours and nice benifits is true) then I'd say go for it. It won't be the rest of your life, and it may be something you enjoy beyond measure.
My two cents.
-Trillian
You've never worked in a University, have you.
Have you worked in the corporate world?
Last year I went from 24 years in the corporate sphere to academic work. I am so happy now I don't know what to do with myself, even though I'm making about $30,000 per year less than I was.
When I interviewed at the university, I was told how laid back everything was, how 9-5 it would be, and how I would be pretty much my own boss. Most of that turned out to be a total crock. Most things about university work are pretty much the same as in the corporate world, except with less money.
Everything operates pretty much in crisis mode all the time. I pull all nighters monthly and work lots of unpaid overtime. Managers are still simultaneously out to lunch and egotistical as a rule. Requirements come from ever expanding committees instead of just a team of five or six pseudo-technical project managers.
Being funded by grant money is about as stable as working in an overheated IT economy where bean counters can't offshore work fast enough. I still feel like the bottom could drop out at any moment. And just like the corporate world, there's still not enough money for that protocol analyzer that would save a couple month's worth of work. You still never get the resources up front you are promised.
However, we're not working to some imagined market demand that might evaporate if we don't get there first. We actually get projects not just done, but sometimes done right. We might be working furiously and pushed hard. But we will take the time to get it right. It's greatly satisfying knowing I am working on things that are going to be good.
We use great technology. And lots of it. I don't have to say I work in a Java shop or a C++ shop or a Microsoft shop or a Unix shop. I can concentrate on one set of skills if I want. But if they aren't working for me, I can do things some other way. Python is making me happy.
I'm working for the good of society. Work I am doing will help make the world a better place. It isn't manufacturing hype to steer demand for some product which will be here today and gone tomorrow. It isn't listening to some manager's near criminal schemes to fleece money from an unsuspecting public. It isn't a company trying to get something for nothing, either from their employees or their customers. It's saving lives and advancing science.
Science is far more interesting than markets. Making something in a lab and then going and taking it outdoors, maybe up on the roof, maybe out in the ocean, and collecting data from it that can tell you something nobody knew before... that's just cool.
I work with a distinctly better crowd of people than ever before. Are there politics? Sure. Any set of social relations evolves politics. But the overarching reach is cooperation for the good of humanity rather than competition for individual survival. People who work for less money to be in such an environment are not only just plain nicer to be with on a day to day basis, but they are generally a whole lot smarter and more interesting. We like being together after work. People are doing all kinds of different things in close proximity to each other, with lot of cross pollinating results. It's intellectually stimulating. And I just GPL'd code I got paid to write. That was a strangely exhilarating feeling.
Campuses are beautiful places. At least the one I'm on. You have to get out and walk from building to building a lot. And thereby subject yourself to the flowering of spring and be immersed in youth. This has an effect that may sound trivial from its description, but I can't put a price on it. It's like being alive instead of being a Dilbert zombie. I highly recommend this being alive stuff.
The perks are unbelievable. I traveled a lot, and to exotic places, in my corporate jobs. But traveling to academic conferences is a whole lot more enjoyable than traveling to go set up an experimental server on some unknown network with a deadline and havi
Department Secretary:
Lifts tall buildings and walks under them,
kicks locomotives off the track,
catches speeding bullets in her teeth and eats them,
freezes water with a single glare,
she is God.
You might mistake this for humor. I used to work for a university, and this is dead on. From day 1, be extremely nice and helpful to the secretaries and other admin people; you'll be amazed how much easier it makes your work.