Chances for professorships

<p>Does anyone know the relative difficulty of finding a job as a professor? Of course, it's different between fields, but is it roughly as hard to get a professorship at a, say, top-ten school as it is to go to graduate school at said school? I find it sort of funny that I almost never hear anyone talk about this, while there's so much more talk about graduate admissions.</p>

<p>A professor in my field, biology, told us that about 20% of biology PhDs go on to become professors in total.</p>

<p>That would seem to indicate that it's much more difficult to become a professor at a top school than to get into the graduate program there, which makes sense to me -- my program certainly takes a lot more new graduate students than new professors each year. :)</p>

<p>I've heard that, overall, the field is suppose to get better with time as the baby boomers retire. </p>

<p>but yeah, in most fields, the competition is brutal. there are a lot more M's and PHD's looking for work in most fields at universities than jobs available. some claim that universities enroll and graduate too many students (esp. the humanities). </p>

<p>but if your passionate about the area your pursuing, who really cares. everything will work out.</p>

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but is it roughly as hard to get a professorship at a, say, top-ten school as it is to go to graduate school at said school?

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<p>Of course it's going to be harder than going to grad school at a top school. Professor turn-around is much slower than they can produce PhD's. </p>

<p>In my field, it's a crap-shoot year to year of who's hiring what (i.e. what specialty). Some positions have 20+ candidates fighting for the job (i.e. "short listed" candidates), other positions only have 2 or so on the "short list". This year, it would be great if I were graduating with my PhD, as there are numerous jobs available this year and even a Penn State branch campus hiring a whole earth science department. </p>

<p>You definately can NOT be picky as to where you get your first faculty position. After you have worked for some time, you can always apply to work at another university or take a sabbatical to work/research there for a year.</p>

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You definately can NOT be picky as to where you get your first faculty position. After you have worked for some time, you can always apply to work at another university or take a sabbatical to work/research there for a year.

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<p>Do you think that there's any danger of accepting a professorship at the first place which offers one, and being stuck there during one's most productive years? I'm thinking specifically of math, in which the most productive years are typically from 18 to 30, or so.</p>

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I'm thinking specifically of math, in which the most productive years are typically from 18 to 30, or so.

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<p>I'd be very impressed if I saw a professor that was sub-30 years of age. Your position is what you make of it. There is a lot of negotiation that goes along with a job offer, many professors can haggle lab set-ups and the likes. So, I really don't see an issue with teaching at any uni (regardless of 'presitge') that focuses on research, you'll have the opportunity to spread your wings.</p>

<p>I'm on a search right now to hire someone in German (at a selective LAC). German is a relatively small field and there are nearly 200 applications for this single job, which had restrictions on the research specialty, thus eliminating a lot of potential applicants. A 200:1 ratio is not at all unusual in a search for a tenure-track position, and once the job is offered, a candidate usually is given a week or two at most to accept. The days when candidates in most fields choose among multiple job offers are long past. </p>

<p>(Things are a little different in government, economics, and some fields within the natural sciences where seeking an academic position is only one of several career paths with a graduate degree, but getting a job at a top university is difficult. A common career path is to hold a series of replacment positions or a job at a 2nd or 3rd-tier school and to work one's way up the food chain.)</p>