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I'm split: career and education decisions - GameDev.Net Discussion Forums

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[First, I apologize for the length of this post!] My first year of college is over, and I am as confused as ever about what I want to do with my life.

I'm hoping that someone who has been in a similar situation here could offer up their story about their confusion and how they resolved it (if it has been resolved). I'm good at programming, and I enjoy it.

I would like to work as a programmer or software developer, not necessarily only in game development but in almost any field. But I'm also good at math, and I enjoy it very much.

I would also like to get a PhD in math and pursue a professorship. But these two paths are for the most part mutually exclusive.

Yes, I could start out as a programmer, then go get a PhD and try to become a professor, or I could get a PhD in math, then try to become a programmer.

But there's really no point in going down one path and then abruptly switching to the other;

The first path taken would have become largely a waste of time. Working as a full professor of math, doing research, teaching classes, maybe even writing some books all the while having a very competitive salary is the ideal job for me.

However, it takes such a very long time to become a full professor, and honestly the route to a full professorship (after having obtained a PhD) doesn't sound very fun.

Plus I've heard that competition is extremely fierce and that some people never even obtain full professorships.

I really hope I'm wrong. On the flip-side, working as a programmer is not quite my ideal, perfect conception of a job, but it seems significantly less stressful.

Getting a job as a programmer seems easier, I wouldn't be spending many years getting a PhD, and the salaries tend to be good--no, perhaps one won't get rich as a programmer, but in general lots of programmers seem to have little to no financial difficulties. Some people say that you should always do what you love.

I'd like to believe it, but money does matter.

I don't care about getting rich, but I do care about obtaining financial stability, living in a nice neighborhood, and having enough disposable income so that I can lead an interesting lifestyle.

It seems that the programming route would make it so much easier to get this goal.

Again, I hope someone here can tell me I'm wrong. My original plan was to double major in math and CS.

Currently this is still what I'm doing.

I've considered dropping the CS major altogether, but at that time I was almost dead-set on the PhD route.

Presently I'm considering just doing a major in math and a minor in CS, but I'm afraid that if I decide I want to work as a programmer rather than get a PhD this will hurt me. Why not just continue with the double major?

I wanted to focus the majority of my time on math.

I was wanting to go to some summer research programs in math, maybe even study abroad, and spend a semester at Penn State in an intensive undergraduate program in math.

Doing these things would be almost impossible with a dual major in CS because at my school a CS major essentially requires that CS be your focus.

People here who did dual majors in CS and math in the past had to do the bare minimum for math in order to graduate in four years, and I don't want to do the bare minimum for math (quite the contrary--I want to do more than most math majors do, quite a lot more), but I also don't want to be stuck in undergraduate forever. I'm completely split by these separate paths.

Case in point: I already have a programming internship this summer, but I'm also planning on taking two math courses this summer at the same time.

Sometimes I wonder if I should just drop those classes, focus everything on the internship, forget about the PhD in math, and just implement my original plan that I had crafted way back when I first started high school: dual major in CS and math, then work as a programmer, possibly in a field that also requires math skills, such as game development or the financial sector. So, I'm so confused I don't even have any specific questions to ask.

I was hoping that instead people could just offer up their own stories of confusion over what they would do with their lives and how everything worked out. Cheers!

Quote: : Most PhD professors I know don't make much money.

Most private sector jobs make equal to or more than what college profs make.

Of course, money isn't everything.

Back in 2006 I took a pay cut from a job I hated to transition into a job field that I loved.

It made all the difference in the world, and never once did I think about the smaller paychecks!

I was just thrilled to be involved with something I love.

In the end that job change paid off, as now I'm much happier and now make much more than a majority of the teachers I know (which was my old job). I can't really speak to your situation since I'm neither a full time programmer nor a math prof.

But I did find myself in a similar situation after getting my masters.

I was teaching and hated it.

I felt like I had wasted 6.5 years of my life getting two degrees only to end up "trapped" in a teaching job that I despised.

Through some serious determination, luck and a heavy amount of networking, I was able to get out of teaching and into game and media audio.

My two degrees are in music education and saxophone performance, so they relate somewhat to game audio- although there was alot of new stuff I had to pick up on and learn myself.

I don't know about teaching math and programming, but I'm sure there is some carry over. Quote: : Hmmm, I'm not so sure.

I'd say there are equal amounts of stress in both fields, from what I've observed.

Personally, I have just as much stress from my teaching days to my game development days.

It's just a different kind of stress. My advice: get a degree.

Particularly at the bachelor level, things are more open ended once you're done.

I'm not using a lick of my education training, nor do I play saxophone very often at my job.

But I do use other skills and my musical training daily.

You're only done with your first year and have plenty more time to figure out what you want to do when you grow up.

Focus on learning as much as you can about a variety of subjects, enjoy life and chase your happiness. If you find that you got the "wrong" degree, you can always go back to school.

My friend is doing that right now.

He was a math education major and taught for four years.

He hated it. So now he's just about done with a civil engineering degree.

One of the co-owners of my company got a degree in civil engineering then started making video games.

So, my point in all of this is just get a degree.

If it doesn't turn out to be 100% suited or directed towards you're ultimate job or role- no worries.

Either get more degrees that better fit your vision (which will become clearer and clearer as you age and experience more) or learn on the job.

Some survey I read stated that the average American changes job industries five times.

Five times. The average career span is, what, forty years or so?

Then you (hopefully) retire.

Don't underestimate the ability to learn new skills on the job.

Or by just taking a few college courses here and there, you can add to your skill set.

I admire your desire to attain the perfect degree for your ideal job, but you're still pretty young (probably between 19-20) and your goals and needs may change.

If I were you, I wouldn't stress so much about getting the perfect degree and focus on learning and bettering yourself as much as you can while in school.

Also don't forget to have some fun! I hope that helps, Nate Nathan Madsen Composer-Sound Designer Madsen Studios

I don't think you could ever go wrong with a fundamental degree like mathematics -- even if you decide to go into the comp sci field.

I was working toward a bachelor's in CS with the intent to get a masters, but one of my CS professors and a book that I had read suggested that a better route would be to get a bachelor's in math, and then get the masters in CS.

In the end, I started getting burnt out with college and just went with a BS in computer science.

But in general if you plan to go to grad school, its good to receive a nice liberal education for your undergraduate studies.

Focus on the applied studies in grad school. I wouldn't worry about your future career *too* much just yet.

Focus on completing school and doing well.

In the long run, the degree is just a stepping stone.

I would say that the safest choice would be the math degree because it leaves you with such a wide range of options, and especially if you are a self-taught programmer, you can do just as well in the programming field. Best of luck!

I can relate to your problem.

I too have been bouncing between programming or academia for years, to the point where earlier this year I've finished up my PhD in CS and now thinking about going back into game development.

In retrospect I don't particularly think of it as "lost time", more building up an interesting electic skill set. Back when I was doing my bachelor degrees, I specifically chose to study a double degree in software engineering and mathematics to give me flexibility due to my uncertainty about the right direction.

In your position I'd try to continue with the double degree.

Computer science and mathematics are intertwined, so the study of one with strengthen the other.

If it's a problem with classes you might be able to overload if you've got good grades, although be warned there's a big risk your studies will suffer (I speak from experience).

If it's too hard to continue the double degree then I agree it's a difficult decision.

If it were me I'd probably go with the major that I felt best about and do a few extra subjects in the other field. If you're seriously considering academia I'd strongly consider an honour year or whatever the equivalent is.

Here it's mandatory for postgraduate study anyway, but it's also a good trial for what it's like.

Generally you can work on a research project and have a fair bit more flexibility in what you study.

That wasn't the case for me doing engineering (fourth year is mostly fixed), but for computer science it was far more academic. I also agree that the maths is probably better to learn in a university environment.

Not that the computer science doesn't also help, but I've seen more maths people convert to computer science than the other way around.

Of course, that's probably just be because I worked in computer science and the field is rather new. Whatever path you choose, I wouldn't fret so much about future career paths.

It's very common for people to switch direction.

I've done so several times, and my sister has gone to med school after getting a PhD.

I wouldn't be too concerned about closing doors yet.

Both paths are long and arduous as you should probably know by now becoming good at something is not a quick fix, it takes years and years of practice to become truly capable in a field of anything, so please do not take commercial programming as the easy way out, it really isn't. As a professional programmer of 10 years I can promise you now it's more stressful than it is fun ESPECIALLY in a crunch magnet area like commercial games.

People do it because the money is good and / or they love the job with all their heart.

From personal experience programming is like a new toy, you have loads and loads of fun learning all the new stuff but then you have to build something which often takes a long time, suddenly your not learning as much as you used to and it stops being this fun and amazing fountain of knowledge and your pulling all nighters at the back of the office with producers who cant manage coming up and nagging you every 5 mins. I don't have a higher education but the time I've spent messing around trying to find out what I want to do in life I could have gotten one, and I regret not pursuing that.

I think if you are a rare case of someone who has the capability to tap into that kind of brain power then you should take advantage of it. I would recommend you get the PhD first, you've got your whole life ahead of you and it will provide you with much more than ample time to experience a PhD, Games and whatever else you can dream up along the way.

First of all, if you read your own post with attention you'll notice that you already seem to have made a choice.

I speak with good intentions. Anyway, when I was in high school I didn't know that CS existed.

(Really, I didn't!) Before that came along, everyone said that I should go to math in college.

I disagreed because I don't get along with public, since it implied being a teacher. So, instead, I considered something in biology (biochemistry to be more exact), because it was something that I would also enjoy doing.

And everyone said that I shouldn't because it pays very little (at least in my country).

But I didn't care.

I liked it. When I discovered CS, I didn't look back.

I'm a geek at heart, and love everything "computer".

Please note that I'm not implying that you should choose the same.

I'm stating that I just followed my taste/heart (whatever you call it). I also don't want you to be bankrupt, but it seems that, from personal experience and from observation of people I know, the most successful people are the ones who work in their area of interest, not the ones that are paid more in the beginning. A career takes decades to build.

How many years do you thing one can hold in a job they don't enjoy? Quote: : Every job is stressful, including being a programmer.

Currently I have dual function: I develop and give support in one of our clients.

Although the two together aren't an overload, there are some days where the levels of stress are high.

Mostly, those days are near some project's deadline (on the development side), or when something that isn't working needs immediate attention (on the support side). Plus, an advice I was given: If finances are your problem, then don't rule out a side-business. Well, I shared my experience and opinion.

The rest is up to you.

=) Best of luck.

You can pursue computational science - solving problems that require tapping computational power. Examples: 1.

Many-body problems, such as predicting the behavior of many atoms or of planetary systems - involve solving many coupled differential equations and is demanding both computationally and mathematically. 2.

Building physics engines - finding better algorithms for simulating the real world, from cloth to water to who knows what. Actually many physical problems can only be solved computationally and coming up with fast algorithms for doing so is a major and important challenge. Mathematical finance (the practitioners of which are aka "quants") is super mathematical AND computational.

AND it's about money ;). Your attitude towards money is realistic and good - pension, a home, etc are all important - but "having enough disposable income so that I can lead an interesting lifestyle" is bull.

That's fear speaking.

Do you think that fancy trip abroad once a year or that shiny new car will be enough of a bribe to keep you happy on a path you won't like?

I don't think so.

Don't be a greedy whore :).

It's fine worrying about pension and so, but after those two, working a job you enjoy is 10, no - 100 times more important than those puny materialistic comforts (unless you'll be making 300,000$ a year, in which case, forget my advice immediately and go for it NOW). Being a math prof.

Isn't any easier or harder than being a programmer, because the day will still have 24 hours no matter which path you take, and you'll be working a great deal out of it regardless of your choice.

Is violin harder than piano?

Both are equally hard if you practice them 8 hours a day. Good luck with your choice, whatever it may be. --- Assaf Physically Incorrect

There's a lot of great advice here.

Thanks to everyone who responded. Quote: : Quote: : Quote: : Quote: : It's very inspiring to see such consensus on this issue. Quote: : I think you are right. Quote: : Quote: : Very relaxing! Quote: : This is actually just what I was hoping I would hear.

I recently read Letters to a Young Mathematician by Ian Stewart, and he often echoes this sentiment. Quote: : I agree very much.

I've actually been planning on attending some special programs for undergraduate math majors that essentially accelerate one on the way to graduate school;

They function simultaneously as a stepping-stone to graduate school and a little bit of graduate school itself, with advanced or graduate-level material and small research projects.

If I get accepted, my enjoyment of these programs should definitely help me decide which path I want to take. As for now, I think I'll continue pursuing the dual major, and if it becomes clear in the future that I definitely want to pursue one path at the expense of the other, I'll drop the relevant major and shift the entirety of my focus to the new area. But most importantly, I think I'm going to stop worrying about this!

I'm gaining the confidence to simply trust time that everything will work out as it should in the end. Once again, thanks to those who replied.

Id say, dont get too hung up on the decision.

I dont have a single programming credential, and i couldnt care less. Whether you are in CS or math, if you choose your electives right, you are following mostly the same courses. If you are good at math, and you are a decent programmer, you are already a unique asset: ive never met a CS-grad that knew the first thing about math (OMG rotation matrix!).

Likewise, there is hardly a mathematician who can program.

(look, i can use pointers!) Id say being good at both is more valuable to me, you, and prospective employers, than specializing in one.

It doesnt limit an acedemic career either, because there is plenty of professoring to do on the interface between math and CS.

Also I wanted to mention...

You are probably already aware of the math degree options at your school, but often you have a lot of flexibility within a degree path.

When you pursue a math degree at my university for instance, you have to choose from one of 3 concentrations.

There's Applied Mathematics, Pure Mathematics, Statistics, and Mathematics with Computer Science.

The Mathematics with Computer Science option (which was my major before I started getting antsy and wanted out of school ASAP) has a lot of classes in common with the Computer Science degree here.

I'm sure most programming jobs would be just as welcoming toward someone with a degree like that. At the place where I work, I had to put all of my education course areas on the job application.

I was able to list my math courses, science courses, humanities courses, and engineering courses separately.

This might be an exceptional circumstance, but they were looking more toward you curriculum than what major you held.

I would say do a PhD if you love your subject.

However, you'll have to really love your subject in order to become an actual, full time academic in that field because the pay is generally balls. Note: all salaries here are rough estimates and relevant to the UK job market. IIRC in the UK you can expect to earn about £15k while doing your PhD and immediately afterwards, and I know of fully fledged middle-aged Professors with 35 years experience who are barely scratching £40k.

If you'd followed a path into live industry, you could be earning £65k plus by this point.

Newly qualified stockbrokers in London can earn £40k as a starting salary which may put this into perspective for you.

Also, there's more to computing than programming as well, you know. I would like to also say that these research papers that are submitted by academics are usually regurgitated, opinionated shite.

If you look at the reference list, it's usually about eight miles long and referencing other people so you have to ask yourself about how much of it is truly original, groundbreaking stuff.

Fact is, that stuff is a load of bollocks to outsiders and the uninitiated - academics tend to be a very tight-knit, closed circle and I've seen very little of this stuff actually coming out into a live workplace. To put my (very misguided and likely to be wrong) opinions in a nutshell: Don't do a PhD to become an academic if financial stability is your goal (which you alluded to) - teaching is difficult, time consuming and often thankless work and the pay is usually pretty low in comparison to the other things you could be doing By all means do a PhD, but it's an expensive and time consuming option and, IMO, some of the theory and things you do will be esoteric, beyond the scope of non-academic work environments and an employer may look down on it If you feel that a PhD can enhance your employability, ensure that what you research is directly relevant to current or mid-future trends The time you spend on your PhD may be better spent doing some kind of internship or training that makes you more employable - because, let's face it, the Financial Golgotha won't last forever;

The job market will re-open and it'll be dog-eat-dog's balls for the new jobs that do appear so you need to stand out.

The days of waltzing out of Funkytown University and straight into Faceless Conglomerate Ltd.'s Graduate Program are over for the time being Math s is a tool to be used in conjunction with other tasks and I fail to see the value of studying it for the sake of it.

Would you do a PhD in screwdrivers and never do any DIY? Take my opinions as you will: I am very materialistic and believe in anything which can turn a profit. That said, many employers value diversity and a wide range of (not necessarily) academic interests so it may or may not benefit you.

Mind you, a PhD is a very expensive and long-term commitment here for three years, so you'd better be sure of what you're doing before you start.

That's a depressing post, ukdeveloper. While I'm sure you have plenty of anecdotal evidence you based your numbers on, I'm not convinced the numbers (at least in the US--I know that yours were in reference to the UK) are quite as abysmal as you made them seem.

The Occupational Outlook Handbook writes the following: Quote: : So, it's certainly not a field that one should choose just to get rich, but the numbers don't seem all that bad.

Certainly they're not as high as I believe they should be given the amount of training and education required to reach these positions, and that does worry me. Something I've also been considering is getting a bachelor's degree in math with a minor in computer science.

If I took as many CS courses as I could to fill the requirements of the math degree, would it be any harder for me to get into a Master's CS program than if I had a BS in CS?

It not, the ideal path for me may be to do a math degree with a CS minor, and then upon finishing this make the final decision about whether I want to pursue a math Ph.D.

Or a CS master's. Thanks!

My rather anecdotal evidence of just what I've experineced gaining a PhD is that top academic pay is actually quite reasonable - probably not equivalent to top industry pay but still very good.

That's because the real elite researchers are always in high demand.

It's not just that they can join the top research groups, it's more that they define the top research groups - the top researchers attract other top researchers and the best graduate students.

Consequently there's a fair bit of bidding between labs to lure the big names in a field. The challenge is that it's extremely hard to be one of those top researchers.

You've got to be extremely bright and work extremely hard, developing and publishing new work consistently over a long period. Academia usually also has the perk of a fair bit more freedom than industry.

You're expected to work on your own projects, you've got a lot more flexibility in the hours that you work, and people are generally a bit more laid back about everything (at least at the universties I attended).

I think it's the combination of being able to work on your own research and the academic lifestyle tha offsets the reduced income. My main drawback as an academic was that I was never super passionate about my topic area.

I liked it, sure, but it's more that I generally like solving complex problem.

I'm not very good at spending years on end working on similar classes of problems;

I need to mix it up every now and again and work on something different.

I also wasn't that great at the whole publishing and conference scene;

I don't like flying and overseas travel that much.

I might have been able to get away without too much travel if I was living in Europe, but in Australia an academic has to fly overseas an awful lot.

Professors seem to make a lot of money relative to what they do.

In almost every class I have been in, the professor teaches 3ish courses, which totals about 6-10 in class hours, with 20-30 out of class hours.

Of those 20-30 out of class hours, they probably sit and do nothing waiting for students to come and ask for help.

Granted, I am sure some classes have more students asking for help, but I hear non-stop that my professors are "bored" because no one goes to office hours. In addition, the school I go to has a lot of research.

Research is insanely ridiculous on how much money you get for such little work.

That could be purely anecdotal and also subject to wide variation, but I see projects with million dollar budgets that seem to be doable in a relatively inexpensive fashion.

I can't speak for your professors or your institution, but professors typically do a lot more than just talk to undergraduates. Apart from the lectures, tutorials and office hours, a professor would also have to: Plan the classes and do all the teaching administration.

If they care about their teaching that will be a bare minimum of an hour per week per class just for preparing the material, then extra time to deal with administration, talking to tutors, and so on.

There's also preparing the projects and writing the exams, as well as the marking (sometimes that's farmed off to grad students, but often it isn't). Mentor graduate students.

Most professors will have up to about half a dozen grad students, which they'll try to spend a few hours with each week for each student. Do their own research.

This often ties in with the grad students projects, though. Write papers and journal articles.

Extremely important for an academic. Review papers and journal articles.

Academics have to act as reviewers for journal publications too, as they're the ones with the expertise to make the decisions.

This is unpaid by the publishers too. Stay on top of all the publications out there.

Got to know what's happening out their in your field.

Most will branch out into related fields too to inspire new ideas. Head out to conferences and visiting other labs.

Important for networking. Deal with a billion other administration tasks, such as writing out grant proposals, and being involved in university administration. Typically professors say they're "bored" in office hours because they'd prefer to be out doing real work rather than twiddling their thumbs waiting for undergradutes to fail to turn up.

Quote: : Which amounts to how many hours?

A professor at my school probably has at most 3-5 classes per quarter.

Each class is roughly 3 hours per week.

3 hours per week per class multiplied by 5 classes equals 15 hours per week.

So he/she has a free 25 hours to do things.

No he doesn't need to grade papers, they have a grader.

No he does not need to teach labs or discussion sections, he has a T.A. If he is writing papers/doing research he is probably getting paid HANDSOMELY.

There was a big posting on our school web site for a 3 million dollar research for video games in education.

This is DURING the economic down turn when schools are screaming about budget cuts. I have made my school public before, and it is probably easy to find out, but I am trying to keep it out of here.

I love my professors and think they are among the best educators in the world (and I have looked up countless online lectures).

That being said, I feel its a pretty easy job considering their intelligence, their compensation, the amount of actual work they must do. Edit: I overlooked some of your points.

If mentoring and such takes as much time, then its possible they do have a full schedule.

My point is "administrative tasks" and the like are complete nonsense.

Half the time the professors ask students on school policies, etc.

Keeping up with the latest publications is also nonsense as I, you, and many other gamedev'ers do this on our own time, for our own entertainment (yes, learning about academic things is interesting to many people, often including professors ;)). Needless to say, I have rethought my position on "professors have it so easy!" a bit :)

Quote: : For number of hours: if they're a leader in their field or otherwise ambitious, I'd bet they're a workaholic, so the answer will be "loads".

There's always more research that can be done. Classes would take at a minimum (3 hours for contact + 1 hour office time + 1 hour prep) per week per class while classes are in session.

That's a minimum of 25 hours per week just for teaching.

However if a class has been taught many times before it is possible to skim a bit on the prep, and most professors would double up paper reading with the slow times of office contact hours (which as you've described sound to be frequent). The grading and tutoring sounds pretty much what it was like for me as an undergraduate and then T.A.

Often though my professors would take the labs or discussion of the final year classes, and for smaller classes they would usually grade the exams. Quote: : Uh, that money just doesn't go to the professor .

It goes mostly to paying salaries for postgraduate researchers, graduate students, materials and so on.

The money is usually split over multiple years too. Quote: : The reason I brough it up is that titles differ wildly depending on the institution.

What you call a "professor" mightn't be the same sort of job I call a professor.

For example, there would be no doubt in my mind that a professor will be doing research - if they weren't doing research, the highest position I'd call them is "senior lecturer".

Professors are primarily researchers in my book. Quote: : Well to be fair, mentoring and personal research usually go hand in hand.

A professor and his or her students will work on the same projects, co-author papers and so on.

But that is a lot of what a professor will do. Quote: : Not really.

How do think those professors get those million dollar grants?

Writing grant proposals take a large amount of time, and co-incidently tend to be the things that cause a professor the greatest amount of stress due to how supremely important they are. Quote: : Except for a professor, being on top of a research area is pretty much in their job description. Quote: : Most professors I've known tend to work hard.

It's a lot like high-school teachers - if you just count the time they're actually teaching, then it looks like they've got short hours.

But there's multiple levels of work that go on behind the scenes that students usually don't see.

Well, I have no real sympathy for any teacher (non-professor).

It's probably one of the best jobs for anyone with a notable exception.

The notable exception is those who strive for more, more, more.

It is a completely lenient environment, you work 3/4th of the year, you have a GUARANTEED job, which is as far as I know, pretty unique. Moving back to professors - professors are those with a PhD, and that's it as far as I know.

I don't mean to take away from that, but what I mean is, I don't think they have a strict obligation to do..

Well.. anything. I know several professors who work at my school merely for the research grants, and couldn't care less about teaching.

I also know of some that I actually teach them about subjects they teach.

The reason I point that out is, I did research about one of my professors and decided to go to him for some extra learning.

He knew absolutely nothing.

Now that is purely anecdotal but it demonstrates that professors don't always seem to be motivated by research. I think you and I differ on our view on academia.

I think my practical nature is obstructing the "sake of learning" mentality.

I am sure there are a lot of great professors, but it just seems like such a simple job.

You know the material, you teach the material.

I don't think there is much preparation because its mostly lecture and no real interaction.

Anyway, good to read someone else's thoughts, thanks :)

Quote: : Ahahaha .

I once spent eight months earning my Graduate Diploma of Education.

I thought "I really enjoy teaching people new things, so maybe high school teaching is the career for me." Once I got my diploma, I quickly scurried back to academia. I don't know what the schools are like in your state and country, but I sincerly doubt teaching as cushy as you think.

You've got kids who don't want to learn, parents who blame you for their bad parenting, and every politican wanting to be seen to be doing something about children's education - which is completely different from actually doing something about children's education.

So you've got layers upon layers of bureaucratic mess to deal with as every government puts in another new initiative, all of which has to be administered by the teacher.

About the only big perk is the extra long holidays, but since most teachers seem to put in 60+ hour weeks during school term it balances out.

And the face-to-face contact hours in teacher were some of the most intense hours of work I've put in ever, much more so than teaching much harder material to university students.

I guess you get used to it, but I doubt I'd have survived the first year. Quote: : From my experiences, a typical professor's job will be more like "Coordinator and lead researcher of the Bionic Eye project".

And that's at most a quarter of their total job.




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