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Re: Management that just doesn't understand

by eduardo (Curate)
on Oct 25, 2001 at 02:08 UTC ( [id://121289]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Management that just doesn't understand

Ok... a question to all those that have been in academia... *this* is the reason I am no longer working "in the real world" except for a contract gig here or there... and I have decided to go back and get a Ph.D and become a professor. Is it *any* better in academia?

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Re: Re: Management that just doesn't understand
by runrig (Abbot) on Oct 25, 2001 at 02:19 UTC
    I think you're just trading one sort of politics for another. I've got a friend who's a PhD and really does know his stuff (not computers), was voted "Teacher of the Year" at the college he taught at, and then the same year was fired after criticising another professor's work. BTW, good luck :-)
      Well... I have heard about that... and I guess I can sort of understand how that sort of thing works, and I do see that I am trading in one sort of thought police for the next. My basic hope, to be brutally honest, stems from the horrible realization that even though it could be argued that I was within a few strides of being relatively successful in the "rat race" (I ended my relationship with my previous employer, and had some very nice management offers waiting for me) I realized that even if I were to win the rat race... I would still be a rat :(

      It got to me... I decided I had to find something at least *marginally* more fulfilling than sitting around and telling clients half veiled truths, wondering about accounts receivable, and waiting for the newest wave of buzzwords to wash over us so that I could retool the marketing documents so that they were "buzzword compliant." I am hopeing that maybe through teaching I will be able to actually see *progress* and *value* be created. I like the idea of seeing someone enter a classroom not knowing about _________ (whatever it may be I end up teaching, according to PhD friends of mine, I can expect my first few years to teach computer literacy...) and leaving the classroom 4 months later actually *KNOWING* something. And I know that for the average set of students most of them won't care... but maybe, just maybe, there will be one every once in a while that I can actually see *progress*... and *learn*... and become a better person... all because I was standing in front of the room waving my arms around wildly and ranting on about who knows what. (hell, I was able to convince clients I was interested in some of the most *boring things ever*... I know I can make damned near anything even mildly exciting.)

      And hey... If I get to sit around and research complexity theory for a few hours a week, and write some papers here and there... even better :) We'll see how it goes... One of my ex-professors has agreed to let me grade all of her most boring assingments for the rest of this semester... let's see if I can do this, eh? :) And thanks for the good wishes, I am going to need them!
        ...wondering about accounts receivable...

        You mean accounts 'conceivable'?

        jeffa

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