By Carl Klarner (academic and political consultant at klarnerpolitics.com)
I discuss my perceptions about being a professor as they relate to my decision to “leave academia” after attaining tenure, with graduate students or others who are thinking about becoming professors in mind. I argue that university administrators are driven by perverse incentives that make promoting the public good at a large state university difficult. Lack of institutional support for academic standards is a large part of this. By presenting a log of my work activities, I caution prospective professors to carefully consider how they might really be spending their time. From the same log, I compute that my hourly pay was $20.74, consistent with the low hourly wage of many professors. I then discuss my current job as a consultant and independent scholar, which primarily involves providing data to other political scientists. Although my current career choice is probably not one that would work for many, I provide my business plan for the insight it might give others wishing to be consultants.
Read more here.
PS: Political Science & Politics / Volume 49 / Issue 03 / July 2016, pp 501-503 / Copyright © American Political Science Association 2016