Friday, November 2, 2012

CNN's "Best Jobs in America."

RANK
Profession
10 year Growth
80
23.0%
81
24.6%
82
15.7%
83
18.1%
84
41.2%
85
26.0%
86
25.4%
87
21.9%
88
28.3%
89
24.4%
90
17.4%
91
24.6%
92
41.2%
93
18.1%
94
23.6%
95
27.8%
96
26.0%
97
24.4%
98
25.5%
99
41.2%
100
16.4%


[+]

Assistant Professor

Median pay: $61,200
Top pay: $91,000
10-year job growth: 17.4%
Total jobs: 1,756,000
What they do all day? Assistant professors aren't actually assistants -- they're entry-level faculty with a graduate or doctorate degree who are working toward tenure. They choose a specific field of study, such as mathematics or literature, and instruct and mentor students. They also help develop the course curriculum.





8 comments:

  1. Ever notice how, whenever a commercial news agency such as CNN reports on anything you know more than the average person about, they get everything not quite right? Their science coverage is certainly always that way. Here, with how they report that assistant professor is one of the best jobs in America, it makes you wonder how they do with politics and wars.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Notice how, even in the picture they show, no one even looks like an assistant professor.

      Delete
  2. I love this! I'm a tenured associate prof making $47K! $16K under the median! So proud!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It gets worse. I've recently discovered that I will (hopefully) soon go from making 30th percentile income as an assistant professor to 10th percentile income as an associate, assuming a standard promotion bump.

      Of course, it's worth it anyway, just to be able to to treat student evals the way Beaker Ben does.

      Delete
  3. I just love "#87 ERP Consultant." I know I could look it up, but I like to just try to come up with a description in my head.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My spouse works for the feds and they use a massive system for timekeeping and travel called ERP. Not sure if it's the same one, but it seems possible.

      Delete
  4. There's some sort of lies/damn lies/statistics issue going on here. For one thing, they're missing a key piece of info., at least for Asst. Profs.: how many people are fully trained for and want such a job vs. how many such jobs are available. They also need to specify whether there's another, cheaper way to get the same work done. Combine the answers to those two questions, and you have the phenomenon that has contingent faculty tearing their/our collective hair out: no shortage of work, just a shortage of decent jobs that involving the work for which we're trained/qualified.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wait in what world do Assistant Profs make $61,200 (even in the median scores)??? And in what world to ASSISTANT Profs come in at $91,000??? I have yet to reach $61,200 and, 15 years into teaching, I'm way beyond Assistant Prof rank.

    ReplyDelete

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