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Faculty版 - Why I'm staying at Harvard? Response to Matt Welsh
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相关话题的讨论汇总
话题: matt话题: harvard话题: job话题: faculty话题: some
进入Faculty版参与讨论
1 (共1页)
o****y
发帖数: 790
1
Fair and balanced :)
================
(by Michael Mitzenmacher)
I think there's a sense in academia that people get PhD's so that they can
become professors. Most graduate students have that point of view going
in -- their experience with research professionals at that point is
essentially entirely with faculty. And most professors encourage students
to have that goal. Some of that, I think, is that most professors like their
job (unsurprisingly), and some may not have other experiences to
suggest to their students. And some of it may be more calculated. One
measure of a faculty member's success is how many faculty offspring
they've produced.
But being a faculty member is not for everyone. As Matt has described in
this blog, and I in the past have described in my blog, being a professor
is probably not exactly what most people expect. Besides teaching
and research, your time gets taken up with administration, managing (
graduate) students, fundraising, and service to your scientific community.
It's perhaps absurd to expect that everyone who starts out in a PhD
program be interested in all these various aspects of the job. And,
fortunately, in computer science, there are still many other compelling
options available.
As Matt says, at Google, "I get to hack all day." That's just not true as a
faculty member -- time for actual hacking is usually pretty small, and
more of your time is spend managing others to hack for you. (This is a
complaint I've heard from many faculty members.) I can understand why
Google would be a very appealing place for someone who wants to write
code. I'm sure Matt will come to miss some of the other aspects of
being a professor at some point, and I'd imagine Google will to some extent
let him entertain some of those aspects.
One of the comments suggested money must be a motivation. For some people
who have to make this choice, maybe it is. (See Matt's comments on the
post below for his take on that.) So what? Again, it's good
that in our field there are good options that pay well. That's a big plus
for our field, especially if we accept the fact that not everyone can be or
wants to be a professor. But as Matt says, professors at Harvard (and
top 20 institutions in general) are doing just fine, and money probably isn'
t the main issue for those who choose a different path.
I suppose the question that's left is why I'm staying at Harvard -- that is,
why I still like being a professor. (And thank you to those of you who
think the obvious answer is, "Who else would hire you?") I enjoy the
freedom of working on whatever I find interesting; being unrestricted in who
I choose to talk to about research problems and ideas; having
the opportunity to work with a whole variety of interesting and smart
people, from undergraduates to graduate students to CS colleagues all over
the globe to math and biology professors a few buildings down; the ample
opportunity to do consulting work that both pays well and
challenges me in different ways; the schedule that lets me walk my kids to
school most every day and be home for dinner most every night; and the
security that, as long as I keep enjoying it, I can keep doing this
job for the next 30+ years.
The job is never boring. On any given day, I might be teaching, planning a
class, working with students, thinking, writing a paper, writing some code,
reading, listening to a talk, planning or giving a talk, organizing
an event, consulting in some form, or any other manner of things. In the old
days, I wrote a blog. These days, I'm administrating, making sure our classes
work smoothly, our faculty are satisfied and enabled to do
the great things they do, and we're able to continue to expand and get even
better. Once I wrote a book, and someday I hope to do that again. Perhaps
the biggest possible complaint is that there's always something to
do, so you have to learn to manage your time, say no, and make good
decisions about what to do every day. As someone who hates being bored,
this is generally a good feature of the job for me.
And Harvard, I find, is an especially great place to work. We attract some
of the most amazing students. Our still small-ish CS faculty really works
together well; we all know who each other are, we keep aware of what
we're all doing research-wise, we collaborate frequently, and we compromise
and reach consensus on key issues. Outside of the CS faculty, there's all
sorts of interesting people and opportunities on campus and
nearby. Boston is a great city (albeit too cold and snowy in the winter).
Other profs have made similar comments in Matt's post -- there's a lot to
like about the job, and at the same time, it's not the best choice for everyone.
Of course I don't like everything about the job. Getting funding
is a painful exercise, having papers rejected is frustrating and unpleasant,
and not every student is a wondrous joy to work with. I sometimes struggle
to put work away and enjoy the rest of my life -- not
because of external pressure (especially post-tenure), but because lots of
my work is engaging and fun. Of course that's the point -- there's good
and bad in all of it, and people's preferences are, naturally, vastly
different. I don't think anyone should read too much into Matt's going to
Google about the global state of Computer Science, or Professordom, or
Harvard, or Google. One guy found a job he likes better than the one
he had. It happens all the time, even in academia. It's happened before
and will happen again.
But I'm happy with my job right now. In fact, I'm pretty sure my worst day
on the job this year was the day Matt told me he wasn't coming back.
We'll miss you, Matt, and best of luck in all your endeavors.
http://matt-welsh.blogspot.com/2010/11/guest-post-why-im-staying-at-harvard-by.html
G**Y
发帖数: 33224
2
这人大牛吧。

their

【在 o****y 的大作中提到】
: Fair and balanced :)
: ================
: (by Michael Mitzenmacher)
: I think there's a sense in academia that people get PhD's so that they can
: become professors. Most graduate students have that point of view going
: in -- their experience with research professionals at that point is
: essentially entirely with faculty. And most professors encourage students
: to have that goal. Some of that, I think, is that most professors like their
: job (unsurprisingly), and some may not have other experiences to
: suggest to their students. And some of it may be more calculated. One

d******u
发帖数: 111
3
bullshit.
Who does he think he is? Just a professor in Harvard. Nothing at all.
Nobody cares why you change your job from Harvard to a company, except
losers.
k********e
发帖数: 448
4
no need to be so jidong bah? some ppl always amaze me ...

【在 d******u 的大作中提到】
: bullshit.
: Who does he think he is? Just a professor in Harvard. Nothing at all.
: Nobody cares why you change your job from Harvard to a company, except
: losers.

d******u
发帖数: 111
5
You could be jidong when you say these words. I am not.
b*****8
发帖数: 37
6
用不着这么mean吧!他说的也有道理呀。

【在 d******u 的大作中提到】
: bullshit.
: Who does he think he is? Just a professor in Harvard. Nothing at all.
: Nobody cares why you change your job from Harvard to a company, except
: losers.

1 (共1页)
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话题: matt话题: harvard话题: job话题: faculty话题: some