I love investigating, learning, reading, writing, experimenting and discovering new ideas! This is a solitary process which I enjoy. The thought of having to give lectures as a professor is the most exhausting concept in the world to me, this seems like the opposite of research. I have heard that you must be affiliated with a university to get funding etc. which means giving lectures.. is this true?
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If I Want To Be A Research Scientist, Do I Also Have To Be A Professor And Give Lectures?
Posted on June 19, 2011.
I feel quite the same, my friend, and after 15 years driving a forklift, I hope you have better luck finding a job to enjoy today too. If you do, give me a call, won’t you?, I’ll work for a job!
I did get a chance to research informally but upon my own recognizance for a family-owned business that eventually made millions when it sold out to east coast chemical cos. Now I would like to be part of the family that prospers from research to which I contribute. I paid dues.
Teaching is not the drag that you imagine, though a drag to some extent if you tire of it. Teaching, and imagining fresh modes of inquest into new utilities or models of usefulness is tantamount to successful researching endeavors. Somehow, its the model of understandings that hold so much value to the researcher (and his boss?). If you can pull something from “pin the tail on the donkey” and apply it to “putting it to good use” then rightfully you ought to practice professing as well. Best Wishes
You don’t have to do research at a university. There are plenty of research companies and institutes.
A research scientist has a PhD in their field. In some fields, the largest employers are colleges and universities, and most of those job require teaching. However, no matter what field you’re in, getting a job as a professor is hard to do – most people want those jobs, and there are far more PhDs than there are faculty jobs for them. Each position gets hundreds of qualified applicants. No one ‘has’ to be a professor – but most people want to be one. If you don’t, great. Just don’t consider it a fall-back position. You can get a job in industry, or at a national lab, or for the government, doing research. Just pick something useful (not theory).