Comments on: Choosing Between Academic and Corporate Life: Did I Make the Wrong Choice?

By: Backlink Building

Backlink Building — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:32:15 +0000

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By: Jackson

Jackson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:53:26 +0000

As a graduate student who has chosen neither, I am now infinitely more paranoid about which track to pick.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:12:58 +0000

Bruce, thanks for posting the poem. For other readers here, Bruce sent me some thoughts and this poem he wrote via email, and I liked it so much I asked him to post it as a comment. I think this poem is a classic, especially the section on Friday Night poets.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:11:47 +0000

Scott, thanks for expanding on your drive for writing. I also enjoy it. I think writing provides a time for thinking and reflection that doesn’t come from any other activity. It’s also fun to engage in this medium on the web. I honestly enjoy writing blog posts more than print articles. The former I get to keep and also receive feedback, linkbacks, and can read what others think on their posts. With the latter, it feels like I’m giving the writing away, and I rarely receive feedback.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:09:03 +0000

Craig, thanks for adding your reflections on this topic. Re your last point, I too would be interested in reading the experiences of academics who turned to professional writing.

I also agree with point 3 especially — “I have no desire to teach literature, but I want to read literature.” Thanks again for adding your comment.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:07:22 +0000

Angelo, thanks for your comment. I like how you do several things over a lifetime. We so often are trapped into the mentality of one specific career when, as you say, really the possibilities are more flexible. Thanks.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:04:14 +0000

Josh, thanks for your response to my post. The blinking cursor is a great example of writing about writing. A lot of popular blogs online are blogs about blogging, which I consider to be about the same thing.

Interestingly, writing this post made me a little less fearful about any bad predicament that could befall upon me, because I could always write about it.

I had a lot of fun in Rexburg and just posted the podcasts from the panel and presentation.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:11:56 +0000

Tom,

Great post. What you say about the classroom providing little substance for literary writing is true. I think this is why academics like me dread student essays that explore classroom experiences. The worst of these essays are the ones about students trying to write essays. Like this:

“The blinking cursor taunted me, all but daring me to put words on the page. How it mocked me.”

Oh, the humanity!!!

Thankfully, an academic’s life isn’t limited to the classroom (though I do love the classroom). Family relationships, home improvement projects, vacations, hobbies, and the everyday stuff of life offer plenty of substance, I think, to fill an academic’s literary writing projects.

But you’re right. One danger we academics face in trying to write is that we sometimes try to draw substance out of mundane experiences (i.e., blinking cursors), when there are often more substantive places to look for inspiration.

Thanks for visiting us in Rexburg.

By: Angelo Thomas Crapanzano

Angelo Thomas Crapanzano — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:45:44 +0000

Doing two things is great, especialy if you like them both. However, there you can have problems to. I was an Electronic Engineer. I loved engineering, but I also loved teaching. So while I was an engineer in the day time I taught engineering at the evening division at Akron University. After seven years I found that I became tired of the same subject. I wanted to get away from engineering,to do someing different. That’s when I started to write fiction novels. My background does help but I try to chose different subjects. That takes a lot of research but that is fun also. I am now retired and writing full time. so you can do even three things in your life time.

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:30 +0000

I thought about it from time to time. Everyone says I have a professorial look and demeanor and could easily fit in on a bucolic college campus, teaching English literature.

Then I think about “Publish or Perish” — the tried and true academic maxim. That bit always left a bad taste in my mouth. Of course, I’m doing the exact same thing here, in my corporate cube! I publish user guides, or I perish professionally.

For your consideration:
(1) Teaching on a college campus might offer beautiful suroundings.
(2) Business offices do not offer beautiful surrounding. If one is lucky they not ugly and industrial.
(3) I want to write documentation. I like doing this. I’m good at it. I’ve been told I’m good.
(4) I have no desire to teach literature, but I want to read literature.
(5) Grading papers? Forget about it. I’m trying to write a novel in my few off-moments. I’m also a member of a writers group. I don’t need the grading of papers to further interfere with what little free time I have.
(6) I remember reading about a few people who have deserted ivy-draped academia for the cold gray business cubical. They felt they would accomplish more and were tired of grading papers.
(8) If anyone has read of someone who has fled the office for the ivory tower, let’s hear about it.