Beyond lecturing, much of the job involves guiding students directly: advising them on course selection and career paths, and supervising their laboratory or fieldwork projects. Professors also stay active in the wider field, reviewing manuscripts submitted to academic journals and collaborating with colleagues on shared teaching or research challenges. Some positions are teaching-focused, while others split time roughly evenly between the classroom and original research. A PhD in the relevant field is standard, reflecting how much of the role depends on deep subject expertise rather than just classroom delivery skill.
Pros
High upside earning potential, up to $171k at the top of the range
Combines teaching with original field and laboratory research rather than only lecturing
Autonomy to shape courses, curricula, and research agenda at the postsecondary level
Cons
Requires a PhD in the field, a long academic training path with limited faculty openings
A very small field nationally (around 500 projected openings), so opportunities may be geographically limited
Above-average hours, split between teaching, research, and manuscript review
A typical day
Tuesday means teaching: a 9:30 intro lecture on kinship systems for 120 students, then a small upper-level seminar where discussion of an assigned ethnography does the work lecturing can't. Office hours bring a student considering fieldwork and another contesting a grade. The afternoon belongs to scholarship — coding interview transcripts from last summer's field season and chipping at a journal article revision — plus a dissertation committee meeting. Summers flip entirely to research and grant writing. The professor's life is three careers braided together: teacher, researcher, and department citizen, each demanding as if it were the only one.
Tasks at the job
Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
Advise students on academic and vocational curricula, career issues, and laboratory and field research.
Supervise students' laboratory or field work.
Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks and laboratory equipment.
Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
Review manuscripts for publication in books and professional journals.
Workplace & working conditions
Work happens indoors in a climate-controlled setting.
There's a regular, moderate amount of time pressure, and you're expected to exercise significant independent judgment day to day. Precision and accuracy are essential to the work, and the work is highly structured, following set procedures.