Queen of West Procrastination posted in response to conversation at One Bright Star's. It's all about PhD students who say they "just want to teach" or "don't want a research job." I used to say these things, but more and more I think I do really want to do research. Mostly though I worry about not being able to find a research position or having to give up too many other things in order to do research.

Ironically, in contrast to most R1 universities, I recently discovered how many people in my program don't want professor positions when they complete their degrees. Some want positions in government or non-profits, others feel that they would never be able to measure up to a full professorship.

Also, it seems to me that many of the professors I meet here are not that interested in research. Either they are "practitioners" who write up practical work as research so that they can get promoted or maybe they were passionate about research at one time but have been burnt out by the pace of university life.

The more that I see poor research being done the more that I want to do it well.