Three Ways that Faculty Life is Similar to Graduate Student Life

 In last week's post, I described seven ways that my experience as a faculty member is different from when I was a graduate student.  While the two are different in various ways, they are also similar in a few. Thus, I present three ways that my current professional life as a faculty member is similar to my previous professional life as a graduate student.

1. Both require hard work, grit, tenacity, and resilience.

Graduate school required a lot of hard work; no surprises there!  There were courses to take, research rotations to complete, classes to TA, research projects to work on, comprehensive exams to pass, and the thesis/dissertation projects to propose, execute, and defend.  Anyone who has been through graduate school knows that successful completion of any one of these items requires hard work, grit, and tenacity.  It takes time and dedication to learn the content knowledge from the didactic years of graduate school, so that that it can be applied to the more hands-on aspects of graduate school, such as laboratory research, clinical rotations, and the like.  Being a successful graduate student also requires resilience and the willingness to learn from mistakes and unsuccessful initial attempts at performing skills; something that was definitely true for me when I was learning a slew of new laboratory procedures during the dissertation phase of my PhD.

Faculty life is really no different. Being a good faculty member requires a lot of hard work.  And just like in graduate school, some semesters (or years) have required more hard work, grit, and tenacity than others, depending on what's on my plate regarding teaching, research, and service.  I still have to do work on evenings and weekends, although thankfully, this has now become a less frequent occurrence.  And similar to graduate school, being a successful faculty member also requires resilience and the willingness to learn from mistakes and unsuccessful initial attempts at teaching a class, getting a grant funded, getting a manuscript accepted for publication, and so on. Which brings me to...

2. Both require continual learning and growth.

As I mentioned above, being successful in graduate school and as a faculty member requires resilience and the willingness to learn from mistakes and unsuccessful initial attempts.  Obviously graduate school was a time of tremendous learning and growth because I was acquiring the content knowledge and skill sets that were required to earn my masters and PhD. My graduate school experience gave me the frameworks, skills, knowledge, and tools to be an entry level PhD Exercise Physiologist and early career academic.  My graduate school experience also prepared me extremely well to be competitive in the academic job market.  But it has been up to me to continue the upward trajectory of learning and growth in order to be a successful faculty member.  My learning and growth did not stop on the day I graduated with my PhD. In fact in many ways, it was just beginning.

Here are a few general examples from my past 6 years of faculty life.  In order to become a good teacher, I have had to learn new strategies, new technology platforms, and in some cases, new content in order to teach Physiology and Pathophysiology to Doctor of Physical Therapy students in a way that is clinically-relevant. I've become involved in new research avenues since my PhD that have required me to get up to speed on what previous researchers have done in those areas.  And I've grown and learned a lot about leadership from being the Chair of my department's Curriculum Committee, and trust me, I still have a LOT to learn in this area.  I believe that as long as a person works in academia, they must accept that continued learning, growth, and development are requirements of their job.

3. Both may involve feelings of inadequacy and insecurity.

There is certainly a lot of information shared on social media regarding folks' experiences with Imposter Syndrome in academia.  Suffice it to say that a lot of graduate students and faculty members report that they have struggled with feeling inadequate, insecure, excluded, unappreciated, and so on, whether or not those individuals specifically experience Imposter Syndrome.  I am by no means an expert on mental health topics, and when it comes to something like this, I can only draw from my own experiences and perspectives.  

As such, there were definitely periods of time where I felt inadequate and insecure as a graduate student.  Those feelings did not magically go away when I got my PhD, and I spent a pretty decent chunk of my first 6 years of tenure-track faculty life feeling inadequate and insecure.  Those feelings have lessened as time has progressed, and as I have seen tangible evidence of my success. Receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor has certainly helped 😁.  But there are still times that I feel inadequate or like I don't belong, and that will probably continue to be the case from time to time. 

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On a lighter note, two things that have not changed for me since my graduate school days are my love of coffee and "free food opportunities" 😄.  If you are a professor, how is your professional life as a faculty member similar to your professional life when you were a graduate student?