I've been an assistant professor for 2 years now (finished PhD on Jan 2012), my salary is US$110K a year.
This year I decided to secretly do some consulting/contracting work on the side (for various reasons). It was a really difficult year as I worked like a dog but I was able to make an additional US$175K in income.
It's strange, I've felt more 'fulfilled' this year than simply spending that time on writing research publications. I feel like I've actually helped people and worked on stuff that matters...
Academia is broken IMHO: Too much focus on volume instead of quality, MOOCs and online courses are breaking teaching, most students don't care about the content, 50% of university staff are administrators.
I plan to make the most of it though (while it lasts).
I would be interested in hearing about your consulting on the side. How did you manage that and the requirements of your job? Is it in an area close to your research? What are the IP and commercialization ramifications, if any, with respect to your university? (Some universities seem to have rules about outside consulting.)
The previous two years, like a lot of junior academics, I become extremely disillusioned with academia: long hours, low pay, and no job security.
I was about to quit my fixed-term assistant professor position (Maths) until I became curious: what would happen if I didn't care about being fired?
So Dec 2012, I made the decision to only focus on high-quality research that I care about (quality over volume), to do a decent (but not amazing) job teaching, and to secretly do consulting/contract work on the side.
It's been really interesting. Suddenly, when I didn't care anymore, they gave me tenure and bumped my salary. Over the year, I've also spent roughly 2 days a week sneaking around and doing contract work which has been amazing financially...
This year I decided to secretly do some consulting/contracting work on the side (for various reasons). It was a really difficult year as I worked like a dog but I was able to make an additional US$175K in income.
It's strange, I've felt more 'fulfilled' this year than simply spending that time on writing research publications. I feel like I've actually helped people and worked on stuff that matters...
Academia is broken IMHO: Too much focus on volume instead of quality, MOOCs and online courses are breaking teaching, most students don't care about the content, 50% of university staff are administrators.
I plan to make the most of it though (while it lasts).