# Professor's job **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 21, 2013, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professors-job/671773 "2013-10-21T01:32:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professors-job/671773/41 "2013-10-23T16:41:22Z")
Their academic rank is left ambiguous, but their jobs certainly seem to be almost entirely research, rather than classroom teaching. This is not unrealistic: There are plenty of people, at all levels of academia, who don’t do any classroom teaching, or do only as much as they want to. The lack of grad students is more problematic. All competent permanent faculty will have multiple grad students working under them, and even postdocs will have multiple grad students working alongside them in an inferior position. The only time when this isn’t the case is at schools without a graduate program (this is certainly _not_ CalTech), and even then, you’ll have upper-level undergrads instead. It’s not quite accurate to say that postdocs will always outnumber professors. Every professor would like multiple postdocs, but there just aren’t enough of them to go around, leaving many professors without any. Plus, even when you do get postdocs, you can’t always hold on to them: Postdocs aren’t expected to have any job loyalty, and will leave in a heartbeat if they get a permanent position elsewhere. Again, though, at Caltech specifically, you’d expect to see tons of them. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professors-job/671773/42 "2013-10-23T17:41:28Z")
We covered a lot of this ground in a recent [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=703342). Purely research positions do exist and are common even at places well below CalTech. I’ve also known a lot of regular tenure track profs who don’t teach simply because they “buy out” of teaching via getting a lot of research money. I used to regularly get 1/3 to 1/2 buy out with little effort. Getting 2/3 buyout was quite common. Going to full buyout was less common but doable. When you are getting research money at this scale, money for grad students is definitely part of the package. A small grant might fund two. Getting money for 4+ wouldn’t be a problem for these guys. So, yeah, where are they? It does appear that the PhDs are in research positions but they competed for a tenure slot in a recent episode. This is called “the writers have no clue how a university works or they do but needed it for the plot.” ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professors-job/671773/43 "2013-10-23T19:09:41Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > It does appear that the PhDs are in research positions but they competed for a tenure slot in a recent episode. This is called “the writers have no clue how a university works or they do but needed it for the plot.” This is about the best answer we’re going to get, I think. Kind of like the transporters on ST:TNG. What can they do? What do you need them to do? ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professors-job/671773/44 "2013-10-24T04:36:33Z")
Am I the only one who thought this thread was going to be about _Gilligan’s Island_? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professors-job/671773/45 "2013-10-24T07:32:08Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > This might be a GQ. > I’ve been a watcher of Big Bang Theory since it started and I enjoy the show a lot. But once in a while as I’m watching a thought comes to me. Isn’t it generally part of a university professor’s job to teach? That’s what the word means after all. In the US, not necessarily: several of the professors in my US grad school would moan like scared virgins any time they had to teach a class for a term. Many of them taught one term per year. There are also situations where the titular professor is officially in charge but all teaching, as well as most exam preparation and grading is done by the TAs; I’ve seen this in Spain and the US (I was one of those TAs) and heard about it happening in other countries as well. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professors-job/671773/46 "2013-10-24T10:49:32Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Am I the only one who thought this thread was going to be about _Gilligan’s Island_? I thought the same. And what _ **was** _ his job? :dubious: It looks like [Russell Johnson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Johnson) is still around. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professors-job/671773/47 "2013-10-24T13:59:57Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > And what _ **was** _ his job? :dubious: \*Not \*figuring out a way to patch the damn boat, of course. > [@](#): > > It looks like [Russell Johnson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Johnson) is still around. Anybody see another special guest star appearance in TBBT’s future? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/professors-job/671773.md?page=2)