Ever dream about becoming a professor, teaching young impressionable students, and conducting cutting edge research in Ocean Conservation? Well, you’re not the only one.

I know a number of people who dreamed to work in academia and be a professor at a top notch university/college, but when they got to where they wanted to go, they did not expect what happened next.

Either they thought they were teaching too many classes or they weren’t able to do much research (if at all) or they didn’t like their newly recruited graduate students.

People discover their expectations differed from reality all the time. It helps to know what the realities of what to expect before you decide to spend 4 years doing an undergraduate degree, 2-3 years completing a Masters degree, and 3-6 years completing a PhD and perhaps 3 more years conducting post-doctoral work only to find out you don’t like being a professor.

Don’t get me wrong, many people love being a professor. I just want to make sure that you know what expect if that is the career path you decided to pursue.

To help you with your expectations, I interviewed Dr. Bob Payne who teaches in the Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism Department at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Bob’s research focuses on the Human Dimension issues surrounding Parks and Protected Areas and in Natural Resources.

Bob was kind enough to sit down with me to tell us his experience at being a professor for the past 25 years and what new professors should expect if they were hired today.

Check out the video below to get all the details on the type of jobs of a professor, teaching responsibilities, education required to become a professor, and what a newly hired professor should expect to do in his/her 1st year.