[DoctorMckay101]

Tbh, the only reason I am crawling myself through a PhD is that I want to be a professor. Maybe in the USA this is almost unachievable, not to mention you will probably have to get an academic tenure too.

But where I live (northern Spain), mainly in engineering, getting a PhD almost always ensures the opportunity for an academic tenure and a professor position. We are still growing our universities' numbers and new professors are needed every year.

Would I be paid triple what I get now outside academia for my expertise? Yeah. But teaching is my passion so that balances out. Maybe I'll get out for a few years after I change my credentials from Mr. to Dr., just so I can afford a house, but I will come back to academia no doubt.

[awesomeMilou]

Insane. I'm a student in Germany, at a university of applied sciences. With a PhD you can become a tenured professor here after a while of being a guest lecturer, but the uni is always looking.

To me though it feels like the very large majority of professors actually loathe teaching and would much rather be elsewhere, i.e. researching independently.