Agreed, Scott. As I wrote in a few comments and hinted at in the article, I have had a good run and I appreciate all that the academy has given me.

I did some part-time accounting for a large community foundation when I was in graduate school over three decades ago, and I was once invited for drinks with the NY manager for all our funds. We'd talked on the phone and now we talked in person, and he asked if I'd be interested in working in their firm in NY. He put me in contact with some of the younger members of his team so I could get their perspectives. I followed up. It sounded like I'd be working 80-100 hour weeks and commuting from a shared apartment in New Jersey for a couple of years, but after that, I could start making real money, over $100k, more than I could imagine in 1990, and more than I earn now. I really thought about it. I could earn lots of money for a decade, then return to finish my Ph.D. and buy a house with cash, etc. etc. You can imagine my lines of thought.

It took about a week for me to realize that I did not want to live for money, not even for a short while. I did not want to live for a bottom line, for profit, for shareholders, for a paycheck. I chose a different path.

Perhaps you went into your corporate job with the thought that it was your life-long calling, but I assume most people in the corporate world keep their LinkedIn page up to date and their eye open for better (paying) possibilities at all times. That's what that world is.

But that is not, or was not, the world of the university. There's no tenure in the corporate world. And the university world is rushing away from it and toward the gigification of adjunct instructors and 1099s. I expected something different, and I accepted far less pay in return for the guarantees and flexibility of the academic life. Yes, I'm very fortunate to have enjoyed those benefits for so long. But I don't welcome the application of corporate mentality to the university, since I chose this path consciously as a non-corporate option long ago.

I gather you found your next path. I hope that you find it satisfying and rewarding. Thanks for reading and responding, my friend.