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I am an assistant professor of accounting at Appalachian State University, and I will admit that I have a GREAT job. However, the realities of my job as a college professor are far different from the common perceptions.

The truth is that college professors work hard but have some flexibility in scheduling their workweek. There are many days where one does not have to go into the office, particularly around the Christmas holiday and during the summer. However, many of those days are spent in the home office, writing a manuscript or preparing lessons.

College professors get paid well, but not as much as many executives. Still, many of you are probably not dissuaded and may be thinking about giving up the stress of public accounting or industry for the "good life of academia." This article will give you some details on what it was like for me to transition from a career in industry to a career in academia.
 
I had a career in industry that was probably quite similar to many of you. After graduating from Virginia Tech with a bachelor's in accounting in 1983, I went to work in Roanoke for one of the Big Eight accounting firms. In 1985, I left public accounting to take a job in industry. For three years, I worked as a cost accountant for Griffin Pipe Products Company, a foundry in Lynchburg. Then, I worked with Ingersoll-Rand Company for 10 years, spending the last five-plus as a plant controller. The last couple of years of my industry career were spent back in southwest Virginia as a corporate controller and secretary-treasurer for Xaloy, Inc.

Over the years in industry, I often wondered what it might be like to quit my job and teach. I was especially prone to such thoughts during those long hours and weekends implementing new computer systems, closing the books at year-end, managing the annual budget process, etc. Finally in 2000, I quit my good industry job and decided to go back to Virginia Tech for my Ph.D. I had gotten an MBA in 1991 by going to school evenings and weekends. I taught several courses in the 1990s as an adjunct professor and thought that I was finally ready for the life of a college professor.

The first step: A doctorate

The first thing to consider when contemplating a transition into academia is that you will probably need a doctorate degree, although there are some exceptions. Most higher learning institutions in our area, the southeastern United States, are accredited by The Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

SACS requires either a doctorate or master's degree in the teaching discipline (i.e. accounting), with a minimum of 18 graduate hours in the teaching discipline. SACS further requires that faculty holding a terminal degree (i.e. a doctorate) in the discipline teach at least 25 percent of those hours.

Many business schools also seek accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). AACSB requires that 50 percent of an institution's faculty resources be "academically qualified," which generally requires a doctorate degree. (See page XX for more information on AACSB accreditation.) While the SACS and AACSB standards do not preclude the possibility of teaching full-time without a doctorate, there are only a limited number of these positions available.

After talking with several academics, I concluded that I needed the doctorate degree and applied to Virginia Tech's Ph.D. program. I was admitted and began my studies in 2000. I owe a great deal to the faculty of Virginia Tech's accounting department. My doctoral studies challenged me greatly but provided me with a quality education and the skills that I need to be a successful academic at an AACSB-accredited business school.

So what's involved in getting a doctorate? You should plan for at least four years of school. A few dedicated souls may be able to finish in less than four years, but not many, and a fair number may need five years to finish. Most schools have various financial assistance programs to help you while you pursue that advanced degree, but don't get too excited yet. It is usually limited to a waiver of the tuition, a small teaching/research assistant's stipend (pay for working 10–20 hours per week), some scholarship monies and maybe some summer teaching pay. There is more funding available, but what I describe is the norm.

For me, the whole package, including summer teaching, meant about $22,000 per year in salary/stipend, plus a tuition waiver and scholarships that covered non-tuition fees — with a few dollars left over for books. While the financial assistance was very much appreciated, it was quite different from my corporate officer's salary, bonus package, health care benefits and pension benefits.

You will need a budget for your time in graduate school. Unless you can qualify for the richest scholarships, or unless you can survive on less than $25,000 per year, you will need to think about where to obtain the additional funds for living expenses. Are you going to borrow money? Do you have savings to spend? Loans for graduate school are available and often at attractive interest rates. However, working part-time outside of the college is typically a violation of your contract as a teaching/research assistant.

The health care issue is also something not to overlook. As a graduate student, you will have to pay for health insurance, unless you can be covered under a spouse's health plan. During my four years at Virginia Tech, my health insurance premiums increased 50 percent. So be sure to take inflation into account in your budget.

Most doctoral students work part-time within the college, probably around 20 hours per week. My first year as a teaching assistant, I ran a computer lab that supported an introductory computer course in the business school. I worked two nights a week helping students learn Microsoft Office and collecting computer projects that I would grade and return the following week. After my first year, my assistantships included either teaching responsibilities or research responsibilities.

The coursework in pursuing a doctorate may not what you may have expected. Most of us who go back for a doctorate receive a Ph.D. degree. A Ph.D. degree is a research-oriented degree. Your coursework will consist of accounting research seminars, statistics courses and additional courses that support your research.

In accounting, there are two main areas of research: markets research and behavioral research. Markets researchers examine the effects of accounting information on capital markets. In addition to their accounting research seminars and statistics courses, they take courses in finance and economics. These additional courses require a deep understanding of advanced mathematics.

Behavioral researchers, like me, examine accountants' and managers' use of accounting information. We take additional coursework in psychology. After the coursework, the last requirement for the Ph.D. is the dissertation, an original work of scholarly research.

After four years or so of graduate coursework and writing a dissertation, the Ph.D. candidate is ready to receive his/her degree and join the ranks of the faculty. The good news: The accounting faculty job market is quite strong and finding a position should not be a problem.

A different working environment

I found that working in industry is very different from working at a college. One of the main differences is in employee performance measures. As a member of the faculty at a particular school, you are evaluated in three main areas: teaching, research and service. Depending on the type of school you choose, the relative weights of these three areas will differ. Top research institutions will focus more on research and publication of that research, while other schools will focus more on teaching.

Whether you are at a major research institution or a school that focuses on teaching, you will be expected to publish. The publishing requirement for academics is often referred to as "publish or perish." It is aptly named! If you do not meet your school's requirements for publishing, you will not get tenure and be fired.

Publishing a manuscript is especially difficult considering the long time lag, often two years, between submission of a manuscript to a journal and it appearing in print (not true at Disclosures). This, of course, assumes that the manuscript was accepted at that particular journal. Many manuscripts are rejected in their first attempt(s) at publication.

At many schools, student evaluations play a prominent role in the yearly evaluation of faculty's teaching effectiveness. This can add to the stress level of faculty. Many students want to be entertained in the classroom, and you know how hard it is making accounting fun! In addition, some students do not want to invest the requisite time doing homework problems, but wonder why they do not perform well on the exams. While most students are fair-minded, there are enough exceptions to make a professor's job difficult.

In addition to teaching and research responsibilities, faculty members are expected to serve on committees. I thought that the amount of meetings in academia would be far less than what I was used to in industry. I was wrong — schools have plenty of committees that require your time.

You probably thought a college professor's job had minimal stress. Now you see the truth! We are expected to have academic rigor in our classes while maintaining high evaluations from those students who think our exams are too hard or don't grasp the relationship between doing their homework and passing a course. We are expected to publish articles on a regular basis when it takes years to get a manuscript into print. We are expected to spend hours and hours in meetings.

The intrinsic benefits

Given all that I have written, you might be reconsidering your planned transition into academia. However, please take into account what I feel are the real reasons for becoming a college professor!

It is not the flexibility in your schedule or the ability to pursue a research idea that you find particularly interesting (although, flexibility and academic freedom are positive things). It is not the paycheck you get each month or the time off during the summer.

The real reasons for being a college professor go much deeper. Professors have a unique opportunity to make a difference in someone's life.

There are rewards for teaching that are priceless. The feeling you get when a student calls you on the phone just to let you know that they passed the CPA Exam is extraordinarily satisfying. The feeling you get when a young man or woman finally understands a difficult concept is unbelievably rewarding.

Lastly, it is a pleasure to be associated with young men and women — like a former student of mine. He is foregoing a lucrative career in public accounting to be a commissioned officer in the United States Army. He knows that he may serve in a war zone like Iraq, but he feels a sense of duty. It is a privilege to be associated with fine young people like that. They are the students that make everything you endured in a Ph.D. program worthwhile.

To be truthful, I would not trade my job for anything.

GERALD K. DeBUSK, CPA, CMA, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of accounting at Appalachian State University. His 17 years of public accounting and industry experience included roles as a cost accounting manager, plant controller and corporate controller/treasurer. Gerald also serves on the VSCPA Editorial Task Force. He can be reached at debuskgk@appstate.edu.