If I (like everyone else) want to be a professor, what should I do from the start of grad school?

[fuzzylogician]

(1) What about grades and recommendations? I'm about to start a PhD program this fall, and I'll be taking only a handful of courses for the coursework phase. Of course the courses that I select should be relevant with my research, but should I target certain scholars in my field for recommendation purposes? Do employers care about grades and GPA at this point?

 

Good letters will come from people who you work with closely, not from people who you take classes with. Grades don't matter for getting jobs (in North America; disclaimers apply); they may matter some for getting grants or awards, but this may vary depending on field/grant/award. Generally, you should take classes that help you grow as a scholar. I would worry about that first and about the instructor second. You want to choose scholars to work with who you get along with, who can help you advance your research, and whose reputation would help you get ahead if/when they write letters for you. They may or may not be your course instructors or who you TA for. Those things are separate, though I've actually found that it was fortunate that I TAed for two of my main letter writers, because it allowed them to speak more confidently about my teaching abilities than they might have otherwise. 

 

(2) And what about being involved in reputable conferences and societies? 

 

Yes, you could get involved with your field's society. I don't think it enters into hiring decisions but generally being active and visible in your field is a positive thing. Presenting at good conferences is obviously a beneficial thing for your CV.

 

(3) Lastly, my field is humanities(!), so if you think that the above is only applicable to computer science, then I can start a separate discussion topic for the humanities. 

 

The advice in this thread is generally applicable to any field, not just computer science. You'll notice that the people who have been participating are not necessarily in computer science and we each answer the question from the perspective of our own field(s). Some fields have their own peculiarities (like you may need to have a book deal in some Humanities fields) and the expected publication record you would be expected to have can vary greatly across e.g. the Humanities and the Natural Sciences but the gist of the advice is pretty general. 

 

[Crucial BBQ]

That's actually a huge relief, because in industry I feel like I'm expected to be super "professional" all the time, which in practice means "don't show that you have any interests outside of work, because any time you spend on interests is time you're not working for us." 

Not sure about computer science or academia in general, but in industry--for biology--fart jokes and signing along to bad 80s music is rather common.  So are happy hours. 

 

Or perhaps I have just been lucky over the years?

 

 

*Upon quick reflection, it seemed that most of my bio profs also enjoyed bad 80s music and happy hours; physics profs liked to smoke; and chemistry profs were the most straight-laced ...

Edited April 9, 2015 by Crucial BBQ

[Humulus_lupulus]

Get some experience on university committees. That's the only thing I can really add that's different from here. Ask your PI or grad coordinator how to do this--usually they have to beg for student reps.

[wildviolet]

In addition to all the great advice already given, I just want to add that I've been looking at job announcements since my first year of graduate school to see what is required and/or desired of job candidates so I can think about how to best allocate my time in graduate school.

 

Also, telling my advisor early on that I want to be a professor at an R1 helped him help me shape my program, publications, and research and teaching assistantships. One piece of advice I've been given by newly hired professors is to be able to tell a (somewhat) coherent story about yourself as a scholar from your graduate school experiences. For example, how did working on X project help you think about Y? At least in my field, people want to get a sense of "who you are" as a scholar and how you got to be where you are. It's not so much about personal interests as it is about being able to explain why you do the work you do and how you think it's going to contribute to larger discussions and issues in the field.