Your job is mostly the research, not the classroom — running a lab or program, chasing grants, publishing, and pushing a field forward. Where the work is discovery first, teaching second.
Lab, grants, and the literature — you design studies, secure funding, and publish, with teaching or mentoring secondary, leading students or staff and living by funding cycles. Chasing grants is as much the job as the science, and progress comes slowly, through experiments, review, and steady revision.
The harder part is the relentless pressure to fund the work — grants are competitive, and a lab lives or dies by them. Publishing pressure is constant, results are uncertain, and the role can feel like running a small business as much as doing science. Stability depends heavily on funding and institution.
It tends to fit someone driven, resilient, and genuinely obsessed with their questions. If you need stability or hate grant-chasing, the funding treadmill can wear. But if pushing the boundary of what's known is what drives you, the work tends to be deeply, if precariously, rewarding.
Turn your career record
into a springboard for growth.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
Don't do Truest if you aren't ready
to invest in yourself and your career.
Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Your job is mostly the research, not the classroom — running a lab or program, chasing grants, publishing, and pushing a field forward. Where the work is discovery first, teaching second.
Median pay for a Research Professor is about $103K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $53K to $201K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Speaking, Instructing, Learning Strategies, Learning Strategies, and Writing.
Most people in this role hold a professional degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 4.9% through 2034, with roughly 52,700 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Environmental Engineering Professor, Drafting Teacher, and Electronics Teacher.
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