[Amistad]

Does anybody have any advice for someone looking to become an academic? I know there's some college profs on LS, but I can't remember who all of you are right now. I'm considering going back to grad school, possibly with the eventual goal of becoming a prof or researcher. A lot of the things I've read have really been pretty negative, saying jobs are hard to come by and the politics make the jobs frustrating. I'm in the engineering field, so I would think the pay would be better than some of the other fields, but is it really worth it?

The reason I'm wondering is I've always been a really academically focused person. I got good grades in high school and undergrad and generally didn't mind doing homework. I've only been in the working world for about 6 months but am really missing the school atmosphere. I think some of it is nostalgia from my college days and how laid back they were, but I also miss being around other academically minded people.

So am I chasing a pipedream trying to somehow recreate how easy school life was or are my instincts right that I would enjoy a research position? I don't know. Does anybody have any thoughts?