Professor

Today is the first of August, which means my job title has changed to Professor, following a successful attempt at promotion.

In the UK system these days, the title of Professor is one you can work towards and hope to get promoted to during your career.  In the past, professorships (aka chairs) were rarer and something that you couldn't necessarily expect to be able to attain in an academic career.  Often they were named chairs (e.g. the Lucasian Professorship at Cambridge) and one could only get this role if the incumbent left, or died.

Fortunately, no-one had to die for me to become professor.  Instead, I had to convice the promotion panel that I was hitting the appropriate targets and satisfying the role requirements of the professor role well enough.  Apparently I managed to do this.  I've been at the University of Surrey since 2000, first as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate, then a temporary Lecturer, then a permanent Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer, then Reader, and now Professor.   I think that my official designation during the lecturer period changed from Lecturer A to Lecturer B.  

I can't deny that is is nice to be promoted, though as with many things in academia, it is just a proxy for real successes - like doing well in supporting students and staff and in achieving good things in teaching and research, which are the truly satisfying results.  I have not always been the most adept at navigating the career structure of academia, and my not-Earth-shattering 23 year journey to professorship is partly to do with this.  On the other hand - that's not far past the half-way mark of my career.  Assuming I retire when my state pension kicks in, I have about another 20 years left working - so plenty of time to justify my new job title with great acts.

The picture attached to this post is of a Punch and Judy show, the practitioners of which also go by the name of Professors.