So my college professor happened to be my server at Red Lobster - How 'bout dem apples!?

I was with the 'rents today at Red Lobster getting my shrimp on. Hopefully the next semester will be the one in which I receive my long-awaited Bachelor's Degree, but I'm sort of a jackass who can't finish his last 6 credits (like Tommy Boy only thinner), but anyway. Get this. My junior-year chem (genetics) Prof was serving my parents and me shrimp cocktails and Dr. Peppers. Whaaaaa??? When I had Phil last year, he was an Adjunct who had taught at some local colleges. VERY bright guy. He's like early 40ish, one of those brilliant, very nice, eccentric types. He did his undergrad at Duke in Biotechnology and then his Master's here at Hopkins in, get this, British Literature. Wow. So he told my parents and I that between his jobs teaching sciences at the local community colleges/universities, etc, he had owned a real estate company that's been in the toilet for the past year. So he's been at Red Lobster for this past year, being an extremely over-qualified waiter.



So let me get this straight. My brilliant former professor who has a Biotechnology degree from Duke and a Master's from Johns Hopkins is now waiting tables at a decent chain restaurant 2 miles from the University at which he occasionally teaches. He blamed it all on the real estate crisis when I spoke to him today. That would make sense considering he made his bread and butter from a real estate business. But, I'm very troubled in so many ways by this.



I'm scheduled to graduate with an Undergrad degree by the end of 2010 from an irrelevant liberal arts school with just a run-of-the-mill Interdisciplinary Studies major. This guy went to Duke and Hopkins and now he's serving tables at Red Lobster.



What does the future hold for me? When all is said and done, I may be lucky if my credentials allow me to do valet at Ruth's Chris.....Thoughts, comments?So my college professor happened to be my server at Red Lobster - How 'bout dem apples!?
Adjuncts might teach 10 classes a year and make 20k total without benefits. Working as a waiter can pay a lot more than that. There are many, many more people with PhDs who want to teach than there are jobs for them, no matter how brilliant you are. Good luck with your degree. I would recommend against a PhD.So my college professor happened to be my server at Red Lobster - How 'bout dem apples!?
His life sucks. Just hope that yours won't.So my college professor happened to be my server at Red Lobster - How 'bout dem apples!?
I think you're comparing apples and oranges here. Your instrucor's situation is probably quite unique.



Red Lobster is clearly the your instructor's supplemental job. He probably established a number of expenses when the market was good and when the market collapsed, he needed to find a 2nd job to stay afloat. If he wants to continue teaching, then he can't exactly get a high paying job in industry or do consulting work. So, he works at Red Lobster. Plus, he could be on the market for a full time faculty position. He doesn't have a PhD (or an MA in his field) so getting a faculty position is most likely extremely difficult for him. There are very few academic positions available so he has to compete with a multitude of new or newish PhDs for the positions that do become available.
The real opportunity is outside of America now (eg. China) This country is going down the drain and fast. The only people making money these days are scam artists and lawyers. Our government supports more laws so they can give lawyers more money from people who actually create and produce value. The "legal industry" is nothing more than a high end welfare case. It's not about justice at all. Lawyers produce and create nothing and they are parasitic leeches that exist off the backs of people who do create and produce value. Just look at the broken patent system. The idea was to protect the innovators but now it just protects patent trolls (lawyers again) while stifling industry.



I haven't met any immigrants (legal) that actually want to stay here for the long run. They very quickly realize the Hollywood Hype about America is just shallow hype. It's Americans who are still brainwashed. If most of us only knew the reality there would be another American revolution.