I'm just very frustrated right now and I can't write in a coherent way. Forgive me.
I've been wanting to become a university lecturer all my short life but now I just wanna run away from anything that's related to higher education institutions. I've built my career around this but now I'm giving up everything I've done and I'm definitely not looking back. Ever.
I had terrible experience with one of my professors when I was a master's student. He did everything he could to take advantage of me. He low-key SA-ed me too. But nobody cared because they all thought it was a joke. Those professors made me publish papers, but they're the ones getting promoted to higher positions after my blood and sweat. The university won't do shit about helping the students because nobody cared.
I had one professor who was good to me. We kept in touch and we're still friends. But like, she promised to pay me after I've initiated a research proposal for her, I literally did most of the work, but then she was not able to pay me, because of the university's policy (it's complicated).
I thought never mind it's not her fault. She really tried her best to help me whenever she could, but it's always the university's policy that's getting in the way.
Anyway so I became a university lecturer in another private university and holy shit it's worse than working in a retail store on a below minimum wage. We've been treated like mules, we're told to treat our students like gods, the students were allowed to shit on us, we're literally working 24/7 and I had to work from home when I had sick leave. We're told to pay for all sorts of university fees and our students demanded us to buy Starbucks for them. Within 6 months of me resigning, half of my faculty resigned too. One of my ex-colleagues moved his family to another country overnight and just magically disappeared from the university without telling anyone.
So recently I became jobless and I casually mentioned to my professor friend about it. My professor found her friend, another professor, who is in need of a research assistant. The wage is low but the workload isn't a lot (I was told), I could work whenever I want from home, plus it's from a good research university, so I agreed.
But it turned out that I'm getting paid less than the promised wage, the workload is way too much, and this new professor expects me to take up extra work.
I told her that I am not able to accept this, because I have other jobs waiting for me. I have applied to other global technology companies and they're paying me WAAAYYYY more with WAAAAYYYYY better employee benefits.
Now she's begging me to stay. She's like “I can give you extra work so I'll pay you more.” Like honey I know you're earning much more than we all do, because you're a professor, but isn't it a bit too pathetic to talk like this? And the “new” wage she offered me is the same as the previous wage she promised before. Like c'mon ma'am. I have no energy for this drama.
Now I'm giving up all my networking in academia and all the shit I've been building from the past to start a new life. Can't take this shit anymore.