Computer Science Professor
You teach undergraduate and graduate CS courses, hold office hours, and grade or supervise those who do. At research universities you also run a lab: grants, PhD students, papers. At teaching colleges the load is courses, advising, and curriculum. Both jobs are mostly explaining hard ideas repeatedly.
Updated
Typical Pay (US)*
$97kmedian*Outlook
Surging CS and AI enrollment is the fastest-growing postsecondary teaching field; high salaries reflect industry competition for the same PhD talent.
What does a Computer Science Professor do?
You teach undergraduate and graduate CS courses, hold office hours, and grade or supervise those who do. At research universities you also run a lab: grants, PhD students, papers. At teaching colleges the load is courses, advising, and curriculum. Both jobs are mostly explaining hard ideas repeatedly.
A day in the life
- Teach a 9am systems lecture to two hundred students at varying attention.
- Hold office hours where one question reveals the whole class is lost.
- Meet a PhD student whose experiment contradicts the paper you are writing.
- Write a grant section, then review three conference submissions you owe.
- Argue in a faculty meeting about whether AI replaces the theory course.
How to become a Computer Science Professor
- 1
Finish an undergraduate CS degree
Strong theory and systems grades; research experience with a professor matters more.
- 2
Earn a PhD in computer science
Five to six funded years. Your advisor and your publications decide your options.
- 3
Publish in your subfield
Conference papers at top venues are the currency; journals matter less in CS.
- 4
Teach while you train
TA, then lecture a course. Search committees ask for evidence you can teach.
- 5
Choose research or teaching track
Tenure-track research posts are scarce; teaching-focused and community-college roles hire far more.
Skills that matter
Learn the actual skills
Mochivia teaches in short, interactive lessons on iPhone, a few minutes a day.
