To be or not to be a faculty administrator?

University STEM curriculum rarely prepares its graduates for administrative work; however, the modern university can hardly function without academic administration. The Council of Colleges of Arts and Science (CCAS) provides statistics on the discipline representation among more than two thousand deans and assistant/associate deans. This data indicates a strong representation of STEM disciplines in this mid-level administration. Yet, physicists make up a clear minority of this group. One can suggest that physics faculty should strongly consider faculty-administrator positions in addition to a traditional tenure-track faculty career. This presentation will discuss various aspects of administrative jobs such as the graduate program director, the department's chair, the associate dean, etc.