People teaching college-level chemistry usually either have a PhD in chemistry or are graduate students studying for a PhD in chemistry. It's certainly possible to have a PhD in chemistry at 28, but it's also possible to still be a PhD student in early one's 30s. If he had a PhD, he could be an instructor (has a PhD, not tenure-track), an assistant professor (first tier of tenure track), or if he's a rock star he could be an associate professor already (tenured, usually starting 5-7 years after the PhD).

He wears the same shirt for each week's lectures, then changes for the following week.

He would.

Did not take lunch today, ate at my desk and kept working, never left the trailer, and am working again at home. This is not what I am looking for in a job.

Burrell, I wish for all the best for your sister.

Amy, he could easily be a doctor at 33/34. He probably wouldn't be tenured, but teaching...yeah.

ION, DH's work has tomorrow off, whether or not the government shutdown goes through, and then he has 4 weeks of vaca accrued if it does. We are...nervous. Our finances are already in the toilet. Stupid pigfuckers.

Can he be working full-time while studying for his PhD? Like, in a lab or something?

Is it unrealistic to have him already PhD'd at 33 or 34 and working as an instructor? And if he is doing that, how come he can't be tenure track?

Signed,

Completely clueless about science academia, but can't write another carpenter or photographer

Plei! I was totally thinking of you this morning (but I'm too forgetful to think of the context). I think it was to wonder how you and your family were doing. It was related to a Prius and how you said you would like a Prius if only it fit a jogging stroller. God. How long ago was that?!

The academic job market is really tough right now, so lots of people are in Instructor positions, not tenure-track. They generally pay enough to live on. (Adjuncting doesn't - an instructor teaches full-time. An adjunct is paid on a per-class basis, generally poorly.)

A full-time PhD student in the sciences is generally paid, although not much. As a PhD student in engineering in 2002-2007, mr. flea made $20K a year. The pay is "earned" by lab work, project work, and sometimes teaching or TAing, etc. for the professor supervising the PhD. They take classes the first couple of years.

Thanks, ma'am. I'll see what works best for the story.

Here's some base info on faculty salaries at various levels, using UGA as an example. UGA is a public PhD granting school, so its salaries will be higher than a smaller/non-PhD granting college, but not as high as an Ivy or schmancy private college. [link]

Amy,

the person could be a post-doc (which is typical for someone in Chemistry). If the person started right out of college (the phd program), then they would have a phd in hand by around age 28. Some people don't start right out, but some do. Especially in the sciences.

34 years old they might be on the tail end of the first postdoc position and starting a 2nd (which is not uncommon). A lot of postdocs work in tenured faculty members' labs full-time. Occasionally they may teach, but a lot of science postdocs do not teach.

There are some who do work in a lab while working on a phd, but more typically you would have a postdoc who has finished and doing working in the lab fulltime.