How about the faculty position in US?

Mark et al.,
As far as I know, there are more students enrolling in CS, due to hard time of IT market. Therefore, more faculties are demanded in university/college. How do think a faculty position compared with programmer/senior programmer? Advantage/disadvantage?
Thanks for your input,
Lee

Well, I really see it as apples and oranges. Academia is a very different field then commercial life. You don't just hop back and forth between, the two, it is more of a career change. That's just culturally speaking. Practically speaking, schools focus on CS, not on software engineering (there are some exceptions), so the fields are slightly different in that way, too.
Finally, remember that academia works on a different time scale. In the job market, people were changing jobs every 18 months. Most people change jobs within 5 years. Most academics work towards tenure, which takes years. Once achieved, they keep the job for life. A 5-10% flucuation in students for a few years will not significantly alter the number of faculty positions at a college. Consequently, I doubt most schools are hiring more faculty these days.
--Mark

may be delayed reply.
if u can't get a job as developer/software engg,then i can suggest u to choose faculty job atleast for time being.
B'coz,i did the same for 6 months in one international uni.I gained lot of exp .i'm not a native english speaker,just think abt facing 30-40 international master degree students.you will get good communication skill,good tacking skils,no more stage fear,negotiation skils.since i taught them IT related subject,i learned a lot by clearing their all doubts.Escp in Internation univ,u can see diff people with diff accent and too i like japan,chinese,thai people accent.Now i can understand their english very well

moreover,u have to prepare for 1 or 2 hour only,rest of the time u can work in campus internet and start building/learning new skils,no external pressure.Escp if u work as project supervisor for project based subjects,u will earn more skills.
All this u can't get when u work as SE or developer.

Mark and Balaji,
It seems that you perfer Developer position than faculty position, probably because of higher salary. Is there anything else? For example, if I get an offer for a tenure-track faculty position and a developer position, which one should I go? Thanks for your guidance.
Lee

You misunderstood my posting. I don't see one as better then the other, just different. You need to decide which is write for you. I would actaully see the two as seperate careers. You must decide which is right for you. Financials are one difference (although it is not that one makes more money, it's no where near that simple). There are many others.
--Mark

Mark,
Thanks for your input.
Lee