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Pointers for New Graduate Students

Posted in: PhD Survival
Pointers for New Graduate Students

If you ask any finished graduate student, most of us starting a Masters or PhD program were very excited at what awaited us and if you were anything like me, you were foolishly idealistic and thought you were going to pull on a lab coat, cure cancer and save the world.

Ok, maybe most people were not as naive as I was, but still, it is a exciting journey with a lot of expectations and pressures and dreams of a great future in research.

No matter how much advice you get, the list of “if only I knew then what I know now” is never-ending. So this is my advice to all the new young scientists getting ready to embark on a career as a professional graduate student and how to get through it with less group therapy sessions then I had.

1. Don’t go un-mentored. Getting a PhD is going to take anywhere from 4-6 years, maybe even 7.  If you speak with PhDs, they will often tell you that they received more help on their projects from someone other than their advisor. Depending on your PI, it is not uncommon that stretches of time will pass where you do not have access to an advisor. They might be traveling or they might be dealing with personal issues or they might be running the department and too busy to focus on you. Whatever the reason, it is critical that you do not go it alone. Find another PI or postdoc to help nurture your development and guide your project. The interaction between you and an older wiser scientist is critical to you finishing your degree.

2. Choose your committee carefully. The biggest mistake I made was choosing an all female committee. As a woman scientist you like to think that the women PIs in your department have your best interest in mind and desire to see you become a successful PI too, right?  But in my experience that is not the case and women tend not to be as supportive of each other’s progress in scientific careers as you might think. Ten years later, I hope this is changing.  But if I could give you any advice, it would be to choose a committee that is interested in your work and that encompasses the range of expertise you need to have a complete thesis. Whether it is men or women, you want successful PIs on your side that can teach you how to achieve success with professionalism and positivity.

3. Be an independent thinker. Unfortunately a big part of any graduate school will be departmental politics. There are going to be labs that get along and labs that don’t. Just because two PIs do not get along does not mean that you can’t get along with that lab or the PI. Think for yourself and decide for yourself the people you want to be friends with. Don’t fall into the trap of partaking in gossip about others and just do your work professionally and with an open mind towards all people.

4. Be kind to everyone- make friends. Network. This goes along with the above point, graduate school is a time to network and make lasting friendships that 20 years later still produce fruitful collaborations.  Don’t burn any bridges. Let the PIs fight out who owns what equipment and who brings in more money. Your focus is on getting a degree and publications. Working with others is critical for you to reach your goals. This leads me to my next point which is:

5. Collaborate. As the manager of your research project, it is up to you to come up with the ideas, the hypothesis, and the approach to answering the questions. You aren’t going to be a master in every technique you need. The more you can do yourself the better. However, collaborations with other labs that have expertise in a technique you need is a great way to learn while getting results fast. Plus, when they need your area of expertise, you can help them and get on their papers. It is a win-win situation.

6. Don’t get married. In my class of 12 people, two people married while in graduate school and divorced before they finished their PhD. Just wait. The stress of graduate school is hard enough but trying to satisfy a spouse (especially when they are not in science) can be overwhelming to a relationship. Of course, there are some people who were able to make their marriage survive the grad school years. If you can wait, I would recommend it.  If you think graduate school is stressful, divorce is even worse. One of my classmates, in the midst of divorce, was 6 months away from getting his PhD, went home one day and never came back again.

7. If you aren’t sure, ASK.  Sounds obvious, but some people have trouble admitting they need help. It is ok to say I don’t know. It is ok to not be sure of the instructions or protocol. If you aren’t sure, ask. Reagents are expensive and no one wants to work all weekend to make up for mistakes.  Sometimes for new students it might be embarrassing to ask questions you feel you should know. In my lab, we would always double check each other’s math before making new buffers or adding drugs to cells to make sure we didn’t move a decimal point the wrong way.  It happens, and you will feel worse having to explain to your boss how you made a mistake that could have been easily caught if you had just asked.

8. Make and use your own reagents. Don’t share. Of course some reagents are shared, such as 10X TAE for gels or buffers for Southern Blots (back in the day, we did a lot of those). But there are some reagents that you really should just keep separate. Why? Because it is a source for contamination and if you are the only one using your reagents, you can’t blame anyone else.  A bottle of contaminated water or buffer you thought was sterile can cause weeks of headaches fixing your experiment. So never go into someone else’s bottles without asking first and your reagents will be treated with the same respect.

9. Clean the incubators.  If you are doing cell culture, remember to disinfect your incubators. There is no consensus as to how often they should be cleaned. Some labs clean them every 4 months and others more or less. It depends on how many people are sharing an incubator. If medium spills, then it should be disinfected immediately to prevent a bacterial contamination of cells. The worst problem is mycoplasma, which are not easily detected in cells and can influence experimental results. Cleaning the incubators will help prevent these issues. If your cells become infected with mycoplasma, it can mean that whole experiments are nullified and need to be repeated.

10. Be friendly to the reps. I saved this for last. Some scientists underestimate the rewards that come from being friends with your sales people.  Did you ever wonder why “John” always wins the raffle at the product show? Ever wonder what lunch at The Lodge at Torrey Pines is like? Could you use a bigger discount? Give your sales representative some attention. Help them out. Spread the word when they organize product talks or table shows and give them good feedback (if they deserve it) and they will help you out too. Plus, you never know what company that sales rep might be running one day and when you want a job, they’ll remember what a pleasure you were to interact with. So take care of your reps and they’ll take care of you.

Bonus tip: 11. Scour Bitesize Bio. Now you might think this is just shameless self-promotion (and in a way it is), but seriously, we think that Bitesize Bio is building into a mine of vital information for all researchers in our field, but particularly for new researchers.

If you are having a problem, please search our archive to see if we have posted an article that can help you. But – and here is the real beauty of Bitesize Bio – if you can’t find anything that will help, then drop us a note to tell us your problem or topic you’d like advice on and if at all possible we will write an article that covers it.

As I said earlier, “if only I knew then what I know now” is a phrase oft uttered by grad school veterans. Our articles aim to tell you that stuff now and solve a lot of your problems before they arise.

A couple of great examples or articles for newbie grad students are Victoria’s recent wise advice on things to do before starting a new project. (If I had read this when I was getting started, I might have been able to keep my idealistic point of view a little longer.)

And some very sage advice on the Do’s and Don’ts for PhD students is found in an older article by Nick that all graduate students, not just the new ones, should keep in mind.

We also know that sometimes it can be hard being a scientist, so if you need some positivity, read our top 15 reasons to be a scientist to remember the upsides of this career.

Well that’s my advice. I could go on but I want to hear from you.  What advice do you have from your graduate school years to share with this next year’s incoming class?

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21 Comments

  1. Pablo on September 27, 2011 at 5:47 am

    Suzanne, i don’t think you reported the results of the survey accurately. You claim that the survey said 51% say they believe in God but that is not what the survey showed. Only 33% said they believe in God. another 18% said they do not believe in God but they do believe in a higher power. Since that 18% said they do NOT believe in God they can not be added to the 33% that do believe in God. Clearly 59% DO NOT believe in God.
    You could say 59% believe in God or a higher power, but that isn’t what you stated.
    pablo

  2. yevgeniy on June 16, 2011 at 6:32 pm

    Great post, Suzanne,

    I would also say that developing people skills is a good idea while in Grad school. I guess in falls under networking, but networking might not be an intuitive skill for some people, especially if they spend 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week in a lab. Participate in volunteering, get involved with Grad school activities, try to develop leadership and other relevant skills, such as management and being a team player. This will pay off when you are finishing Grad school and looking for a job. And finally, try to balance your life. Your graduate research is important but it should not be everything that your life is based on (what, there are other things besides science?). Yes, explore your hobbies, it’s healthy, especially when things don’t go well in the lab.

  3. Teacher on March 1, 2010 at 10:07 am

    Interesting, funny and recognizable. This site gives a survival guide :

    https://www.cs.unc.edu/~azuma/hitch4.html

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