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The good news is that your research project has gone well over the last few years, and you got your paper published.
The bad news is that you published everything in that one paper, and you’re out of ideas.
And you’re five years into the program.
And your PI doesn’t want to help you anymore.
How, exactly, are you supposed to get your research project out of the rut and back on track so you can graduate?
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What makes two PhDs who escaped from grad school years ago want to revisit all the highs and lows of their training? Short answer: Beer!
But the long answer: Grad school is no cakewalk – classes are challenging, experiments fail, and sometimes, PIs seem like they’re from another planet. We made it through one day at a time, relying on regular conversations and scheming over a beer at the end of a long week.
Hello PhD is your chance to join those conversations and benefit from the experience of other scientists who have made their living in, and out of, the lab. We want to help you take advantage of all of the great benefits of your science training experience, and avoid some of the mistakes and pitfalls.
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Spoiler Alert: Working in a lab is tough.
Yes, there’s the academic challenge, but it can also be an emotional roller-coaster when experiments fail, colleagues conflict, and you push yourself past the normal limits.
When someone in your lab has a bad day, does it sound like this?
Grad Student: (despondent sigh) “I can’t believe that PCR failed again. I’m never going to graduate.”
Lab Mate: (in a rush) “Yeah, that sucks. Check your primers again.”
Instead of finding support among peers and co-workers – the very people who understand how difficult lab can be – we often find indifference, dismissal, or half-hearted pity.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
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Kenny Gibbs is a scientist who studies other scientists.
After earning his PhD in Immunology from Stanford, he turned his attention to the broader topic of scientific careers and how PhDs choose and evolve in their work. Through surveys and interviews with postdocs and research scientists, Dr. Gibbs explores issues like career-interest formation and postdoc development.
Wouldn’t you like to ask someone like that for advice on your graduate training?
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Sometimes, we use the words ‘research advisor’ and ‘research mentor’ interchangeably, but be careful – they’re not the same thing.
When you join the lab of a research faculty member in your second year of grad school, you’ve chosen a research advisor. Whether that person turns out to be a ‘mentor’ remains to be seen.