Burned Out on Research

[MstpDirge]

I'm an MSTP student finishing my 3rd year in the lab. I have become completely burned out on the work I'm doing for months. I've been ambivalent about the PhD for nearly 2 years now - back then I had made all the arrangements to leave but ended up staying.

At this point I'm convinced I will have a purely medical career but don't think I will be quitting the MSTP regardless of how long it takes. I just want to finish but I'm on my 4th project which is looking more and more like another dead end. I'm fine with it taking 5 years but I just worry that two years from now things will still seem as hopeless as they are now.

Anyone else going through this or been through this? How did it turn out? What did you do to turn it around?

Thanks!

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[ValentinNarcisse]

publish what you have and graduate. they cannot make you stay. especially if you have no intention of remaining in research long term, you don't need a Cell paper out of this experience.

 

[gbwillner]

Quit, unless you can get out with what you've done or have an excessively permissive institution that will allow you to graduate with b*ll$**.

Why spend more of your life on something you won't use in the future and causes you grief?

 

[tr]

Why are you on your fourth project that has the possibility of a dead end? Project design is crucial in graduate school. You do not want to be on a high-risk, high-reward project. You want something where the outcome will be publishable no matter what. Like you said, you don't need a Cell paper - but it sounds like someone might have you reaching for one. The fact that you have already worked on four different projects with unpublishable outcomes speaks poorly of your PI.

I would take your concerns to your program management and tell them that you need to spend your next year focusing on something that will be publishable as a thesis. Come up with a solid plan for something that will have a publishable outcome regardless of the experimental results. Ideally something that builds on the earlier work you have done, if possible. If your PI is young and inexperienced then find an older, more experienced prof in the field (maybe someone on your committee) and have that person review your plan as well.

(Anecdotally, the majority of the PhD and MD/PhD students I know accumulated virtually all of the data for their theses in the final year of research. If they spun their wheels for five years they got a six-year PhD. If they spun their wheels for three years they got a four-year PhD.)

I would not quit after 3 years of research, it will look really sad on your CV for the rest of your life.

 

[Elixir6]

I wouldn't quit, but I would take on a very simple project that is publishable somewhere in crappy journal. Hound your advisor to get people to help you. Utilize your core facilities, technicians and colleagues to get a publication. It doesn't matter if there are 12 names on the paper as long as you get your one pub you can graduate.

I definitely feel ya though. Had a similar experience.