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[akimhaneul]

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[907914]

I have been working in my current lab since August as a lab tech. The project is great and people are really nice to me. I am also really grateful to have a very caring and hardworking PI.

I work with a grad student and he told me that he hired me because he wants to graduate as soon as possible and having an assistant is incredibly helpful. He also feels that my extensive past research experience is quite impressive.

I usually perform my work fine but there are times when I make mistakes that can ruin the experiments such as pipetting mistakes, spilling things etc. One time, I even messed up genotyping of his mice so he has every right to be very mad at me about that.

But there are times when he, in my opinion, goes a bit far. I am getting a vibe from him that he wants me to adhere to his style as much as possible. Because of this, he gets mad at things that are somewhat trivial and do not have much impact on experiments.

1) when I first came here, I was learning many intricacies of the lab such as where things are, people's names etc. One day, he was weaning his mice and told me to lock the mice room door. I forgot how to do it and he got mad at me for forgetting it even though he told me how to do it before.

2) he asked me to bring 30 plates while doing cell culture work. I brought him 6 packages of plates where each package contains 5 plates. He got mad at me and said "why is it that you can't be more efficient and bring the entire box of plates? I'm just disappointed because if we think more similarly, we would be able to perform experiments more efficiently."

3) He wants me to memorize very little things such as when restocking 50ml pipettes, I should remove the plastic bag that contains many pipettes before restocking. (sorry for poor description). Because of this, I am scared everyday about forgetting something so I make post it notes for every little thing.

4) I performed transformation for him and spread the colonies on a culture plate. I got many colonies but he got almost mad at me because I apparently didn't spread the colonies thoroughly enough and missed a little corner. Fortunately, he was happy about the thousands of colonies though.


I am currently studying for mcat so the stress level is not low. I want to do well in this lab so that I can get a good rec for this upcoming cycle. I have worked in many different labs before and I never had issues like this before.


I feel really depressed. I feel like I'm just not working hard. I don't know what to say.

Any advice?

Overall, you are the lab technician not the researcher. You should be performing things to his standard (not as well, obviously, but his way). It is his project, so your mistakes delay him not you. You should understand his frustration. You are there to learn, yes, but that is a secondary function of being their to do a job.

Literally nothing you are describing should be considered excessively stressful and is all a part of a normal job. He gets upset that you don’t do your job in a thorough and efficient manner, you should try to improve yourself. Don’t get scared about making mistakes, just try harder not to make mistakes.

From the perspective of the researcher...I can see why you would be frustrating. Several of the mistakes you have described are not minor things and can cause massive delays (both time and budgeting) and it sounds like you make very frequent mistakes. Doing one in ten things wrong doesn’t mean you are doing good - it means that 10% of what you do and everything downstream of that mistake needs to be repeated.

My advice would be this: buck up, try to understand from the perspective of the person whose work you are doing, keep at the lab if you feel you can get better at your job, quit if you can’t stand confirming to a higher standard of work.

 

[puahate]

From experience find a new lab

 

[akimhaneul]

Overall, you are the lab technician not the researcher. You should be performing things to his standard (not as well, obviously, but his way). It is his project, so your mistakes delay him not you. You should understand his frustration. You are there to learn, yes, but that is a secondary function of being their to do a job.

Literally nothing you are describing should be considered excessively stressful and is all a part of a normal job. He gets upset that you don’t do your job in a thorough and efficient manner, you should try to improve yourself. Don’t get scared about making mistakes, just try harder not to make mistakes.

From the perspective of the researcher...I can see why you would be frustrating. Several of the mistakes you have described are not minor things and can cause massive delays (both time and budgeting) and it sounds like you make very frequent mistakes. Doing one in ten things wrong doesn’t mean you are doing good - it means that 10% of what you do and everything downstream of that mistake needs to be repeated.

My advice would be this: buck up, try to understand from the perspective of the person whose work you are doing, keep at the lab if you feel you can get better at your job, quit if you can’t stand confirming to a higher standard of work.

So I'm supposed to do everything his way and my way is not even remotely correct even if the end result is same?

 

[Osteosaur]

So I'm supposed to do everything his way and my way is not even remotely correct even if the end result is same?

Yes, that is how science works and that is how having a boss works.

It is his decision. You want to have a standardized method for doing everything in a lab so variances in results will be due to your experimental manipulations. If you want to try it a different way talk to him first.

Pay attention, take good notes, and follow those notes.

That being said it takes time to he good at your job. In 6 months you are still learning. In a year you'll he an asset. And complaining you didn't take a crate of slides when he asked for thirty is a little silly. You might feel better as you get better, however. So is the nasty guy the PI or the graduate student?

 

[akimhaneul]

Yes, that is how science works and that is how having a boss works.

It is his decision. You want to have a standardized method for doing everything in a lab so variances in results will be due to your experimental manipulations. If you want to try it a different way talk to him first.

Pay attention, take good notes, and follow those notes.

That being said it takes time to he good at your job. In 6 months you are still learning. In a year you'll he an asset. And complaining you didn't take a crate of slides when he asked for thirty is a little silly. You might feel better as you get better, however. So is the nasty guy the PI or the graduate student?

He's not nasty. I just dont get along with him sometimes. He's a grad student.


If you think I am still in the learning phase and need more time to get used to this guy, should I keep at it and not quit?


This is really stupid question but why does it matter whether I bring a box of plates or 6 packages of plates that contain a total of 30 plates?

 

[akimhaneul]

Overall, you are the lab technician not the researcher. You should be performing things to his standard (not as well, obviously, but his way). It is his project, so your mistakes delay him not you. You should understand his frustration. You are there to learn, yes, but that is a secondary function of being their to do a job.

Literally nothing you are describing should be considered excessively stressful and is all a part of a normal job. He gets upset that you don’t do your job in a thorough and efficient manner, you should try to improve yourself. Don’t get scared about making mistakes, just try harder not to make mistakes.

From the perspective of the researcher...I can see why you would be frustrating. Several of the mistakes you have described are not minor things and can cause massive delays (both time and budgeting) and it sounds like you make very frequent mistakes. Doing one in ten things wrong doesn’t mean you are doing good - it means that 10% of what you do and everything downstream of that mistake needs to be repeated.

My advice would be this: buck up, try to understand from the perspective of the person whose work you are doing, keep at the lab if you feel you can get better at your job, quit if you can’t stand confirming to a higher standard of work.

I don't know...that plates thing is still getting on my nerves. Can I at least talk to him privately about issues like this? Cause if I mess up his experiments it makes sense to be mad but I'm still not sure about others.

At the same time, I want to be on his good side for recommendation letter for the upcoming app cycle.

 

[Dr. Stalker]

I have been working in my current lab since August as a lab tech. The project is great and people are really nice to me. I am also really grateful to have a very caring and hardworking PI.

I work with a grad student and he told me that he hired me because he wants to graduate as soon as possible and having an assistant is incredibly helpful. He also feels that my extensive past research experience is quite impressive.

I usually perform my work fine but there are times when I make mistakes that can ruin the experiments such as pipetting mistakes, spilling things etc. One time, I even messed up genotyping of his mice so he has every right to be very mad at me about that.

But there are times when he, in my opinion, goes a bit far. I am getting a vibe from him that he wants me to adhere to his style as much as possible. Because of this, he gets mad at things that are somewhat trivial and do not have much impact on experiments.

1) when I first came here, I was learning many intricacies of the lab such as where things are, people's names etc. One day, he was weaning his mice and told me to lock the mice room door. I forgot how to do it and he got mad at me for forgetting it even though he told me how to do it before.

2) he asked me to bring 30 plates while doing cell culture work. I brought him 6 packages of plates where each package contains 5 plates. He got mad at me and said "why is it that you can't be more efficient and bring the entire box of plates? I'm just disappointed because if we think more similarly, we would be able to perform experiments more efficiently."

3) He wants me to memorize very little things such as when restocking 50ml pipettes, I should remove the plastic bag that contains many pipettes before restocking. (sorry for poor description). Because of this, I am scared everyday about forgetting something so I make post it notes for every little thing.

4) I performed transformation for him and spread the colonies on a culture plate. I got many colonies but he got almost mad at me because I apparently didn't spread the colonies thoroughly enough and missed a little corner. Fortunately, he was happy about the thousands of colonies though.


I am currently studying for mcat so the stress level is not low. I want to do well in this lab so that I can get a good rec for this upcoming cycle. I have worked in many different labs before and I never had issues like this before.


I feel really depressed. I feel like I'm just not working hard. I don't know what to say.

Any advice?

Before I offer advice, I need more details.

1. Are you MD applicant or MD-PhD?
2. How long have you been in the lab? 1 month? 1 semester? 1 year?

My next point isn't a question, but rather a hidden gem/detail. When you ask for your LoR, your grad student will write it, and the PI will just sign his/her name. If you're having issues with your graduate student, that can mean a bad LoR which is absolutely detrimental in an application. Equally as bad, possibly a little less bad, is after all this work in the lab, the grad student says he refuses to give you a LoR. This is also an automatic red flag. How would an admissions committee view you? "Akimhaneul did research for 2.5 years AND a lab technician...why is this letter mediocre" or "Why is there no LoR?"

Your grad student sounds like a jerk. I'm going against the above posts. No lab environment should be toxic. Yeah if you f*ck up you will be reprimanded, but if you bring over 6 packages of 5x culture plates and the grad student is flipping out saying "why can't you be more efficient" it suggests you won't get a good letter and he/she is just a jerk. Don't settle for being a punching bag. I was a lab director/admin/researcher/grad student during gap years and I never mistreated my students like that. The only time I had to reprimand a student was for making an absurdly ludicrous statement that had no business in the lab (it was a sexist joke about women in science, and despite me being a man I can't stand that kind of non-sense). That deserved some scolding imo, but I could care less if my undergrad brought 30 culture plates at once or 6 bags.

Answer my questions and I can direct you accordingly.

 

[YasssQueen]

I would probably find a new lab. Nobody should be getting mad about mundane things like the packages of cell culture plates....There are so many labs out there. Research takes forever to get great results that you can publish/present. If you are clashing with the people you work with during that long, arduous journey, it will be tough to get to the finish line...

 

[907914]

Before I offer advice, I need more details.

1. Are you MD applicant or MD-PhD?
2. How long have you been in the lab? 1 month? 1 semester? 1 year?

My next point isn't a question, but rather a hidden gem/detail. When you ask for your LoR, your grad student will write it, and the PI will just sign his/her name. If you're having issues with your graduate student, that can mean a bad LoR which is absolutely detrimental in an application. Equally as bad, possibly a little less bad, is after all this work in the lab, the grad student says he refuses to give you a LoR. This is also an automatic red flag. How would an admissions committee view you? "Akimhaneul did research for 2.5 years AND a lab technician...why is this letter mediocre" or "Why is there no LoR?"

Your grad student sounds like a jerk. I'm going against the above posts. No lab environment should be toxic. Yeah if you f*ck up you will be reprimanded, but if you bring over 6 packages of 5x culture plates and the grad student is flipping out saying "why can't you be more efficient" it suggests you won't get a good letter and he/she is just a jerk. Don't settle for being a punching bag. I was a lab director/admin/researcher/grad student during gap years and I never mistreated my students like that. The only time I had to reprimand a student was for making an absurdly ludicrous statement that had no business in the lab (it was a sexist joke about women in science, and despite me being a man I can't stand that kind of non-sense). That deserved some scolding imo, but I could care less if my undergrad brought 30 culture plates at once or 6 bags.

Answer my questions and I can direct you accordingly.

From what I understand reading through, it seems the 6 bags thing is just the culmination this grad student has in his overall disappointment with OPs continuous mistakes. He isn't flipping out at OP, he is telling him to start using his critical thinking skills and to stop messing up. The longer someone is a disappointment, the more frustrating their mistakes become.

I think grad student is justified in his frustration with OP. I would just kick him out of the lab if there were all these constant mistakes rather than make myself mad. A lab technician is replaceable and OP doesn't seem to understand that. If you aren't putting in your best efforts now, why do you think you would put in your best efforts in Med school?

The 6 bag thing is a critical thinking thing from the perspective of the grad student - why are you finagling with removing every sleeve from the box, and carrying them over loosely instead of just bringing over the box? It seems like a minute detail to you, but when you are constantly making other mistakes, those little mistakes are going to seem bigger.

It is not too late to turn it around if you are applying for a future cycle. If you still have another year left before application, I would suggest sticking with this lab and changing your act. If you are applying this cycle, it is too late to change LOR opinions in your favor and I would recommend leaving the lab. Don't go to another lab until you actually can maintain good lab practices and stop making stupid little mistakes. In medicine, stupid little mistakes can kill and it is better to fix yourself now than when the scalpel is in your hand.

 

[akimhaneul]

Before I offer advice, I need more details.

1. Are you MD applicant or MD-PhD?
2. How long have you been in the lab? 1 month? 1 semester? 1 year?

My next point isn't a question, but rather a hidden gem/detail. When you ask for your LoR, your grad student will write it, and the PI will just sign his/her name. If you're having issues with your graduate student, that can mean a bad LoR which is absolutely detrimental in an application. Equally as bad, possibly a little less bad, is after all this work in the lab, the grad student says he refuses to give you a LoR. This is also an automatic red flag. How would an admissions committee view you? "Akimhaneul did research for 2.5 years AND a lab technician...why is this letter mediocre" or "Why is there no LoR?"

Your grad student sounds like a jerk. I'm going against the above posts. No lab environment should be toxic. Yeah if you f*ck up you will be reprimanded, but if you bring over 6 packages of 5x culture plates and the grad student is flipping out saying "why can't you be more efficient" it suggests you won't get a good letter and he/she is just a jerk. Don't settle for being a punching bag. I was a lab director/admin/researcher/grad student during gap years and I never mistreated my students like that. The only time I had to reprimand a student was for making an absurdly ludicrous statement that had no business in the lab (it was a sexist joke about women in science, and despite me being a man I can't stand that kind of non-sense). That deserved some scolding imo, but I could care less if my undergrad brought 30 culture plates at once or 6 bags.

Answer my questions and I can direct you accordingly.

1) I am not sure at this point because I love research but I feel like MD is my priority.
2) I started working in this lab back in August 2018.

I dont have a lot of full time work experience so maybe there are some things I don't understand about working with a boss but this makes me depressed.

Should I just suck it up for now, ask for a letter in spring, and quit my job? By that point, it would be close to his defense so he wouldn't mind since he would be almost done with his project.

or should I quit asap to find a new lab and ask for a letter? That way I can work for several months before June during which I would be submitting applications.

 

[Dr. Stalker]

From what I understand reading through, it seems the 6 bags thing is just the culmination this grad student has in his overall disappointment with OPs continuous mistakes. He isn't flipping out at OP, he is telling him to start using his critical thinking skills and to stop messing up. The longer someone is a disappointment, the more frustrating their mistakes become.

I think grad student is justified in his frustration with OP. I would just kick him out of the lab if there were all these constant mistakes rather than make myself mad. A lab technician is replaceable and OP doesn't seem to understand that. If you aren't putting in your best efforts now, why do you think you would put in your best efforts in Med school?

The 6 bag thing is a critical thinking thing from the perspective of the grad student - why are you finagling with removing every sleeve from the box, and carrying them over loosely instead of just bringing over the box? It seems like a minute detail to you, but when you are constantly making other mistakes, those little mistakes are going to seem bigger.

It is not too late to turn it around if you are applying for a future cycle. If you still have another year left before application, I would suggest sticking with this lab and changing your act. If you are applying this cycle, it is too late to change LOR opinions in your favor and I would recommend leaving the lab. Don't go to another lab until you actually can maintain good lab practices and stop making stupid little mistakes. In medicine, stupid little mistakes can kill and it is better to fix yourself now than when the scalpel is in your hand.

I see. I'm biased because I've had undergrads before, perhaps I'm just a bit too nice/don't care about small things. In the graduate student's defence, if he/she is busy trying to graduate, they're under a lot of stress, so little things will piss them off. Each small little hiccup can culminate in another year for work for the grad student.

However, I don't think its super critical thinking. It can be a double edge sword IMO. If OP just brought a box over, the grad student could've been like 'wow lazy much? Can't just bring a few bags, you bring me the entire goddam box...?" I'm presuming the grad student was looking for reasons to be pissed, and that will translate into a LoR or lackthereof, hence I'm not a fan of this, but I do see your point. If OP is currently in the application cycle with a secured letter, that means he/she has the option to continue working/dealing with this, or starting fresh as a lab teach in another job.

 

[Dr. Stalker]

1) I am not sure at this point because I love research but I feel like MD is my priority.
2) I started working in this lab back in August 2018.

I dont have a lot of full time work experience so maybe there are some things I don't understand about working with a boss but this makes me depressed.

Should I just suck it up for now, ask for a letter in spring, and quit my job? By that point, it would be close to his defense so he wouldn't mind since he would be almost done with his project.

or should I quit asap to find a new lab and ask for a letter? That way I can work for several months before June during which I would be submitting applications.

If you've been here since August and applying in June...hmm.

You need to feel it out. If your graduate student is busy right now, that means a bad letter more than likely. A bad letter is a red flag, so is the lack of one.

If you're able to find another lab, you can also "diversify" your lab experiences on your AMCAS by stating that you wanted to try a different field, blah blah blah.

How much time/energy have you invested in the current lab? And if you do suddenly leave, academic professors talk, there's a chance you'll be blacklisted for other labs.

If your graduate student is willing to talk to you, you can try the following. Apologize for your shortcomings, i.e. the culture plates, and genuinely ask how to improve your critical thinking/thinking along the way he does. If he's a decent grad student, he'll just say he was being an ass and you're fine. He may also offer advice on improvement. But, if you know he's just gonna get pissed at you for this kind of conversation, that may indicate starting fresh is better.

 

[akimhaneul]

If you've been here since August and applying in June...hmm.

You need to feel it out. If your graduate student is busy right now, that means a bad letter more than likely. A bad letter is a red flag, so is the lack of one.

If you're able to find another lab, you can also "diversify" your lab experiences on your AMCAS by stating that you wanted to try a different field, blah blah blah.

How much time/energy have you invested in the current lab? And if you do suddenly leave, academic professors talk, there's a chance you'll be blacklisted for other labs.

If your graduate student is willing to talk to you, you can try the following. Apologize for your shortcomings, i.e. the culture plates, and genuinely ask how to improve your critical thinking/thinking along the way he does. If he's a decent grad student, he'll just say he was being an ass and you're fine. He may also offer advice on improvement. But, if you know he's just gonna get pissed at you for this kind of conversation, that may indicate starting fresh is better.

Like I said, I have been doing experiments and assisting his work in a full time setting since August. I feel like he would be even more pissed if I left the lab right now because he has tons of work and it would delay his graduation.

yeah, I feel like if I tried other labs, they would ask me "what happened in your first lab?"

Ok, I'll try talking to him about the culture plates. He's definitely willing to talk to him about these issues.

He does seems to be at least somewhat supportive of my career aspirations though. I told him that I am studying for mcat and he told me that I can study at work even though I never asked in the first place. so maybe he won't just screw me like that if I get my acts together?

 

[akimhaneul]

From what I understand reading through, it seems the 6 bags thing is just the culmination this grad student has in his overall disappointment with OPs continuous mistakes. He isn't flipping out at OP, he is telling him to start using his critical thinking skills and to stop messing up. The longer someone is a disappointment, the more frustrating their mistakes become.

I think grad student is justified in his frustration with OP. I would just kick him out of the lab if there were all these constant mistakes rather than make myself mad. A lab technician is replaceable and OP doesn't seem to understand that. If you aren't putting in your best efforts now, why do you think you would put in your best efforts in Med school?

The 6 bag thing is a critical thinking thing from the perspective of the grad student - why are you finagling with removing every sleeve from the box, and carrying them over loosely instead of just bringing over the box? It seems like a minute detail to you, but when you are constantly making other mistakes, those little mistakes are going to seem bigger.

It is not too late to turn it around if you are applying for a future cycle. If you still have another year left before application, I would suggest sticking with this lab and changing your act. If you are applying this cycle, it is too late to change LOR opinions in your favor and I would recommend leaving the lab. Don't go to another lab until you actually can maintain good lab practices and stop making stupid little mistakes. In medicine, stupid little mistakes can kill and it is better to fix yourself now than when the scalpel is in your hand.

When you say another year left before applications do you mean 2020-2021 cycle? I will be applying 2019-2020 cycle.

 

[Dwight Snoot]

The best thing I ever did in undergrad was leave my lab my senior year (Didn't get LOR from PI and I still got into multiple MD schools) . It was a very hostile environment and I was generally miserable there. If it is affecting your life outside lab I would leave immediately. If it is something you think you might be able to work through maybe give it another couple months. There is no need to be doing something that negatively affects your life.

 

[deleted804295]

I have been working in my current lab since August as a lab tech. The project is great and people are really nice to me. I am also really grateful to have a very caring and hardworking PI.

I work with a grad student and he told me that he hired me because he wants to graduate as soon as possible and having an assistant is incredibly helpful. He also feels that my extensive past research experience is quite impressive.

I usually perform my work fine but there are times when I make mistakes that can ruin the experiments such as pipetting mistakes, spilling things etc. One time, I even messed up genotyping of his mice so he has every right to be very mad at me about that.

But there are times when he, in my opinion, goes a bit far. I am getting a vibe from him that he wants me to adhere to his style as much as possible. Because of this, he gets mad at things that are somewhat trivial and do not have much impact on experiments.

1) when I first came here, I was learning many intricacies of the lab such as where things are, people's names etc. One day, he was weaning his mice and told me to lock the mice room door. I forgot how to do it and he got mad at me for forgetting it even though he told me how to do it before.

2) he asked me to bring 30 plates while doing cell culture work. I brought him 6 packages of plates where each package contains 5 plates. He got mad at me and said "why is it that you can't be more efficient and bring the entire box of plates? I'm just disappointed because if we think more similarly, we would be able to perform experiments more efficiently."

3) He wants me to memorize very little things such as when restocking 50ml pipettes, I should remove the plastic bag that contains many pipettes before restocking. (sorry for poor description). Because of this, I am scared everyday about forgetting something so I make post it notes for every little thing.

4) I performed transformation for him and spread the colonies on a culture plate. I got many colonies but he got almost mad at me because I apparently didn't spread the colonies thoroughly enough and missed a little corner. Fortunately, he was happy about the thousands of colonies though.


I am currently studying for mcat so the stress level is not low. I want to do well in this lab so that I can get a good rec for this upcoming cycle. I have worked in many different labs before and I never had issues like this before.


I feel really depressed. I feel like I'm just not working hard. I don't know what to say.

Any advice?

Wow. A grad student is treating you like this??? I would switch labs if I were in your position. This is not normal! I never felt like that in my lab and everyone from the head of the lab to the post docs to the grad students were lovely to me.

 

[deleted804295]

If you've been here since August and applying in June...hmm.

You need to feel it out. If your graduate student is busy right now, that means a bad letter more than likely. A bad letter is a red flag, so is the lack of one.

If you're able to find another lab, you can also "diversify" your lab experiences on your AMCAS by stating that you wanted to try a different field, blah blah blah.

How much time/energy have you invested in the current lab? And if you do suddenly leave, academic professors talk, there's a chance you'll be blacklisted for other labs.

If your graduate student is willing to talk to you, you can try the following. Apologize for your shortcomings, i.e. the culture plates, and genuinely ask how to improve your critical thinking/thinking along the way he does. If he's a decent grad student, he'll just say he was being an ass and you're fine. He may also offer advice on improvement. But, if you know he's just gonna get pissed at you for this kind of conversation, that may indicate starting fresh is better.

How is a lack of a letter a red flag? It's just choosing not to get a letter. Suppose each applicant has on average 10 experiences it doesn't make sense to get a LOR from all 10. My PI said he would write a rec letter for me after I left my lab but I probably won't take it up since this was 2 years ago my freshman year.

 

[Goro]

I have been working in my current lab since August as a lab tech. The project is great and people are really nice to me. I am also really grateful to have a very caring and hardworking PI.

I work with a grad student and he told me that he hired me because he wants to graduate as soon as possible and having an assistant is incredibly helpful. He also feels that my extensive past research experience is quite impressive.

I usually perform my work fine but there are times when I make mistakes that can ruin the experiments such as pipetting mistakes, spilling things etc. One time, I even messed up genotyping of his mice so he has every right to be very mad at me about that.

But there are times when he, in my opinion, goes a bit far. I am getting a vibe from him that he wants me to adhere to his style as much as possible. Because of this, he gets mad at things that are somewhat trivial and do not have much impact on experiments.

1) when I first came here, I was learning many intricacies of the lab such as where things are, people's names etc. One day, he was weaning his mice and told me to lock the mice room door. I forgot how to do it and he got mad at me for forgetting it even though he told me how to do it before.

2) he asked me to bring 30 plates while doing cell culture work. I brought him 6 packages of plates where each package contains 5 plates. He got mad at me and said "why is it that you can't be more efficient and bring the entire box of plates? I'm just disappointed because if we think more similarly, we would be able to perform experiments more efficiently."

3) He wants me to memorize very little things such as when restocking 50ml pipettes, I should remove the plastic bag that contains many pipettes before restocking. (sorry for poor description). Because of this, I am scared everyday about forgetting something so I make post it notes for every little thing.

4) I performed transformation for him and spread the colonies on a culture plate. I got many colonies but he got almost mad at me because I apparently didn't spread the colonies thoroughly enough and missed a little corner. Fortunately, he was happy about the thousands of colonies though.


I am currently studying for mcat so the stress level is not low. I want to do well in this lab so that I can get a good rec for this upcoming cycle. I have worked in many different labs before and I never had issues like this before.


I feel really depressed. I feel like I'm just not working hard. I don't know what to say.

Any advice?

Time to leave.

 

[Dr. Stalker]

How is a lack of a letter a red flag? It's just choosing not to get a letter. Suppose each applicant has on average 10 experiences it doesn't make sense to get a LOR from all 10. My PI said he would write a rec letter for me after I left my lab but I probably won't take it up since this was 2 years ago my freshman year.

Certain letters of rec are pseudo-mandatory. Your example makes sense. I shadowed 10 doctors, I only took 1LoR. A research letter of rec, especially from a job, is one of the more crucial ones for research and its recent enough for OP (this current year). If it's missing, that's going to raise flags as to why it isn't there. Is OP bad at the job? Is OP hiding something from lab he doesn't want medical schools to know about? Not all letters are required, but most if not all pre-meds conduct research and show up with a letter of rec from lab. Not having one makes you stick out from the crowd, and not in a good way. That's my opinion though, your example makes sense since it was 2 years ago. But, in OP's case its current research and job experience.

 

[akimhaneul]

Time to leave.

but if I leave my current lab and look for another one, what if they are like "what happened to your first lab?" Also, if I moved to another lab right now, will they be able to write a good letter in June?

 

[Goro]

but if I leave my current lab and look for another one, what if they are like "what happened to your first lab?" Also, if I moved to another lab right now, will they be able to write a good letter in June?

You tell the truth with some spin.

You don't need a PI. LOR, med schools aren't looking for grad students.

Don't engage in the sink cost fallacy

 

[puahate]

Please do not let this grad students frustration rub off on you. Grad school is heck and that is why he is taking it out on you. He knows that his options are limited after graduation. Get out the lab and better yet try to do clinical research if you can.

 

[chemdoctor]

Please do not let this grad students frustration rub off on you. Grad school is heck and that is why he is taking it out on you. He knows that his options are limited after graduation. Get out the lab and better yet try to do clinical research if you can.

You think clinical research is valuable on an app!? I have tons...

 

[puahate]

You think clinical research is valuable on an app!? I have tons...

yeah have something that the average physician can actually talk to you about .