Being good at research

[Mnbvcxz]

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Hi,

I'm a college sophomore doing research (immunology, pathology) for about 8h/week. I started a couple days ago and I don't think I'm any good at it so I was wondering how to become. How not waste the time of the PI and the other people training me? How can I innovate? Also, time wise, when should I start to be independent? How to generally behave?

I already asked this questions in the Pre-Medical Allopathic (MD) forum but I'll try here to. Thanks a lot.

 

[Cerena]

Hi,

I'm a college sophomore doing research (immunology, pathology) for about 8h/week. I started a couple days ago and I don't think I'm any good at it so I was wondering how to become. How not waste the time of the PI and the other people training me? How can I innovate? Also, time wise, when should I start to be independent? How to generally behave?

I already asked this questions in the Pre-Medical Allopathic (MD) forum but I'll try here to. Thanks a lot.

Hi Mnb 🙂 Glad to see that you are taking time to pursue research!
It is difficult to do well in research if you are not interested in the material, so I would definitely suggest you make sure that you are interested in the topic you are researching.
I think that "wasting the PIs time" depends on what you are doing. It is really good to ask questions! And make mental note of things that are important. I am definitely a question-asker in my lab, because I would rather get things right than to not ask questions because I'm scared of how stupid I'll look. If I don't know where the damn printer paper is, I'll ask! 🙂
You should be independent when you feel comfortable in the lab! You gain independence the more experienced you are. And that just takes time.

 

[Anandamide]

I started a couple days ago and I don't think I'm any good at it so I was wondering how to become. How not waste the time of the PI and the other people training me? How can I innovate? Also, time wise, when should I start to be independent?

Give yourself time! You're learning lots of new techniques; it's going to take a little while to master them.

I worked for 2.5 years in a neurosurgery lab. It took me a little while before I really felt confident with the procedures. But with each batch of surgeries, I got better. About a year in, I felt truly confident training other students in the techniques and troubleshooting any problems. Now I'm applying for lab jobs in other related areas of research. I expect that I'll need to learn some new techniques and that it will again take some time for me to master them. (You'll notice I'm not giving a specific time frame. That's because it depends on the person/the difficulty of the technique(s)/etc.)

Enjoy the learning experience. Ask questions. Once you feel confident with the techniques, you'll be able to help innovate -- and more importantly you'll have a lot more fun!

 

[Mnbvcxz]

Thank you! I'm having a great time in the lab.