How is the PhD phase measured?

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StilgarMD

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my PI is the kind of person who isn't a fan of people in the lab presenting posters. Lab mates have hypothesized this is due to the potential compromised ability to sell a coherent and clean looking story when publication times comes. How much should I fight this? When I'm applying to research track residencies, will a poster make any type of difference assuming papers are the same?

Also any additional things we should be seeking to max/min during a PhD would be appreciated (currently guessing its Max pubs/min time, but I may be wrong).

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Everything matters for your future but mostly publications. Things like grants, awards, connections, etc can all be important as well of course.

There are a few possible reasons why conference talks are not encouraged. It could be financial. It could be the coherent narrative you mentioned. Also, if you're presenting things that aren't published, there are stories of other unscrupulous groups reproducing the data and publishing it first. I would discuss the rationale with the PI. If it is truly the coherent story issue, you could see about trying to submit the data to conferences when the data is complete and being submitted for publication.

It's still good to go to conferences for presenting skills, especially for oral talks, and networking. Also, there's an educational component to conferences that are irreplaceable in my opinion.
 
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Everything matters for your future but mostly publications. Things like grants, awards, connections, etc can all be important as well of course.

There are a few possible reasons why conference talks are not encouraged. It could be financial. It could be the coherent narrative you mentioned. Also, if you're presenting things that aren't published, there are stories of other unscrupulous groups reproducing the data and publishing it first. I would discuss the rationale with the PI. If it is truly the coherent story issue, you could see about trying to submit the data to conferences when the data is complete and being submitted for publication.

It's still good to go to conferences for presenting skills, especially for oral talks, and networking. Also, there's an educational component to conferences that are irreplaceable in my opinion.

Financial seems unlikely given other behaviors/the seeming abundance of resources. Scooping is always a thing I guess, especially at the glacial pace some of our stuff moves at. I very much want to present at a conference, first posters and eventually a talk, and I've been to SFN for the last 3 years and felt inspired quite a bit by some of the stuff I saw. I just wish I could contribute more and grow more when I'm there, especially when seemingly everyone else is presenting (obviously not a reason to do something, but i feel it). I will try to see how to approach it as tactfully as possible.
 
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