damien_chazelle_fan
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- Apr 29, 2024
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I am an incoming MS1 interested in a competitive specialty. Bit of a rant, but so far, I have not had the best research mentors. Skip ahead to question for TLDR.
Mentor 1: Gem of a man, very nice, personal connection with him, not so great mentor. Privademic late-career doc focused on clinical. Man gives me a project idea then says "go" with very little guidance. Granted, I have learned a lot and prefer autonomous environments, but idk if pure autonomy is good for me, especially considering that I had no research experience when I started working with him. I put about 60 hours into the screening phase of my first project with him (900+ charts and my fault for being inefficient) then spent another 10 doing data extraction and analysis only for him to say "The results aren't strong enough for publication, I'll give them to a resident for a poster (never ended up happening), next project." The next project has been good and will result in a first author pub. It has gone pretty smoothly except once when we were going to meet up (drove 45 minutes to his office), I wait in his office for 15 minutes, send him a message to let him know, then he hits me with something along the lines of "Lol, forgot to tell you that I'm on a plane to Seattle, haha oops."
Hit a bit of a breaking point yesterday where we agreed to meet at noon regarding a new project (can't make any further progress without his input), I get there at noon, wait 15 mins, send a message to no reply, keep waiting. I totally get that he was swamped with patients, but the problem is that while I was in his office, we made eye contact at one point and as I was about to say hello he bolted without saying anything. He then sends a tech to come apologize to me for waiting. Finally comes in the office after waiting a couple hours (I kept myself busy), and we talk for 3 minutes until he has to go see afternoon patients. During talk, says something along the lines of "if we end up deciding to publish" to which in my head I was like, bro, I cannot afford to spend all this time just for you to not like the results and not publish. Then I left and sent him a text asking if he could meet next week to no reply. The reason I am a bit flustered is because I have sunk like 400 unpaid hours with this man with nothing to show for it currently (except skills that I have developed for future projects).
Mentor 2: One of the nicest humans beings I have ever met, we really hit it off on a personal level. This man is a mid-career big-wig academic that is a part of a million societies and organizations with a million leadership positions that is super busy. Project is done and is ready for publication, but awaiting his approval. I'm not in the same city, and I have sent him 5 unanswered emails over the past 1.5 months. I even called his secretary and had her leave a note on his desk asking to call my number whenever he gets a chance (since I don't have his), and crickets. I am going to see him at an event in about a month, so idk what exactly I should do when I see him.
What I am trying to get at with all of this is to ask how to identify traits of a good mentor when scouting potential mentors and projects? And how do you balance this with a big-name mentor that is established in the field but too busy to devote any fraction of time to students in a field where connections are king? Obviously, I can't directly ask potential mentors "Will you ghost me at critical points during the project," but what can I do to make sure that we will have a mutually beneficial relationship? I hope that this doesn't sound like I am asking to be spoon-fed, and if I am out of check, please call me out on my BS. TIA
Mentor 1: Gem of a man, very nice, personal connection with him, not so great mentor. Privademic late-career doc focused on clinical. Man gives me a project idea then says "go" with very little guidance. Granted, I have learned a lot and prefer autonomous environments, but idk if pure autonomy is good for me, especially considering that I had no research experience when I started working with him. I put about 60 hours into the screening phase of my first project with him (900+ charts and my fault for being inefficient) then spent another 10 doing data extraction and analysis only for him to say "The results aren't strong enough for publication, I'll give them to a resident for a poster (never ended up happening), next project." The next project has been good and will result in a first author pub. It has gone pretty smoothly except once when we were going to meet up (drove 45 minutes to his office), I wait in his office for 15 minutes, send him a message to let him know, then he hits me with something along the lines of "Lol, forgot to tell you that I'm on a plane to Seattle, haha oops."
Hit a bit of a breaking point yesterday where we agreed to meet at noon regarding a new project (can't make any further progress without his input), I get there at noon, wait 15 mins, send a message to no reply, keep waiting. I totally get that he was swamped with patients, but the problem is that while I was in his office, we made eye contact at one point and as I was about to say hello he bolted without saying anything. He then sends a tech to come apologize to me for waiting. Finally comes in the office after waiting a couple hours (I kept myself busy), and we talk for 3 minutes until he has to go see afternoon patients. During talk, says something along the lines of "if we end up deciding to publish" to which in my head I was like, bro, I cannot afford to spend all this time just for you to not like the results and not publish. Then I left and sent him a text asking if he could meet next week to no reply. The reason I am a bit flustered is because I have sunk like 400 unpaid hours with this man with nothing to show for it currently (except skills that I have developed for future projects).
Mentor 2: One of the nicest humans beings I have ever met, we really hit it off on a personal level. This man is a mid-career big-wig academic that is a part of a million societies and organizations with a million leadership positions that is super busy. Project is done and is ready for publication, but awaiting his approval. I'm not in the same city, and I have sent him 5 unanswered emails over the past 1.5 months. I even called his secretary and had her leave a note on his desk asking to call my number whenever he gets a chance (since I don't have his), and crickets. I am going to see him at an event in about a month, so idk what exactly I should do when I see him.
What I am trying to get at with all of this is to ask how to identify traits of a good mentor when scouting potential mentors and projects? And how do you balance this with a big-name mentor that is established in the field but too busy to devote any fraction of time to students in a field where connections are king? Obviously, I can't directly ask potential mentors "Will you ghost me at critical points during the project," but what can I do to make sure that we will have a mutually beneficial relationship? I hope that this doesn't sound like I am asking to be spoon-fed, and if I am out of check, please call me out on my BS. TIA
