Risks/benefits of "high-ranking" research mentor

[Dingus1]

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Hi all,

I am an MS1 with no prior experience in any sort of scientific research, about to start looking for research opportunities. I am mostly interested in clinical research, maybe translational?, although I don't think I'd have the heart to run experiments on animals. In any case, I met up with one of our deans who was nice enough to give me a list of faculty in my field of interest that they thought would be good at/willing to mentor medical students.

These faculty really run the gamut from clinical assistant professor to chair of research in the department. Should I expect differences in how I'm treated (the chair had hundreds of publications listed in the last few years so I imagine he's really busy, while I would assume an assistant professor would have more time and be more knowledgeable about his fewer projects). And since I've never done this before, while of course I plan on working hard, I don't really know if I'll be good at the job so I don't want to look bad to someone who has a whole bunch of clout. Are these valid concerns? What are the risks/benefits of working with someone high up vs lower on the academic ladder? What do you all recommend going for?

I'd really appreciate any help or bits of insight anyone has to offer!

 

[Goro]

Hi all,

I am an MS1 with no prior experience in any sort of scientific research, about to start looking for research opportunities. I am mostly interested in clinical research, maybe translational?, although I don't think I'd have the heart to run experiments on animals. In any case, I met up with one of our deans who was nice enough to give me a list of faculty in my field of interest that they thought would be good at/willing to mentor medical students.

These faculty really run the gamut from clinical assistant professor to chair of research in the department. Should I expect differences in how I'm treated (the chair had hundreds of publications listed in the last few years so I imagine he's really busy, while I would assume an assistant professor would have more time and be more knowledgeable about his fewer projects). And since I've never done this before, while of course I plan on working hard, I don't really know if I'll be good at the job so I don't want to look bad to someone who has a whole bunch of clout. Are these valid concerns? What are the risks/benefits of working with someone high up vs lower on the academic ladder? What do you all recommend going for?

I'd really appreciate any help or bits of insight anyone has to offer!

How you will be treated has nothing to do with rank, success of the lab or its size. It is dependent upon the personality of the PI, in particular, their mentorship style.

Some will treat you like a technician and supervise everything you do

So will show you the ropes and then expect you to be independent (this is me)

Some will pair you with a student/post-doc or technician and have them do all the teaching work

And some will throw you into the ocean and tell you to swim to the other side.

 

[Dingus1]

How you will be treated has nothing to do with rank, success of the lab or its size. It is dependent upon the personality of the PI, in particular, their mentorship style.

Some will treat you like a technician and supervise everything you do

So will show you the ropes and then expect you to be independent (this is me)

Some will pair you with a student/post-doc or technician and have them do all the teaching work

And some will throw you into the ocean and tell you to swim to the other side.

Well hopefully I don't get the last one at least. Thanks for the advice! When you say you show the ropes and expect independence, does that mean you want the student to just pick out at topic that interests them and start figuring out how to make something useful out of it? Or do you mean you give them a task related to ongoing research and expect them to figure out how to do it on their own?

 

[Goro]

Well hopefully I don't get the last one at least. Thanks for the advice! When you say you show the ropes and expect independence, does that mean you want the student to just pick out at topic that interests them and start figuring out how to make something useful out of it? Or do you mean you give them a task related to ongoing research and expect them to figure out how to do it on their own?

PI will usually give you a list of their current projects, and then will ask you to pick one. For example, I'll offer a cell biology project, or one more biochemical that involves western blotting.

Once you pick your favorite, then you get shown how to do the techniques.

 

[Dingus1]

PI will usually give you a list of their current projects, and then will ask you to pick one. For example, I'll offer a cell biology project, or one more biochemical that involves western blotting.

Once you pick your favorite, then you get shown how to do the techniques.

Ok thanks a ton, that’s really helpful.