Tips for being successful during the PhD years?

[Lethonomia]

Hey guys. I hope to be starting my PhD work shortly, and I am very interested in how those of you who have already started (or completed) your PhD have ensured that your experiences have been productive. I have a whole bunch of general prompts - feel free to address any of them or share your personal experiences if you are so inclined. (I realize a lot of this is probably common sense to folks who've worked n labs before, but I'm particularly interested in the takes of current MD/PhD students, partly because my past research experiences have all been undergrad research positions that have lasted no more than a couple of years each, and a PhD is obviously a much, much bigger commitment.)

- Tips on choosing the lab/PI for your PhD work? Specifically:
1. Are there any warning signs (regarding the PI/the other lab members/funding situation/nature of the research) that should steer a potential student away from a lab? Stuff that steered you away from labs while you were rotating?
2. What qualities in a PI/lab should you be seeking out during rotations? How might you predict from a rotation that the PI, the research, and the lab environment will all be good fits?

- Tips on making and maintaining a good working relationship with your PI?:
1. Is your relationship with your PI strictly business (i.e. your PI has no clue what kind of person you are outside of his or her lab)? Or do you think better boss-grad student relations are built on occasionally shooting the breeze with your PI about stuff that's non-lab related? Do you look to your PI as a mentor (someone you feel comfortable going to for career or other kinds of advice), or just as your boss?
2. If your PI prefers being 'hands-on,' how frequently/infrequently do you correspond with him or her without seeming standoffish? If your PI is 'hands-off,' what are good ways to seek him or her out without seeming too needy or clingy?

- Tips on making a good impression in your chosen lab?:
1. In the first month of being in your chosen lab, what behavior patterns do you put forth to try to establish good working relationships with your co-workers, as well as to establish that you're absolutely committed to and enthusiastic about your research project?
2. Given that you'll probably be the only MD/PhD student in your given lab environment, how do you forge and maintain good relationships with the grad students, postdocs, techs, and managers?
3. In your opinion, is it more important initially to become extremely knowledgeable in the literature behind your/the lab's project(s), or should you first focus on becoming an expert at all of your project's protocols before delving too deeply into the literature? When you make lab presentations, is it more important to demonstrate that you're rock-solid on the theory of what you're doing (such that you can generate intelligent suggestions of where to go next), or that you're a lab workhorse that can consistently generate tons of quality data?

Tips on handling delicate situations?:
1. What do you do in cases where your PI expects/wants you to work (for example) 15-hour days for two weeks straight, but you're facing situations out of lab (involving family, classes, personal issues, stress, sickness, etc.) that are also demanding your time and attention? Do you suck it up and do what your PI wants all the time?
2. If you run into problems with other people in the lab, is it always a bad idea to approach the PI about it, even as a last resort? (For instance, if someone else in lab is bullying you/constantly belittling you to the point where you feel your work/reputation with the PI is being sabotaged or undermined?)
3. If you run into problems with your PI (anything from the PI being emotionally abusive/aggressive and super-confrontational to the PI not having any motivation to publish your papers for whatever reason), how do you handle it? Suck it up? Seek outside (or inside-the-lab) help?

Thanks for reading. If you see any point here you'd like to chime in on, please feel free - I'd really appreciate it.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Doctor&Geek]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=6561764&postcount=11

 

[gstrub]

- Tips on choosing the lab/PI for your PhD work? Specifically:
1. Are there any warning signs (regarding the PI/the other lab members/funding situation/nature of the research) that should steer a potential student away from a lab? Stuff that steered you away from labs while you were rotating?

New faculty member, little/no other students, no post-docs, never trained MD/PhD students, not in lab regularly, major clinical obligations, asks you to babysit/do his laundry, asks if you have any good pot connections, etc etc...

2. What qualities in a PI/lab should you be seeking out during rotations? How might you predict from a rotation that the PI, the research, and the lab environment will all be good fits?

See above, but the exact opposite. Whether it's a good fit you just have to feel..compare it to the other rotations you did. Did people help you, did you produce any significant or possibly publishable results in a short time, do you have preliminary data/hypotheses that can easily bridge directly into your main project?

- Tips on making and maintaining a good working relationship with your PI?:
1. Is your relationship with your PI strictly business (i.e. your PI has no clue what kind of person you are outside of his or her lab)? Or do you think better boss-grad student relations are built on occasionally shooting the breeze with your PI about stuff that's non-lab related? Do you look to your PI as a mentor (someone you feel comfortable going to for career or other kinds of advice), or just as your boss?
2. If your PI prefers being 'hands-on,' how frequently/infrequently do you correspond with him or her without seeming standoffish? If your PI is 'hands-off,' what are good ways to seek him or her out without seeming too needy or clingy?

There are different types of PI's. There are those who are hands on (typically more junior) and hands off (more senior), those there all the time (7-7) and those not (9-5), those who are serious slave drivers with no sense of humor and those you will grab a beer with after lab work, etc etc. You need to find a balance between how much you will enjoy your PhD work (typically with PIs with the latter descriptions) and how much work you will get done (you will likely get more done with PIs of the former descriptions). I've known PIs that won't ride you at all, don't demand to see data every day, and basically give you a lot of autonomy with your project. This can be a major danger in the MD/PhD program (from my observations) in that the first 2 years go by and you're not half-way done with your project. Personally I work for PI now who is very much of the former variety and I am glad...I can deal with the high expectations because if I didn't have the pressure I'd slack off and take too long to rotate back. The best way to establish what kind of PI you have is to keep your eyes open during your rotation and talk to the other students.

- Tips on making a good impression in your chosen lab?:
1. In the first month of being in your chosen lab, what behavior patterns do you put forth to try to establish good working relationships with your co-workers, as well as to establish that you're absolutely committed to and enthusiastic about your research project?
2. Given that you'll probably be the only MD/PhD student in your given lab environment, how do you forge and maintain good relationships with the grad students, postdocs, techs, and managers?
3. In your opinion, is it more important initially to become extremely knowledgeable in the literature behind your/the lab's project(s), or should you first focus on becoming an expert at all of your project's protocols before delving too deeply into the literature? When you make lab presentations, is it more important to demonstrate that you're rock-solid on the theory of what you're doing (such that you can generate intelligent suggestions of where to go next), or that you're a lab workhorse that can consistently generate tons of quality data?

People that know me would laugh at me for giving advice on this bit. You can make a quick good impression by keeping your workspace clean, washing your and other peoples dishes in the sinks, not browsing facebook on the lab computer all day, and basically having good people skills. If you are the only MD/PhD student, try not to remind the PhD students (too often) that you will actually have a stable and successful career far away from pipetting when you finish, and will likely finish in 60-70% of the time it will take them. With regards to literature and presentations, you need to do both...know the literature so you can answer questions eloquently and have solid data to back up any hypotheses you are putting forward to test. Don't be the guy who after 2 years does a presentation with 15 background slides and one slide of data you did, and it's a damn cell growth curve.

Tips on handling delicate situations?:
1. What do you do in cases where your PI expects/wants you to work (for example) 15-hour days for two weeks straight, but you're facing situations out of lab (involving family, classes, personal issues, stress, sickness, etc.) that are also demanding your time and attention? Do you suck it up and do what your PI wants all the time?

Haha this one I can relate to...If you choose a tough PI, do so knowing the thickness of your own skin. No PI will tell you you have to be in the lab if you are ill or have a family emergency. But "I'm a little stressed" or "I want to go skiing in March" or even "I need to study for this test" might start to piss of a PI who makes those sacrifices themselves. That being said, this is YOUR life, not your PIs, so don't cower and be a total slave. You need to be able to stand up for yourself in science, medicine, life etc. This is why a good PI will give you a good sense of their expectations before you commit to a PhD with them.

2. If you run into problems with other people in the lab, is it always a bad idea to approach the PI about it, even as a last resort? (For instance, if someone else in lab is bullying you/constantly belittling you to the point where you feel your work/reputation with the PI is being sabotaged or undermined?)

You need to kick that person in the balls (figuratively speaking of course). You will be a MD/PhD in a few years...don't take any crap. Personally, I would never go to my PI with a personal problem with another lab member. That's just me though.

3. If you run into problems with your PI (anything from the PI being emotionally abusive/aggressive and super-coounfrontational to the PI not having any motivation to publish your papers for whatever reason), how do you handle it? Suck it up? Seek outside (or inside-the-lab) help?

If you follow the other advice you won't end up in a lab where this could possibly happen. Everyone goes through stress with their PI and peers in the lab...you need to be able to deal with a reasonable amount of it, but the phenotype you are describing I believe is few and far between. Talk to other students. Find a MD/PhD who graduated from that lab and learn from the experience and advice they have. Don't get depressed by the sometimes stagnant feeling in the lab or your project...remember this is just a portion of your training, and that there is light, for you at least, at the end of the basic science tunnel.

This is just of course my opinion...good luck.

 

[itsallthesame]

Some things to be aware of in general for picking labs:

It is your responsibility and no one elses (including the PI) to understand the bredth of the litterature and limitations of experiments. For picking who gets to join our lab, we could care less about results or amount of work done. If you don't have a GREAT grasp of the litterature, you can't design a relavent experiment well. If you could, someone else who has that grasp would have already done it. Spend the time reading early or it will bite you in the butt later.

Be aware of PIs who always check up on you for this reason. If you feel the need to constantly produce data, you may end up producing lots of worthless data. I've seen too many people/head too many stories of people rushing into projects/through new experiments to PROVE A HYPOTHESIS when it probably wasn't correct or the experiments couldn't really test it. You end up publishing poorly/not at all, adding years, etc.

Sure, you need lots of data... but if it's not good data, really getting to the bottom of significant and interesting questions, you'll end up as that student who was happy in the beginning, everyone loved, but then became pissed at his/her PI, didn't have any meaningful data, and just wanted to run from the lab into a cushy residency. And when it comes down to it, it's 100% your responsibility to make sure that it's good data.

 

[Lethonomia]

Thanks for your responses, gstrub and itsallthesame =). Those are some good things to consider. Doctor&Geek, I'll take a look at that article. Anyone else have any comments?

 

[bd4727]

Thanks for your responses, gstrub and itsallthesame =). Those are some good things to consider. Doctor&Geek, I'll take a look at that article. Anyone else have any comments?

Something that I took into consideration when choosing a lab was: Is this PI trying to sell me on 1-2 projects that sound really cool right now or does he/she have a good general vision of the area and have the ability to adapt projects as new papers are published, your original projects eventually fail (which they will), etc. I found it is much harder to come across the latter type of PI, but IMO they are the more successful ones long term (and hence less chance of random downswing during the time you are in their lab). Just my 2 cents, but I was very wary of a PI who only wanted to tell me about his 1-2 great ideas for a PhD project rather than just talk about the field as a whole.

 

[GliaGirl]

New faculty member, little/no other students, no post-docs, never trained MD/PhD students, not in lab regularly, major clinical obligations, asks you to babysit/do his laundry, asks if you have any good pot connections, etc etc...

Out of curiosity, why not a new faculty member? Aren't they more likely to work hard to prove themselves? I am leaning heavily towards a person who has only been at the institution for 1.5 years, but we got along swimmingly and I loved his attitude and his area of research. Another MD/PhD is going to start his PhD work in his lab this summer. If all seems to be going well with that student, shouldn't it be ok to join that lab for my PhD when it is time?

Also, on a somewhat related note: should I do my early rotation in a lab that I almost definitely want to join or should I save the best for last (program requires 3 rotations total)?

If I rotate through the one I want to do my PhD in first, I will be able to rotate through other labs to learn good techniques for my research. But if I rotate through it last, I will be able to get a head start on my research. Which is better?

(and yes, I am fully aware that I might change my mind and want to go to another lab, but at this point it seems very unlikely)

 

[gstrub]

Being a new faculty member isn't that big a flag, but the new ones are advancing their careers, and that's their first priority. Also, having someone who has been around and knows the politics of science, and who can write you a LOR that will have some name recognition, will be an asset. Finally, the new faculty members will not have as much funding, which can sometimes be an issue.

If you really think you are a great fit in the lab you are looking at, go for it. I only mention it because I've known some MD/PhD students who have joined a new lab and had some problems with funding, and with the PI graduating their students on time (when your PI is the most junior member on your committee, it's almost like they have to defend too...you're THEIR project!).

Good luck,
G