When do you reasonably know your field?

[Sunflower189]

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Everyone tells me I shouldn't worry about my choice of undergrad research lab - that it's the experience, the soaking up of lab ambiance (and chemicals.. 🙄 ) that counts. The advice here is similar for choice of PhD. So the question is: when do you have to start looking at your research interests, as opposed to other factors (mentoring ability, bigwigitude, location, etc). How did you all balance it?

I'm just in 14th grade, and I know there's a good chance I'll laugh at this in a few years, but I've found a field I don't mind studying for the rest of my life. My instinct tells me to go Rambo and gun for it like no other. Would this be an advantage in real life career terms? A disadvantage?

Sorry for the naive question(s); I'm just a wee baby scientist. 😳

 

[geekgirl]

Everyone tells me I shouldn't worry about my choice of undergrad research lab - that it's the experience, the soaking up of lab ambiance (and chemicals.. 🙄 ) that counts. The advice here is similar for choice of PhD. So the question is: when do you have to start looking at your research interests, as opposed to other factors (mentoring ability, bigwigitude, location, etc). How did you all balance it?

I'm just in 14th grade, and I know there's a good chance I'll laugh at this in a few years, but I've found a field I don't mind studying for the rest of my life. My instinct tells me to go Rambo and gun for it like no other. Would this be an advantage in real life career terms? A disadvantage?

Sorry for the naive question(s); I'm just a wee baby scientist. 😳

it's a good question really. and one that comes up at various points in your career - picking an undergrad lab, picking a phd mentor, picking a place/subject in which to postdoc or do research after grad school.

i've asked this ? of several attendings i admire, because most of the residencies i want to do require several years of research and i may not find a lab doing precisely what i want to do.

so it sort of depends on you and how specific this "field" is that you want to study for the rest of your life. if you've decided you've fallen in love with the actin microskeleton of human endothelial cells, then it might be a little more difficult to do what you want unless those specific projects are available around you (and hey, look around, they might be).

if, on the other hand, there are more global things you are interested in (e.g. cancer, neurology, stem cells) you can find a niche in many different environments. i started out interested in one field and ended up in another. but i found a project that i loved. so it's sorta up to you. i found the element i liked (stem cells) and studied them in a different system than the one i started out in. but the questions posed were remarkably similar.

so i say, do what you love. but what you love doesn't have to be precisely what the lab you are in is doing. that's another thing. many advisors (particulary as you and your research ideas mature) will be wiling to let you go off on tangents if they are somewhat related to the lab's main thrust in some way. that's what i have found anyway.

so make your field what you want. but for now just learn. cause that's what this stage is all about. learning skills. learning how to think. learning to be a scientist or whatever. and knowledge is never wasted.

sort of a ramble, but i hope that helps!

 

[beary]

Everyone tells me I shouldn't worry about my choice of undergrad research lab - that it's the experience, the soaking up of lab ambiance (and chemicals.. 🙄 ) that counts. The advice here is similar for choice of PhD. So the question is: when do you have to start looking at your research interests, as opposed to other factors (mentoring ability, bigwigitude, location, etc). How did you all balance it?

I recently had a discussion about this with my advisor. I definitely looked for learning experiences and training during my undergraduate and graduate years, and I am very glad that I did so. But now as I am thinking about post-docs, my advisor suggested to try and find a lab in a field that I want to stick with for my own lab someday. It is a big transition to go from being a post-doc to running a lab, and trying to learn a whole new field while getting started would just be too difficult.

Something that I found is that I develop a love for whatever I am studying even if it is something that has not previously interested me. I spent the last year of my Ph.D. studying cilia, and I had never before had any interest whatsoever in cilia. But now I am fascinated by them and think about them all the time, and would definitely consider studying them for my whole career. So I would suggest to not narrow your interests too much at this stage.