Lessons for a first year PhD student

The closer I get to the end of my PhD (still a few months away), the more I feel the need to document lessons learned, and share the experience so that it may be beneficial to other graduate students navigating their way through grad school. So here goes:

Lesson 1: Grad school is a marathon, not a sprint

Read, read, and read some more

• I cannot stress this enough. In order to push at the boundaries of science and literature (or humankind) you need to have a strong foundation, and need to fully grasp the fundamentals as you become your subject matter expert. The journey isn’t meant to be easy. Any structure, particularly skyscrapers, often need a strong foundation to stand on, and you are no different as you explore your field. Often times, especially early on, you might feel like you’re not being productive (due to excessive amounts of time reading without tangible results), but you’re laying the building blocks to what will hopefully be a successful career, either in academia or the industry. Don’t be harsh on yourself, but do be consistent, and trust your instincts. You’ve gotten this far.

Lesson 2: It is your time to take charge and find your feet

Set your own schedule

• This might be particular tricky during your first year, as you manage a number of different tasks: courses, research lab rotations, teaching work, all while trying to eat healthy and take care of self. However, over time your time management skills improve through experience, and you discover habits that work best for you. This leads on to the next point.

Find your own comfort zone.

• You might do your best studying at night, or you might do your most efficient grading after hours when the office is quiet, or you’re an early bird who loves scanning through literature in a coffee shop before everyone gets busy during the morning rush. Take time to find out what works best for you, makes you happy, and stick to it.

Prioritize your tasks

• This is especially important during your first year as you work to balance a heavy workload. Your courses (and grades) are as equally important as your research and teaching duties. However, it’s often completely fine if you prioritize one task over the other, e.g., taking a few days to focus on your finals, provided you have informed your supervisors, and let them know when you expect to meet your deadlines.

Don’t be afraid to brainstorm

• As you gain more confidence with your research area, and explore new ones, don’t be afraid to brainstorm with your supervisor, maybe even discuss conflicting opinions about a research topic in detail. An ideal supervisor should give you the freedom to explore an area on your own, but be able to provide general guidance to help narrow down your thesis topic based on his own experience in the field, while allowing you to challenge him.

Imposter syndrome is real

• I think this is applicable to almost anyone in grad school, or academia in general. There’s always a moment of self-doubt, as you push to break the boundaries in research. What can you do to help yourself? Be consistent, put in the hard work, and wait patiently for the results. Grad school isn’t a straight path, it has a number of ups and downs, but consistency and training, like in sport, does pay off.

Lesson 3: Record everything

Maintain a research/lab journal

• This will help you plan your week/month/year/project. It’ll allow you to monitor your progress. It’ll also provides a means of determining if you’ve set achievable tasks for the day, and re-evaluating goals for the rest of the week. Stay organized, and it’ll help reduce the chaos experienced during your degree. You’ll also be able to track lab work in detail, if you’ve kept a good record, making it easier for you to document and prepare journal/conference papers.

Maintain a separate journal for yourself

• Your PhD doesn’t define you. As you go through the best part of your 20s, you’re learning a number of different skills, possibly traveling to new countries for conferences or leisure, or meeting new people. You’re growing as a person, and maintaining a separately non-research journal will allow you to track your own thoughts, and growth over a period of time. You can choose to use either a physical book to journal, or even maintain your own personal online journal on productivity sites like Evernote (my current choice). Your entries don’t have to be long, but can basically be your highlights or thoughts for the day.

Lesson 4: Choosing your thesis advisor / research lab

Speak to PIs based on your research interests

• Different universities in the US follow different models when it comes to advisor selection. Some require multiple lab rotations before a decision is made, some have students immediately assigned to a professor based on their research interests. If you have the choice, make an educated decision regarding your pick for your thesis advisor based on what you want, as you’ll need to get really comfortable with the area. If you’re going to be funded by a certain project, do find out about the project duration, and get more details, as you’ll probably be spending an extended period of time on the project, and will need to think about it day-in, day-out.

Expectations from you, and your expectations

• It is particularly important for you to clarify what the PI expects from you early on, in order to graduate. While discussing these expectations, it is advisable that you also communicate your concerns and expectations before committing to a given PI. That being said, ideally your department should be able to assist if you are no longer happy with your PI, and are looking to switch to one that meets your expectations.

Speak to students in the research lab

• Speaking just to a PI rarely gives you the whole picture. Before joining a research group, also speak to students in the research lab (or with the PI), and if you have the opportunity speak to alumni from the lab. Speaking to the students will give you a more realistic picture of what to expect. Different labs might also operate differently. Some might have clearly defined procedures, while others require observation, and a bit of hands-on learning, so social skills might come into play here.

Lesson 5: Other important lessons – Career focus and networking

Start prepping for your career from day one

• Don’t waste time before starting research. The publication process takes time, and getting a head start on research will allow you to save time you might not have in the future, especially closer to graduation.

• Many universities offer a number of certificates (including professional development ones) that can be completed by taking a few extra courses, or attending a few extra seminars. These might be worth completing in the long run, if you’re interesting in adding a bit of diversity to your portfolio. Even attend extra seminars if they are of interest to you, and provide something valuable.

Prepare for all career options

• Don’t close doors early on, unless you really want to pursue a field in academia or industry. Flexibility will give you the freedom to move between the two with ease, if and when the time comes. If you can afford to do an internship or co-op during your time in grad school.

Networking and soft-skills

• It goes without saying that networking and soft-skills are an important part of skills gained during a PhD. Network within your department, and also with people in other departments. The people that you meet might be future collaborators down the line when you’re both employed as professors at different research institutions. You can also audit courses from other departments in order to meet and learn from new colleagues.

• Don’t be afraid to ask for advice from a lab-tech or post-doc, if you need clarification on a certain thing. Some things can be only learned through hands-on experience.

• Take opportunities to join collaborative projects. If you are looking for jobs in the industry, some companies stress on the importance of teamwork. You could also get an interesting publication out of it, or meet a potential employer. It’s also possible that the project might take you to a new country, where you get to meet new people, and work on equipment you might not have had the chance to work back on your “home” campus.

Lesson 6: Explore life outside of your PhD

Explore your interests

• Although, you might not notice it, you’ll spend a good portion of your 20s in grad school. There’s definitely a loss of youth as you spend your “finer” years in grad school. Take time to explore new things, maybe travel, meet new people, and maybe even find a new hobby. Who knows, it might even land you a job in the future after you discover an unknown passion.

Build your own community

• Since you get to set your own schedule for the most part, take time to spend time with friends. You can afford a longer lunch or dinner than normal, more often than not. You’ll also have your friends to depend on when you need support. If you need to, there are online communities for support as well on Instagram, Reddit and a number of other platforms. You could also find a local gaming community if that’s more your thing. Building a community is also important if you’re attending a new school (outside your home state and/or country). The PhD process is an isolating one, and you need all the support you can get.

Don’t ignore casual reading

• Although you spend a lot of time reading academic literature, it is important to continue casual/leisurely reading. As your writing develops a more technical style, you do need to be in touch with your non-technical style if you’re interested in creative writing. Exploring other areas/interests also allows you to continue small talk when required, too!

Don’t ignore your health

• If you’re purely computational, you probably spend 8 hours a day behind a computer screen (possibly coding/writing). Poor posture will lead to a number of issues (from personal experience). If you can afford to, work out regularly, eat healthy, and build healthy habits. Although daunting, what I find works best for me is starting slow, and slowly turning something into a habit.

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I hope sharing my thoughts was helpful. Feel free to share the post, or provide comments/ideas/feedback.