by, for, and about women in science, technology, engineering, & math

In my grad school department, every student is required to do at least four rotations in different labs. Each rotations lasts 8 weeks and gives you a change to see the research and most importantly, see if the PI will be a good mentor for you both scientifically and career-wise.

When selecting a grad school, I think one of the most important things are rotations. I came to my school with a specific PI in mind. I liked his research, and he was a very laid-back, hands-off mentor (both of which I wanted). I knew I wanted the freedom to design my own experiments and not have someone breathing down my neck. I also am self-motivated so I don’t need my PI to give me time lines.

I ultimately chose to join a relatively new faculty’s lab based on several things: 1. mentoring style 2. interesting project 3. the project had already been started, so I knew it would work and publications would be fast-coming 4. I would get to attend conferences 5. fast graduation time (probably under 5 years) 6. I would get to learn more techniques than some of my other options. I’ve been in my lab for 2.5 years now, with two 3rd author papers, a 1st author paper sitting on my boss’s desk, and a second 1st author paper outlined. Don’t get me wrong, my PI is an excellent scientist, and I have become a better scientist because of him, but in the past few months, I have learned some new things that I wish I had known when selecting a lab.

As graduation approaches I have found several drawbacks to my lab. Because my PI is so new, I will only be the 2nd student to graduate from his lab. While this never seemed like a problem before, as I look at the requirements for postdoc fellowship grants I found that the want your boss to have a graduate record (multiple students with good careers following graduation). Because of this, I need to have a sort of co-signer on fellowship applications of a PI that has a good graduation record and can vouch for my training and abilities. Depressingly, no one on my thesis committee has graduated very many students either even though they are in labs that have been around for >10 years. It looks like I need to add another faculty to my thesis committee to be able to vouch for me, which of course means more paperwork for me and potentially a longer graduation time as the best candidate likes to hold onto students.

Another thing related to postdoc fellowships is lab meetings and journal clubs. My lab only has lab meeting when some one has to practice a talk. And we never do a journal club. I’ve tried to supplement this by going to a joint lab meeting of some other faculty, but it means that I’m only aware of what my colleagues are doing peripherally, and there’s less opportunity to get fresh ideas or suggestions.

My PI is also having funding problems. I don’t think we’ve had a grant get approved while I’ve been here. While I’m guaranteed to be paid a stipend no matter what (I have a 1 year fellowship and my department will pick up the rest). My experiments are also in collaboration with another, very well-funded lab that purchases all of the supplies I need. However, I do fear that it will reach a point when the grad school will say “Adios” to my boss because we’re broke. I don’t know how likely this is as nearly all PIs are very touchy about talking about funding with students.

And finally, my 1st author paper has been sitting on my boss’s desk for longer than I care to admit (>6 months). I’m pretty much the only person in the world working on my project, so I’m not worried about getting scooped. But, I mean, come on, I know writing and reviewing grants is stressful and time consuming; I just need a few hours of his time to read over the damn thing. I’ve even heard of PIs sitting on papers for over a year (which I’m rapidly approaching).

The moral of the story is to ask your potential mentor about these things. In addition to my list above make sure to address the funding situation (will you always be paid?; if funding is poor/non-existent, will the PI be asked to leave?); graduation record; and publication turn around time.

I wish you good luck and good science!