IDEAS
FROM PEERS ACROSS THE WORLD ABOUT HOW TO DO WELL IN GRADUATE SCHOOL AND MEET EXPECTATIONS OF YOUR SUPERVISOR
The ideal goal of every
graduate or prospective graduate student is to generate results that boost
his/her smooth transition to the next level of their research and academic
career. Such transitions should always reconcile with their natural progression
towards an outstanding performance with international credibility. In meeting
these expectations, right personal attitudes, sacrifice, good laboratory and
research practices and experiences are key to meeting deadlines in the graduate
schools coupled with generating excellent results.
However, far from these
expectations, not all planned experiments work out as expected which could
result from poor attitude to work, poor skills, protocols not well optimized,
minor mistakes, poor supervision, poor laboratory and experimental set up. These
brain-wrecking scenarios of not getting the expected results requires the input
of corrective and preventive laboratory practices to save time, energy and
resources.
Whilst attending and
participating in international science conferences and workshops, a number of
graduate students from diverse national and academic backgrounds were interviewed
on how to meet the expectations of an academic supervisor in the graduate
school. It was reiterated by several students on the negative feeling associated
with failing to produce expected results and this makes one deviate from the
expectations of a supervisor. Hence the best way out is to learn from mistakes
and perfect one’s skill sets. A good number of the students suggested that
fellow graduate students should not overlook their mistakes during experiments but
note them in the lab notebook and seek for corrective measures by engaging
their Principal Investigators (PIs). In this wise, experimental failures should
be documented and corrected otherwise, one may not be able join a different lab
to develop further, which would affect a persistent research output. Others stressed
that no student should wish to be the cause of their low research output, so it
is better the fundamentals relevant to the study are learnt and applied rightly.
In instances where
post-doctorate fellows are micromanaging graduate students, some suggested it
is necessary graduate students constantly seek guidance from post-doctorate
fellows. Others laid emphasis on the fact that the integrity of their research
is hugely affected at the least experimental failure, so research guidance
should be constantly sought. Since adherence to optimized lab protocols is
paramount to generating excellent results, some international graduate students
suggested that it would be very appropriate for one to familiarize with the
culture of the lab designed by the PI and fit in as a team player. Further to
this, in events when a graduate student is under-performing because there is a weakness
or lacking skill set that should be complemented by rightly pairing with
another student to learn.
The 21 keys points have been stated below for quick
reference:
- Take notes of your
mistakes and try not to repeat
- It is not a good
feeling to fail in an experiment, so I learn from mistakes
- Discuss with the PI
on corrective measures
- Report to the PI
on how to get things right whenever something goes wrong
- No student wants
to be in such a situation, so it is better to get the fundamentals right
- It feels bad and one
has to learn to do better
- Seek help from the
post-docs who are micromanaging in the lab
- One would need to
sit up and ask for help. Maybe one needs help somewhere
- Schedule a meeting
with the PI and discuss it
- It affects the
integrity of the research, so one will have to request for guidance
- It will be nice
for one to follow the lab protocol
- Discuss with PI to
get the wrong attitudes fixed
- Maybe one needs
the right training, so one will have to ask for the right training
- It should be a
good decision to make things right so that one can complete the research
on time
- It is more
important to understand the lab protocol and practices
- One needs to work harder to improve lab
skills
- One has to take
notes of attitudes and discuss them with the PI
- Record what went
wrong always, seek for corrective measures with PI and keep it up next
time to get the right results
- There may be an
area of weakness one needs support in.
- Note down one’s
failures in the lab and correct them. Otherwise one may have to leave the lab,
and this would affect your research output
- Try to fit into
the culture of the lab designed by the PI
google.com, pub-9398771462498500, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0
Written by Isaac Carilo
Reviewed and Edited by Dr. Patrick Kobina Arthur
