Hello PhD

Choosing a lab for your graduate or postdoc research is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. Most people read papers and abstracts to find the coolest science.  Or they favor the big labs with lots of people and solid funding.

But those features can distract you from the real secret of scientific success.

Your Mentor Matters

Dr. Natasha Snider, PhD

This week on the show, we kick off a new series where we interview the people with truly alternative careers – the tenure track faculty!  Josh sits down with Natasha Snider, Assistant Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

As a recent faculty hire (just over 1 year), Dr. Snider remembers all the details of graduate school and postdoc life that contributed to her success, and shares them on the show.

First and foremost, she recalls the importance of good mentors in her scientific training.  Rather than choosing high-profile labs or being drawn into the latest research craze, she assessed the character of the PI and the culture of the lab.

“[I did one interview with] one of the brilliant scientists where you know you’re going to get these hot papers, but one of the first things he said was that he doesn’t yell at his people as much as he used to… After that, I sat through the interview but I knew that wasn’t [the lab for me]”

Aside from obvious anger issues, Dr. Snider shares the warning signs of monster mentors (those are anagrams!), and what type of lab environment you should seek instead.

Good mentors were a foundation for her training, but she also took every opportunity to explore other careers and to build a solid network.  She talks about the importance of meeting as many scientists as possible, and tells the story of how she decided to take a faculty position instead of an industry job.

A foraging we will go

And to celebrate the first cold-snap of the season, we enjoy the Fullsteam Brewery – First Frost 2015 Foraged Persimmon Ale.  If you haven’t gotten around to foraging your own persimmons this season, then you’re probably too late, and this high-gravity brew is your best bet for sampling the “Fruit of the Gods.”

The letters of recommendation have been submitted, and review committees have assembled. But while this graduate school application season may seem familiar, the next steps will be wildly different from past years.

How will Universities conduct graduate school interviews during a pandemic?

And what can applicants do to prepare for these unprecedented times?

Virtual Interview

Interviews are always nerve-wracking. And for graduate school they’re especially complex.

You typically take a 3-day weekend, fly to a new city, sit through orientations, seminars, faculty interviews, campus tours, dinner meetings, and social events.

Then a week later, you do it all again with a different University in a different city!

But this year, as COVID-19 infections spike in fall and winter months, those anxiety-inducing interviews will get, well, weirder.

This week, we talk with Dr. Beth Bowman, Assistant Director of Graduate Programs in Biomedical Sciences at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

You may remember Dr. Bowman from our conversations about how to craft an application and how to ace your interview. Well, she’s back with more information on what to expect this year when you’re invited for a virtual interview.

Most of the previous advice still applies:

* You need to understand your science, and be able to talk about it.* You should take a quick look at the research websites or paper abstracts from your interviewers so you’re at least familiar with the field they’ll speak about.* You should ask lots of questions to get a feel for the University, the city, the research, and student life.

What’s different will be wildly different. You won’t get a campus tour. You won’t have much opportunity for side conversations with current students or other applicants to trade gossip or interview experiences.

And you’ll be spending a lot of time on Zoom.

So… much… time…

And that’s where Dr. Bowman advises you to prepare with some very practical tips

Make Time

There’s no sugar-coating this: you’re going to be on video conference calls for hours at a time, and you need to be ready for it.

Some programs are looking for ways to break up the monotony by scheduling interviews over two afternoons. But whatever happens, you’ll need to combat Zoom Fatigue.

First, do what you can to clear your schedule. Because you’re not actually traveling, you’ll be tempted to sneak in a little work in the lab.

Fight that urge, and let your lab-mates know it’s an interview weekend and you’ll be unavailable.

If you have other video-conferences, try to cancel them or sit them out. Missing a few journal clubs or research seminars is not the end of the world, and it might save your sanity.

Make Space

Remember that thing about not being in the lab? That applies here too!

Some students don’t have great internet,

How many times have you said “I wish I had known!” or “Why didn’t they teach us this in school?”

If you’re a graduate student, you’ve probably said it a lot.

For some reason, from the moment you write your first application to the moment you get your hood and mortarboard, you’ll be re-learning what thousands of students have learned before you.

You’ll be treading a well-worn path, but for some reason, you won’t get a map.

Why don’t successful graduates take the time to help their successors along? Well, partly because they immediately get busy on the next stage of their career.

And partly because they may feel they’ve barely escaped the gauntlet of graduate school intact. “What advice could I give?” they muse. “I almost didn’t make it myself!”

Tales from the Beyond

Luckily, a few successful graduates DO speak to us from the other side. Sure, they may not have had a storybook experience, but their scars were won honestly and they have advice for their peers-in-training.

This week, we learn from Evelyne Deplazes, PhD, Chancellor’s Research Fellow and Adjunct Research Fellow at University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Curtin University (Perth).

Dr. Deplazes’ article “How to PhD: 10 Tips from Hindsight” shares her insights from earning a PhD in Computational Biophysics from the University of Western Australia.

And while PhD programs in Australia have certain benefits, Dr. Deplazes’ experience will be valuable for any graduate student, particularly in the biomedical sciences.

Her ten tips each contain useful links, worksheets, and articles that help expand the topics. A few notable examples:

* A worksheet to help you set expectations with your research mentor* An article about why work-life balance may have an impact on researcher’s mental health* A toolkit to plan out your thesis, and monitor your progress* A list of transferrable skills you’ll learn as a PhD* and much more!

Dr. Deplazes paints the outlines of a map that other graduates students can use on their own journeys!

Just remember, you’re not traveling alone. Leave a comment below or send us an email to join the conversation.

Sarah had achieved her dream. With a PhD in Physics, she had accepted a new position as a Theoretical Physicist.

But as the months wore on, she started to feel overwhelmed and depressed. She’d done well in school and enjoyed her classes – why couldn’t she focus on her work?

Sean graduated with honors from his engineering program. But after six months on the job as a field representative for a machine company, he was fired.

He had been an excellent student, and excelled in class with top grades and praise from his professors. In the field, he had none of that feedback, and his motivation plummeted. He blamed himself for the failure, but he couldn’t understand how all his success had collapsed so quickly.

Passion and Purpose

Sarah and Sean are just two examples of what happens every day in academia. Bright, well trained students graduate to find all of that training led to a career that didn’t live up to their expectations.

Or even more commonly, they may like aspects of the job, but other factors weigh them down. The research is interesting, but they clash with the PI, or lose motivation when the experiments don’t work.

This week, we talk with psychologist and career expert Marlys Hanson. Her book PASSION AND PURPOSE: How to identify and leverage the powerful patterns that shape your work/life describes an evidence-based approach for discovering your unique “Motivated Abilities.”

With that data in hand, you’ll have the confidence to choose your next opportunity and maximize your happiness and productivity.

System for Identifying Motivated Abilities (SIMA)

You may have taken a Meyers-Briggs test, or some other psychometric analysis aimed at describing your personality traits or interests that could improve your career.

But, Ms. Hanson points out, those are preference-based tests, and our biases can creep into our choices and we actually select answers that don’t describe us well.

“Our preferences are not clean evidence,” she says. “They’re so impacted by our biases. Their reliability and validity are not very high, and they’re not very effective in making informed career decisions.”

The System for Identifying Motivated Abilities, on the other hand, is an “Evidence Based Assessment.” The process starts when you list achievements from your childhood onward.

You choose eight such examples – things that you enjoyed doing and thought you did well – and describe each event in as much detail as possible.

How did you get involved? What did you actually do step-by-step? What were you proud of after you accomplished this task?

Then, you or your SIMA analyst can go through those stories looking for patterns – evidence of your past successes and how you achieved your goals.

Building a Profile

Those bits of evidence get sorted into five categories that make up your Motivational Profile.

* Motivated Abilities – which of your skills do you frequently use when you’re happily working?* Subject Matter – What topics inspire you? Do you work with numbers or animals or abstract concepts?* Circumstances – How do you get involved in a project? Do you like to be asked or come up with the idea yourself? Do you prefer a deadline or an open ended engagement?

This week, we dig into the mailbag to answer your questions!

What’s in a Name?

We start with an email from Tegner about what happens when your department changes its name before you even begin your trainining:

I have recently been admitted and have accepted admission to a PhD program in “Immunology and Infectious Disease.” The only issue is that upon talking with the department about classes for my first semester it seems that they have just recently merged my program with the Microbiology PhD program and [the program I applied to] doesn’t really exist anymore. I was wondering: is this common? Have other people been admitted to programs that don’t exist anymore?

We certainly HAVE seen this before, and usually it’s not a big deal. Departments and programs change names all the time, and it shouldn’t have much of an impact on your experience, nor on your long-term prospects.

Most postdocs positions and hiring committees care about your research papers and recommendations, not so much about the words at the bottom of your diploma.

Avoiding Comparisons

Next up, Jessica asks:

I joined a lab at the same time as another first-year student in my program. I would really appreciate advice on “How to not let your thoughts run rampant with comparison in your lab”. I feel like he has more experience than me in a lot of research areas related to the lab. I know no one wins in the comparison game so any insights you have about how avoid it would be great!

Well, Jessica, you’re not the only one to experience this – we did too! And I’d wager most people do at some point in their careers.

It’s a symptom of “Impostor Syndrome,” which we like to talk about a lot because talking about it is one of the few ways to make it better.

To the specific question on how to avoid this comparative self talk, we turned to an article by Susan Biali Haas M.D. titled “How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others”.

Dr. Haas’s article focuses on the comparisons we make when perusing social media and how that can affect our mood. But the advice is useful in this context as well.

For example, Dr. Haas recommends becoming aware of the events and triggers that lead you down the comparison rabbit hole. The more you can be aware of those traps, the more you can avoid them.

Josh recommends looking back on your own growth in order to appreciate just how far you’ve advanced compared to where you began. That self-comparison can help you acknowledge your own evolution over time.

Clinical Experience for Bench Scientists

And last, but not least, Francesc is noticing an internal drive to work with patients, not just samples at a lab bench.

I am a 3rd year PhD student working in a project about cancer but I feel that research is not my vocation. Intsead, I think that my real passion would be to work directly with patients. What options do I have?? I have done quite a lot of research but I find it really difficult to come across anything directly related with patients having a PhD.

When Dr. Kenneth Gibbs talks about diversity and inclusion in the sciences, it’s not just a cause célèbre. It’s personal.

“For those of you who don’t know me, I am a Black man. A descendent from enslaved Africans here in America, so my family has been here for hundreds of years. That’s part of my story.”

And while his grandfathers had 4th and 8th grade educations, his parents were able to go college in the 1970s because of public investment in programs like Upward Bound. He and his sisters were able to go to graduate school.

“I had a PhD from Stanford by the time I was 27,” Dr. Gibbs recalls. “You can see that arc, but you can also see that when I got that PhD, I was the only black man in my building for that five years that wasn’t a mailman, janitor, or technician.”

He finishes, “There’s nothing wrong with any of those jobs, but I said, ‘There’s something kind of “off” here.'”

Now, he’s working to fix the system, and to make science look more like society.

Diversity is Not Enough

Dr. Kenneth Gibbs

This week, we talk with Dr. Kenneth Gibbs, Director of the Postdoctoral Research Associate Training Program at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

His recent article, Promoting diversity and advancing racial equity in the biomedical sciences, talks about the importance and impact of making academia a welcoming space for people from historically underrepresented minority groups.

In our interview, Dr. Gibbs tells the story of how a few of his friends responded to their graduate school training:

“Three of my friends who are all black women went to elite East Coast institutions and published first-author papers in single-word journals. Two of them had such terrible experiences in grad school they said ‘I’ll never do science again.‘ One said ‘I’ll do science, but I’ll never do academia.‘”

“And I thought, ‘Well thats a damn shame!‘

“It’s a shame for them, because they have been brutalized and they have experienced this bias they should not experience. And it’s a shame for us, because they are publishing at the top of their fields and if we can not create a space for them to contribute and be excellent and be who they are, then we are all losing.”

Dr. Gibbs debunks some misconceptions about diversity, and argues that we need to go beyond just admitting students from historically underrepresented minority backgrounds – we need to make laboratories and classrooms a place where “everyone can show up and contribute as their full selves.“

We hope you will join the conversation – leave a comment below with your experience or ideas, or send us an email or Tweet.

Back to Basics

Our ethanol this week is the Amber Ale from Bell’s Brewing in Comstock,...

What makes two PhDs who escaped from grad school years ago want to revisit all the highs and lows of their training?  Short answer: Beer!

But the long answer: Grad school is no cakewalk – classes are challenging, experiments fail, and sometimes, PIs seem like they’re from another planet. We made it through one day at a time, relying on regular conversations and scheming over a beer at the end of a long week.

Hello PhD is your chance to join those conversations and benefit from the experience of other scientists who have made their living in, and out of, the lab.  We want to help you take advantage of all of the great benefits of your science training experience, and avoid some of the mistakes and pitfalls.

In this episode, we revisit the early days of Hello PhD, and look back on why we started the show in the first place.

Some things haven’t changed – admissions are still mysterious, PIs are still a pain, and experiments still fail.

But some things HAVE changed for the better, and we want to celebrate the demise of the GRE and the uptick in ‘alternative career’ training.

After 5 years ‘on the air’, it felt important to look back at the ground we’ve covered, and ‘renew our vows’ to make graduate training more effective and less likely to ruin your life.

There’s still so much to do, but we’re honored to walk that road with you, our audience. Here’s to the next 5 years of Hello PhD!

We raise a glass of Surf Melon by Oxbow Brewing Co to celebrate 5 years. It’s a Farmhouse Ale with watermelon, sea salt, and lime coming all the way from Newcastle Maine.

You keep sending questions, we keep answering them!

Take My Advice

In our last mailbag episode, we noted that ‘comprehensive exams’ or ‘prelims’ varied not only by University but even department to department in one school.

We asked you for your experience, and wanted to share just one of those repsonses:

My department (Computer Science and Engineering) doesn’t even really have an “exam”. Instead, if you pass certain required classes with a 3.0 or higher then you have passed the comprehensive exam. I’m not sure what passing a few classes is supposed to evaluate. Thank you both for doing what you’re doing.-Josh

So there you have it, there’s even a comprehensive exam that is NOT a comprehensive exam. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Next up, a listener took our advice to spend some time getting experience before going back to school. And that led him down a different, but no-less-satisfying path.

…I started a job at a large engineering company right after graduating and got to spend the first 6 months of employment studying and learning technical subjects I wasn’t able to study during undergrad. Now I am doing work that I really enjoy and continue to learn every day. This summer I began the first class of my Master’s degree in Robotics Engineering! I will be taking one class a semester online (funded by my company) while continuing to work full time.I know it is not the traditional academic path, and it’s not even a PhD. But I am excited to be continuing my formal education, and I am grateful for the guidance and perspective you two provided to help my decision making. Keep up the great work!– Adam

This vs. That

Next up, Christy wonders what’s the big difference between a biology department and a biomedical department. They’re both just basic research, right?

I was wondering if you have done any episodes that talk about the differences between biological and biomedical science PhD programs. I have come across numerous schools that have both. I know that the former tends to be more focused on basic science whereas the latter might be more translational, but I would be really interested in hearing more similarities and differences. If you have already done an episode on this, could you let me know where to find it? And if not, maybe you could consider doing one in the future. -Christy

We highlight the different focuses, like ecology, plant biology, environmental science, human diseases, and where to find each. We also point out that the funding systems are different and it’s worth understanding where that money is coming from before you sign up.

Last, we hear from an applicant who spent 3 years in one lab. Now he’s applying to graduate school and worries that he’ll only have one letter of recommendation:

Dear Josh and Dan,I am currently working on my Fall 2021 PhD applications. One concern I have is that I have worked in a single lab as an undergraduate. I joined relatively early on in my undergraduate career (late in my first semester), so I have been working in it for nearly 3 years now. However, this means that I only really have one letter of recommendation from a PI that I have done research with. Do you think this will hold me back when it comes to PhD admissions?Thank you both very much in advance and for putting out so many he...

In March 2020, the world shut down.

International borders were sealed. Businesses shuttered. Schools locked their doors and students were sent home to learn ‘remotely.’

At the same time, many universities and research labs also closed down for the summer of COVID-19. While a few labs remained open as essential research continued, many scientists froze down samples, trashed cell lines, and went home to spend some quality time with PubMed.

But now as summer wanes, the research labs are thawing out.

This week on the show, we called three researchers at different universities and in different career stages to find out what it’s like to go back to lab amid a pandemic.

We learn how they spent the quarantine, and whether they’re ready to return to the bench.

We also find out what policies are in place for a safe return, and what extra precautions they’re taking to avoid contracting or spreading this still-dangerous disease.

We talk about many serious challenges:

* How do you learn a new technique when no one can sit near you?* What can first-year students learn in a rotation when the PI is never there?* Is it possible to socially-distance in the tissue culture room, or is everyone safe if they just wear a mask?* How do core-facilities process samples if the researcher is not there to guide the process?

But we also find some silver linings:

* Every student can attend virtual research meetings.* Every scientist, no matter where in the world, can give a departmental seminar* Taking time away from the lab can inspire more creative thinking and detailed planning.

No one wants this pandemic to last a minute longer than necessary, but the scientists we interviewed show they are resilient, resourceful, and dedicated to their research – just as you would expect.

The mailbag is overflowing, and it’s time to answer YOUR questions.

First up is Leslie, whose summer internship was cancelled by COVID. Now it’s not clear whether a fall application to grad school will be successful.

Dear Josh and Dan,I am an undergrad at a small liberal arts college looking to apply to biomedical PhD programs this year. At my school, there are very few opportunities to do research outside of course-related labs. I’ve listened to a lot of your podcasts about applying to grad school, and I’ve learned that research experience is one of the most important parts of a PhD program application. I was able to intern at a lab in a large research institution last summer, and I was admitted to an REU program on the West coast this summer. Like many programs, the REU was cancelled due to the pandemic. I was really excited for this opportunity, and I am worried that this will hurt my chances of being accepted. Will admissions committees take into account the fact that most summer internship experiences were cancelled this year? Should I mention on my application that I was admitted to the REU program?

We talk about all the tectonic shifts that COVID has caused in the academic world. And while some changes (like class grades moving to pass/fail) are no big deal, the quality of your research experience remains paramount.

We share some ideas for getting that experience over the coming months, and how to hedge your bets.

Next up, Ethan is hoping to enter a new research field that is far outside his prior experience.

Hello!This summer, I graduated with an undergrad degree in Mathematics and I’m about to start a PhD in Mechanistic Biology (focussing on plant genetics). Luckily, I have found a supportive supervisor with a background in computer science. I’m very hopeful she will be able to help me navigate the transition from a purely theoretical perspective to a mix of wet-lab science and bioinformatics. I’m aware of how important the supervisor-student relationship is and I’m glad I’ve developed this positive relationship.However, I am struggling to find examples of students who have moved straight into a new topic after undergrad. The main difficulty I envisage is the culture shock I’ll face while working in the biology department, and the different expectations and values relating to research. Do you have any advice about surviving (and hopefully thriving by using my niche set of skills!) in this new environment?

Of course we have advice! 😀

We’re pretty certain Ethan’s background in math and programming are going to be in demand in his new program. As the biological sciences increasingly embrace large data sets, having some tech-chops will put him ahead of his peers.

At the same time, we think it’s important for Ethan to do the hard work of catching up on what he’s missed in the biological sciences. Learning the new field deeply will unlock insights that a single-subject scientist will never see.

He also needs to be ready to deal with the impostor syndrome that affects every student. It just may be more pronounced as he gets his feet wet in a new academic ocean.

Last, but not least, Rhiannon is wrestling with not only a pandemic, but also with comprehensive exams!

Hey Josh and Daniel,I’ve been listening to your podcast for the better part of my PhD and I absolutely love it! It’s my favourite thing to listen to during the long days of cell culture. 😀With the current COVID-19 situation, I’ve decided to use the time away from the bench to...