After my program had a bit of a kerfluffle concerning a poor Grad Student-Advisor match, I got to thinking about my Advisor. Once the kerfluffle had kerfluffed, I really wanted to get out my opinions about choosing an Advisor and criteria to consider. So, feel free to skip this post (it’s long and riddled with parenthetical thoughts), if you’re unconcerned with such things.
I’m lucky enough to have a good Advisor (and I’m not just saying that because he controls my ability to graduate). He doesn’t critique my freezer door opening technique (by the way, I love that phrase and I think I’m going to use that as a euphemism for micromanaging from now on), is ok if I take time off in the middle of the week (assuming that I’ll make the time up later), introduces me to people at meetings (and helps me maintain the contacts), and is generally a good guy.
Then again, luck may not have been the biggest factor. I teched (and, yes, that’s a word– that I may or may not have made up) in a lab for about four years (through undergrad and masters) and the piece of advice I received over and over again, when people heard I was going to grad school, was: Pick a good Advisor. So, I did.
Ok, so maybe it wasn’t that simple. Basically, picking an Advisor is a lot like dating (but with much higher consequences… it’s pretty easy, in comparison, to break up with a boyfriend), but you have a shorter period to decide if s/he is a keeper. Keeping that in mind, I made a list of things that I wanted in an Advisor (see? a lot like dating… a good sense of humor was on that list, too). There are a bunch of things to consider when making such a list. For instance, you want to consider the amount of oversight you need (are you ok with never seeing your advisor or do you need them standing over you?), the management style they use (as in do you respond more favorably to the carrot or the stick? and which does your prospective advisor employ?), the size of the lab they keep (would you get lonely being the only grad student? would you get lost in the crowd?), etc. [ETA: Albatross mentioned another very important point: Where do their students end up? And how much help does the advisor give to get them there.]
The last thing I considered was The Science. Ok, this is a point of disagreement between me and other people I know. I didn’t talk to any prospective advisor whose science I found flat-out boring. However, I wasn’t going to discount a prospective lab just because their sciences wasn’t all sexy-like. The way I figure it, I’m in grad school to be trained to be a scientist, not to be locked into one small sub-field for the rest of my life (I’m talking about switching between fields in biochemistry). So, as far as The Science was concerned I looked for something interesting and that would teach me a variety of transferable skills. And if I’ve learned one thing through out my entire educational career, it’s that having an arsenal of transferable skills is always a trump card.
When it came time to talk to prospective advisors, I asked them questions about their science and about how they handled things in the lab (ex. How do you feel about student schedules? Do you prefer your students to work during normal hours or just all of them?). From their answers, I narrowed it down to two people that I thought would be good matches. Then, I spoke to their current (and in one case former) grad students. One had students that absolutely liked their advisor, but admitted that s/he had hir faults (as in not always remembering that Rome wasn’t built in a day, sometimes crabby, and other usual human things). The other one’s students were a bit more ambivalent and one told me that s/he was not always helpful and sometimes contributed to a not-so-great lab atmosphere. However, the latter had the cooler science.
I chose the former. A later student chose the latter. Guess which one is enjoying grad school more?
*At least how I chose my Advisor.
Excellent advice. I did something similar, though perhaps without all the choices.
We had a good discussion about this in my department’s JC (an off week), and it’s really surprising how many people only care about 1) the Science and 2) the sexiness of the lab.
Sounds a lot like how I chose my advisor. And I totally agree with the dating metaphor. I also put The Science fairly low on my list, and have been pleased with the result.
But ask me again when I’ve actually graduated. 🙂 I kinda feel like proclaiming the attributes of my advisor right now is like saying how cool your boyfriend is before you’re engaged. While still in school, I can only say that my advisor continues to show a lot of promise.
I totally agree. I made a compromise on location to be in the same city as my husband, but it means I get to work with an excellent advisor, and now I wouldn’t have it any other way. While yes, you shouldn’t choose someone with whom you have no overlapping interests, it is not so much about the work that they do as it is about finding someone who will be a great mentor and give good feedback, and general help you grow as your own scientist.
awesome advice, I did the same thing on the second advisor! Hope things are going good in the lab, missed you around these parts 🙂
Talking to current and former students is definitely key!
I followed a similar path for choosing an advisor (although the area of research was pretty important to me as well but not for the sexiness factor), and I think I have done fairly well on that front. However, I had no way of predicting advisor’s growing level of busyness, which has changed the lab tremendously from the time I made the decision to join.
SGG: It amazed me, too! Especially how many students did not listen to the current grad students. Seriously, if someone tells you that their advisor is a jerk, it does not matter how sexy the science– run away!
Nicky: That is true. I think it may be a bit more like a fiance(e), though. I mean, at this point in time we’re fairly committed, but still have a refundable deposit with the caterers. Still, Advisor has come through with his almost-dozen previous grad students, so he’s got a good track record on actually showing up at the… umm.. altar? Ok, my analogy is starting to breakdown.
Gigirose: Precisely. I think that’s what is a problem with a lot of students. They confuse no overlap with partial overlap. (That is they think if it isn’t totally their field of interest than it doesn’t even warrant consideration.)
Scientist Mother: Things are going pretty well (knock on wood). That keeps me in the lab and away from the computer, though. Although, now that I think about it, that pretty much happens if things are going good or bad 🙂
Cath: And believing what they say! So many students think that whatever happened to so-and-so would never happen to them. Sigh. The best predictor for future behavior is past behavior.
Science Girl: That is hard to predict. The kerfluffle in my program had nothing to do with that sort of variable. This was someone who wanted in a particularly sexy lab despite what everyone told him/her. It caused a mighty uproar. Sigh.
Great post! My decision was made by talking to former students as well. He was described as a mentor more than an advisor and I knew that was what I was looking for.
Also, his record of all students getting jobs (many types) when they left.
I actually rotated in a lab in which you could only keep the freezer or 4C open for 10 seconds max or you would be reprimanded and they watched you like a hawk. Sometimes the PI would be talking to you and watching someone near the freezer only to exclaim in the middle of the conversation, “Grad student X has had the freezer open too long.”. Well I am definitely not joining that lab! That wasn’t the only problem though, they were unreasonably anal about everything.
Good advice. I wish I’d had former students to ask, but given that I was the first one, nobody could have warned me about the troublesome parts. I’ll definitely watch out next time.
Great, timely advice! I wouldn’t have thought to ask an advisor directly about hir advising style (although I would have asked hir grad students), but it makes good sense to be upfront about it at the beginning.
P.S. I’m a new reader; instead of lurking, I’m introducing myself straight out. Hello!
Albatross: I forgot about that! Another thing I asked was about where their students ended up. (I’ll add that to the original post.)
Al Anine: Seriously? I thought that Becca was joking about that!
Amelie: It’s difficult being the guinea pig. A few of my friends are having problems with that. Others, though, are having a really good experience with their new Advisors. So, I think it’s hard to tell.
RoboFemme: Welcome! I’m glad that you found my blog. I asked all my potential advisors about what their feelings were on working hours and how often they were in the lab, etc. None of them took offense. So…
OMG. This is soo soo timely (though I admit I am reading something posted almost a month ago)!
I am in the process of looking for an Advisor, but I don’t have much of a choice because I have chosen to carry out a certain research (which means, I am not choosing an Advisor based on the projects he has on his hands, but am choosing one who is interested in what I am planning to do).
My current Advisor micro-manages her students, and expects them (us) to be working and on-call 24/7. Its very demanding, but I’m OK with it right now because I am working for her.
But when I start my PhD, I would want to concentrate on my research and my methods, and I am sure then that I would NOT be OK helping her with her admin work in her office 24/7.