How To Pick an Advisor*

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.

Posted in Grad School, Unsolicited Advice | 13 Comments

It’s Grrrrreat!

This is, indeed, the Year of Getting Stuff Done or at least The Two Weeks of Getting Stuff Done. I’ve been super-productive the past couple of weeks, without going over my 60 hour time limit. My Procrastinators Anonymous membership card may be revoked (if only the membership could get around to it). The boost in productivity can be contributed to things (finally!) making good progress. Scientific success is sort of like crack. Just a taste and I’m hooked.

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

RBO Craziness

Things have been a bit crazy around here. Hence no posting. I took a few days off last week to go on an unbloggable adventure. Let’s just suffice to say that it’s great when you win. Then, earlier this week I had a talk with Advisor about graduating. He foresees it happening in the future and that’s good news. Prior to this I was beginning to doubt that. The only semi-bad part is that he does not foresee that happening for another 1.5-2 years. Then again, I sort of figured that would be the case. That talk served as a wonderful motivator. As now I have a list of experiments that need to be done for my thesis. A list of all the experiments (as long as everything goes according to plan– ha! as if I would be so lucky) that all seem do-able. I may leave here after all!

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Detecting a pattern

I like New Year Resolutions (NYRs). I like the promise that they bring for leading A Better Life. This enjoyment is not diminished, not one iota, by the fact that I’m horrible about following through with NYRs. Over the past few days (while being sick) I’ve had the opportunity to look over last year’s resolutions and I realized that I didn’t do so well on them. In fact, I followed them for about two months and that was that. I don’t have a solution for the lack of follow-through. So, I’m going to experiment with a different tack for the next three months: A Theme.

I think that Profgrrrrl does a theme each year and she seems to have much success with it. Maybe a theme will give me more focus? Anyhow, when trying to choose a theme I stayed away from focusing on school stuff. Like EcoGeoFemme, this will be the year of Getting Stuff Done in that sphere no matter what. [As an aside, I’m setting a goal for asking for permission to write at my fall committee meeting. That may not happen– it’s very likely that it won’t– but I figure it’s worth a try. That could be a great theme: Permission to Write. However, it’s no secret that until recently I was going through a phase of nothing working and having to face that sometimes I just don’t have any control over the timeline of my experiments. I’d prefer my theme to be something that I have lots of control over– timeliness and otherwise.] Instead my theme is going to be: Being Healthy.

In my Scientiae post I talked about a door opening to being healthy. I think that I’m going to walk through that door. So, for the next three months I have some specific goals:

  • Establish an exercise routine. (Possibly start running again)
  • Eat more meals that involve vegetables (and not only as pizza toppings)
  • Stick to my healthy work habits (like conform to my 60 hour work week)
  • Try to blog once a week (hey, it’s a stress relief)
  • Work on baby quilt (my friend’s baby is due this summer)
  • Read 17 books on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list (it’s amazing how much my high school required reading didn’t cover) ETA: List is Here
  • Enjoy the time I take off without feeling guilty
  • For everything I do, ask myself if this behavior is helping me to “be healthy”

Maybe this will work?

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Happy New Year!

I wish that everyone’s 2009 is better than their 2008! And that everyone had a safe New Year’s Eve!

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

When one door closes..

Recently, I heard that phrase used by a former vice-presidential candidate. However, I’ll try not to hold that against this post.

I haven’t done a lot of door shutting or opening this year as far as my science is concerned. I’ve done a bit more with regards to my personal life, though.

The biggest things that happened this year are that Dr. Man came home and that my dissertation research is in full swing. Those are both wonderful things, but they’re difficult to have together. Prior to him moving home, I could go home from the lab, eat, play with the Dixie Dog, and then come back to the lab to work some more. Also, if I spent hours in the lab on the weekends, eh, it wouldn’t matter. Those weren’t the healthiest of habits, but it allowed me to take three day weekends every other week to travel to ResidencyTown.

Now, he’s home and it’s a bit of an adjustment. My advisor is pretty flexible about face time and he allows us to set our own schedules. So it’s up to me to decide to come in and what work to get done. That means that if a protocol is time sensitive and requires work on a Saturday, it’s up to me to make myself come in to the lab. That’s hard for Dr. Man to understand. There’s rarely a time where he gets a choice about what hours to work (the clinic has normal operating hours). And when he works weekends it’s because he’s on-call, not because he knows that a few hours on a Sunday will save an entire days worth of work.

That’s not to say that Dr. Man is an over-bearing tyrant or anything. It’s closer to a puzzled look when I tell him that I’m willingly going into work on Sunday (ramping up to incredulous when I wake up in the middle of the night to go check on– or start– some experiment). And I feel guilty when I choose to take time away from my personal life to spend time on my work life.

To finish the above metaphor: The door has closed on the obsessive (and unhealthy?) work habits, but a door has opened to the possibility of being happy in grad school.

Posted in scientiae-carnival | 5 Comments

Ah, the Holidays

The alarm goes off and I stumble to the bathroom. Upon exiting the bathroom, my mother corners me. “You’re awake!” she said delightedly. “Why are you up so early?”

“I had to take my anti-baby pill.” I told her, groggily, and made a beeline to the kitchen to start making coffee. Once she starts talking to me it’s a lost cause. Going back to bed is not an option.

“Anti-baby pill?” she frowned and followed me to the kitchen.

“Uh huh. Coffee? Where is it?” At this point I think I was about 30 seconds away from begging, on my knees.

“Oh,” she said and handed me the blessed tin, “No grandchildren?”

“Not this month at least.”

And with that, everyone, I wish you a very Happy Holiday Season and few awkward conversations with your family!

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

I’m holding my brain hostage

This is how I always feel around Christmas. Unfortunately, no one uses twitter.

I’m not a big Christmas person. I might even venture to say that it’s one of my least favorite holidays. There’s an inordinate amount of pressure surrounding the day. This includes, but is not limited to: presents to buy (which is not a small task with our combine families), cards to send* (and I’m not done with them yet), and lots of travel (which is a pain). I don’t mind the actual day, though, so there’s something.

Unfortunately, this year I’m not getting much of a break. Between Dr. Man’s call schedule and my desire to get data (finally something is working!), I’m only taking a few days off around Christmas and then it’s back to the grind. That is if I can keep my brain in check. My brain seems to like wandering around and finding other things to do (Oh! Sparkly Vampires!) that are nowhere near intellectually stimulating. Today I’m working on a strict system of rewards and punishments. If my brain cooperates, I get to blog. If it insists on wandering around, unsupervised, it doesn’t get homemade chocolate chip cookies. As you can see, it’s working.

*If you’d like a holiday card (as in a Christmas card that will reach you after Christmas), send me an email (see the side bar) with your address and I’ll send you one!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

5 Things

I’m horrible about getting around to doing meme. Science Woman tagged me about a month ago to do the 5 things meme. And I just got around to it…

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. Worrying about applying to college
2. Trying to impress a boy who was completely wrong for me.
3. Frustrating my parents.
4. Taking physics and biology (and enjoying the courses).
5. Daydreaming about leaving HomeTown.

5 things on my to-do list today:

1. Test activity of my protein at an intermediate purification step.
2. Precipitate my protein (only to resuspend it).
3. Spend time with Dr. Man (it’s a sort-of date night).
4. Send a letter to a close friend.
5. Make a whole bunch of buffers.

5 snacks I love:

1. Cashews
2. Brownies
3. Popcorn
4. Ice cream
5. Cookies

5 things I’d do if I were a millionaire (and I’m assuming a many times over millionaire):

1. Set aside money for retirement.
2. Do something philanthropic (I’m not sure if I’d set up my own fund or if I’d donate to one previously established).
3. Pay off my mortgage, my parents mortgage, and In-Laws mortgage.
4. Set aside money for theoretical children’s needs.
5. Travel.

5 places I’ve lived:

1. Parent’s house.
2. Rundown Co-op
3. Our soon-to-be ex-president’s state
4. Super-nice apartment (with my own bathroom)
5. In the house that Dr. Man and I bought.

5 jobs I’ve had:

1. Bag Girl at now defunct Grocery Store Chain.
2. Cashier at Kmart
3. Camp counselor
4. Telephone survey person (not marketer)
5. Lab tech

Posted in Meme | 5 Comments

Weekend

I’ve had a good weekend so far. LawyerFriend is in town and I’ve taken the opportunity to give myself a mental break from labwork (and the surrounding anxieties). Yesterday morning I was able to spend the morning curled up on the couch (and, yes, it is an ugly couch– but it was free), snuggling with the Dixie Dog, and drinking coffee. This morning I’m aiming to repeat that and do a little Christmas shopping (with 7 siblings-in-law, 4 parents, 6 grandparents, 1 brother, 2 aunts/uncles, and 1 cousin to shop for it’s not a small task).
While I’m sitting here drinking my french-press coffee (a treat for me because of the time involved), Dr. Man is putting ornaments on the Christmas tree. LawyerFriend is trying to convince me to look into the PMF program (and move to HerLocation) in the next year before I graduate. I’ll probably head into the lab later and think about starting some cells or maybe doing some of the more time consuming spins, but maybe the key to overcoming the December Slump is taking more time to make myself happy.

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments