Advice

September 28, 2007

I’m giving a talk next week to the women grad students in my old department about life after grad school.

What do you wish you knew when you were a grad student?

Any interesting comments will go into my talk– speak up!

7 Comments »

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  1. I wish I’d known how to TALK to faculty and other professors/scientists better as a grad student — I lacked confidence and was too quiet. Eventually I got my advisor’s attention by publishing. This gave me confidence and it all worked out somehow, but I could have done without those anxious years of watching the loud(er) guys be thought of as smarter and more successful. I could never have turned myself into a louder, more aggressive person, but perhaps I could have found a way to be more assertive and confident in my own way.

    Comment by FemaleScienceProfessor — September 29, 2007 @ 4:52 am

  2. Definitely. That’s a good one.

    Comment by drshellie — September 29, 2007 @ 10:12 pm

  3. That your advisor is not looking out for your interests - only you can do that. You are not told what to do and when to do it as a grad student, you have to find opportunities and exploit them yourself. Example - professional development stuff, it isn’t labwork but many unis offer courses on writing, communication, interview skills, team work, industry networking and similar. It is up to you to find them and make time for them.

    The other big thing for me is explore all the options for life after grad school. You don’t have to postdoc just because it seems to be next. Explore all possible careers before you finish grad school, because after, it is too late - financial pressures will make you take the first thing you find.

    FemaleScienceProfessor’s point is very good as well, something I wish I’d been/I was better at.

    Comment by Propter Doc — September 30, 2007 @ 6:41 pm

  4. I would stress the importance of forming and fostering a network. Particularly of other women! Also, making sure your network contains people at all levels—peers, senior profs, junior profs, industry people, etc.

    Comment by Jane — October 1, 2007 @ 2:07 am

  5. I wish I had thought more about opportunity costs. I also wish that I knew that no matter what anyone says, face time is important and I should have made up excuses just to go and talk to my advisor. I also wish I knew how important is was to get in that first publication early, if just for some confidence boosting. Oh, and skills and people are the most important assets.

    Comment by PA — October 6, 2007 @ 2:40 pm

  6. I wish I had known more about all of the different types of jobs out there in order to make a better choice based on my own personality.

    Comment by Giddings — October 8, 2007 @ 3:17 am

  7. There is an interesting discussion going on at both Veo Claramente’s blog and Mad Hatter’s blog (http://amadtea-party.blogspot.com/2007/10/one-less-traveled-by.html) about alternative careers to the tenure track. I think this is something I definately would have wanted to know more about as a grad student - what are my options out there?

    Comment by Wayfarer scientista — October 12, 2007 @ 5:44 pm

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