Being a mentor
Since getting a faculty position, I have been in a position to help out a number of people with career advice. I’ve given a few talks on "how to get a faculty job" and helped several colleagues with their job applications. I am very glad to be able to do this kind of work and am glad to finally start to be a role model for younger women in science.
But it is not entirely easy for me. This last weekend, I attended a conference for undergraduate women who were considering going to graduate school. I enjoyed meeting them and hearing about their interests and plans. But when I meet younger women, I hear in their questions many of the same issues and concerns I had at their age. And though I am in an ideal position to share my experience (and maybe in so doing make theirs a little easier), it brings up some emotions I might rather forget– like feeling unsure, and unconfident, and not knowing if I was good enough or smart enough to do what I (tentatively) wanted to do. I think this will get easier the more I do this type of work– a reminder that it is not just benefitting the people I am helping, but also me.
When I was considering grad school, it was the honest “I was not sure I could do it also” responses that made the biggest difference. The excited responses, on the other hand, were somewhat of a downer (if I really should do this, shouldn’t I be more excited?)
Now that students younger than me ask me questions, I don’t always know what to say. Paining a cheery picture doesn’t seem appropriate as grad school is by far the hardest thing I have ever done. I want to be honest without discouraging them, but how exactly do you do that?
Comment by sciencegirl — January 26, 2008 @ 6:17 pm
I think the best thing to do is to be truthful, but not exaggerate. So instead of saying “it’s impossible to take data because the machines never work,” “advisors keep you here like slave labor,” or “my advisor is a complete idiot and doesn’t have any idea what I should do,” go for more accurate statements about your own experience, like “for the last 6 months I have been really frustrated, because I haven’t been able to take any data,” or “One hard thing about grad school is that you don’t know how long it will take; I’m a fifth year and it isn’t clear when my project will finish,” or “I am reading about a topic right now and trying to define a clear project– I’m hoping I can get my advisor to take a more active role but so far s/he is leaving it mostly up to me, which I think is very difficult.”
Comment by drshellie — January 27, 2008 @ 6:11 pm