Thread by @LabListon

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics I'm a first gen high-school graduate, now first gen PhD and professor :)

Don't be too scared off by the comments you have here. Most only really apply to the US. I'm assuming that you are doing a biomed PhD in the UK based on your profile, so a few tips... 1/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics First, getting into a PhD program is tough. You've made it, congratulations! By definition you have the intellectual ability to finish. Never doubt that.

That said, you will doubt it. Especially at the 3-6 month period and at ~2 years in. That is normal.

2/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics Second, it is your PhD, but the lab's project. You should aim to become the intellectual leader of the project after around a year, but always lead with humility. Others around you will always know more than you on specific techniques or domain knowledge. 3/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics Ask for advise, and listen to that advise. Take particular note when it comes from experience. Don't be that student who ignores technicians. When a tech is telling you something, listen. If your supervisor tells you something, listen. Feel free to disagree, but first listen. 4/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics Being a PI is a tough job, very time-demanding. So use their time wisely. Prep before a meeting, take notes during, follow-up. If you can answer a question via a quick google search or conversation with another lab member, do that instead of knocking on their door. 5/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics The lab environment can be a pressure-cooker of stress. Experiments don't work, trouble-shooting is horrible, publication can be nightmarish.

At its best, the shared adversity will create unbreakable bonds between lab members. 6/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics To make this happen, be considerate, be kind, forgive. Be the team member who helps out. Smile when someone frowns - they may have just had the most horrid day. Soon enough you have a day where you snap or frown - treat them the way you would like to be treated on your worst 7/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics At the start, get into the lab and learn how it works. Where the tip-boxes go, who refills them and makes up new solutions, how plastics get ordered. Ask the lab manager or senior tech what you can do to help out. There are no magic fairies - every task is done by the team 8/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics If you leave the centrifuge messy, use the last reagent without ordering more, you will annoy people. If you clog up their personal pipettes and don't tell anyone, you will really annoy people. Be a good lab citizen 9/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics The first six months is basically you learning how to be in the lab, reading the basic literature and just learning how to do the techniques. You won't actually make any advances - this is all on-the-job training 10/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics DON'T HIDE MISTAKES. You are going to make mistakes. You are going to make mistakes that will cost your monthly rent's worth in grant money. You make make mistakes that cost your annual salary's worth. Own them. Admit to them. Don't make them again. DON'T BLAME OTHERS. 11/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics Six months in, and you are ready to go solo. Things that worked when you were shown how stop working. You will feel like a failure. It is tough, you will doubt yourself. You will look at senior students and think you will never be that good. You will, it just takes time 12/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics Here you've actually got an advantage as a first gen. You don't expect things to come easy to you, so you will grit your teeth, try again, fail again and try again. It starts working, you get results! 13/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics Now you need to switch techniques, and you go through the same process. Much of the next year is this in repeat. You are now a real scientist, but you won't feel like you have made any actual progress on your PhD. Your lab mates try to pick you up, but you doubt. Normal 14/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics These are the "PhD blues". You might think about other careers, do a few training courses, lose motivation to go to work. This period can drag on, but once you get back into the lab and push, things will crack. 15/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics You are now the senior PhD student that juniors look at. They see you as calm and capable. You see yourself as a bit of a fraud: you know you can handle the day-to-day of the lab, but you doubt you can handle the intellectual side still. 16/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics Data machine. In about six months you pump out 90% of the data of your PhD. Your supervisor now becomes your key asset, probably for the first time, as you start to write up. 17/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics Don't spend much time on your first draft, it will be rubbish anyway. Everyone's is. Just write it up and get feedback. When you get revisions, don't just accept the changes. Try to understand them, and incorporate them yourself in the next draft. 18/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics Read papers while writing. Compare your paper to published papers, sentence by sentence to see if your work looks like the real thing. Remember you are the paper lead, but it is a consensus document. Be generous on coauthorship, and remember who helped you early on. 19/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics You will get rejected multiple times, it will feel rubbish. Flip that paper to the next journal and don't take it personally. Always do experiments the reviewers asked rather than argue the point, but don't waste time trying to anticipate these. 20/n

@sakisci @BetterAcademia @AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics Remember you don't actually need to publish to graduate, you just need to produce a body of work suitable for publication. Like the paper, just push out the first thesis draft quick and dirty. It is a formality, nothing more. 21/21