Informator uniwersytecki

Ready for a PhD? Part III

In my many years after PhD, I have been approached by many PhD students and young investigators seeking advice. They often say things like “I would like to apply a new technique to my project but my supervisor does not see the point”; “I found something interesting but my supervisor does not want to go in that direction”; “There is an experiment that I have wondered about for long, shall I just do it?”; or “Many advise me to find easy projects, but I like challenges, what to do?”.

Now, before I tell you what I usually answer to those questions, let’s understand a couple of things:
While the role of your supervisor is to train and guide you, it is you who should be immersed in your project and you should know it better than anyone. This is, sadly, not always the case. As a supervisor, I can tell you that there are very few things more upsetting and frustrating than having a student who only awaits for instructions, who does not think for her/himself, and/or does not know all the facts in her/his project… Is this really a PhD student? (see: Part I).

Somehow, many young students wrongly believe that their projects’ progress is their bosses’ responsibility. Your supervisor is there to prepare you in the, often tough, process of discovery, not to solve the scientific question (Adolek on butterflies…); the supervisor shall give you the tools you need to work, not to “get you” a degree. Like in sports, the coach is there to help the player(s) to be better, but when it comes to the competition, it is just the player alone (or the team) to put in practice what has been trained.

Thus, no matter how well-intentioned your supervisor might be, getting a PhD is your responsibility, it is your project, it is your career! So please, take charge. Getting a PhD is that you learn to solve a scientific problem, and are able to defend what you did and why (see: Part II). Learn, and master, as many techniques as you can as this is the door to finding a good postdoc position.

As I have mentioned previously, I do not give advice. So, I always tell them the following:
In my experience one regrets most the things one did not do than those one did even when they went wrong.
The “What if I would have done it?” is a perplexing question that does not go easily away.

Obviously, it is best if you try to convince your supervisor with logical arguments. Sometimes you need a supporter, in the form of a PI that your supervisor respects, who might plead your case before your boss. Sometimes reason takes a little time to sink in.