In the News: "The Future of the PhD"

Last week Nature featured quite a few articles and editorials regarding the current status of PhD programs and job opportunities for PhD-level scientists.  These topics have been ongoing sources of debate and this issue of Nature presents a good overview of the issues and opinions involved.  Check it out! 

• Fix the PhD -- This is the main editorial for last week's issue and includes links to the related articles in the issue. 
• Seven Ages of the PhD (requires subscription or institutional access) -- An interesting insight into the PhD process:  past, present, and future!
• Education:  The PhD Factory -- A critical examination of graduate training worldwide, including Japan, the US, China, Singapore, Poland, Egypt, and Germany
• Education:  Rethinking PhDs -- This article highlights a few programs with groundbreaking training ideas. 
• What is a PhD Really Worth -- A commentary on skills acquired during PhD training and the importance of finding a good PhD program. 
• Reform the PhD System or Close it Down -- A proposal that many graduate programs need to be either shutdown or undergo major reform. 

My personal thoughts on this topic are that PhD programs are changing to meet modern day challenges but there is so much more that can be done to help current and future students.  I think it's important to admit students who do not plan to search for traditional academic or even industry track positions into PhD programs.  It's also important for programs to explain career prospects and graduation statistics with prospective students. 

While we may be training an oversupply of PhDs for academic positions, there really are lots of careers available to motivated and hard-working individuals with PhDs.  Some of these jobs may require a longer job search but they are no less worthy than the "golden" tenure-track faculty positions or much coveted jobs in Big Pharma.  It takes all sorts of students and student interests to make a successful PhD program and it's in the best interest of training programs to really show their students all the varying fields with career opportunities that open up once the PhD is earned. Along those lines, formalized training in presentation skills, networking, mentoring, project management, and writing become vitally important to the modern PhD student...and to modern PhD programs.

Relating to Your Mentor

Recently, I had dinner with an old friend.  She is currently a tenure-track professor in a non-life-sciences field and is balancing everything, good and bad, that comes with being a tenure-track faculty member.  She told me how she has been regularly speaking with her graduate school mentor for advice and how they have been getting together at conferences for lunch in order to catch up, discuss the current issues in their field, and for continued mentorship.  As I listened to these stories, I smiled and asked if this was the same mentor I remember her having in graduate school.  She sheepishly looked at me and started laughing, as if to say, "Yes!  Can you believe it?!" You see, as she was finishing up her PhD, my friend had nothing good to say about her mentor, other than the fact that her mentor was truly and expert in her field.  My friend seriously thought that her mentor was trying to drive her crazy as a graduate student and purposefully impeding her progress toward graduation.  I think at one time my friend even called her mentor "crazy". 

The fact that my friend was having lunch with her mentor and speaking so highly of her didn't surprise me at all, even after having heard many horror stories about this mentor while my friend was finishing up her PhD.  You see, I had a very similar experience myself.  My graduate school mentor was one of the last people I wanted to talk to as I was finishing up my degree but now I regularly seek out opportunities to meet with him whenever we are in the same town.  I appreciate the mentorship he continues to give me even though there was a time when I thought he must be the worst mentor ever.  Luckily, I can look back on that time in my life and laugh, just like my friend can.  We both realize now that the mentorship we received was excellent and we were lucky to get it, even if we didn't know that at the time. 

I think this is a common reaction for many graduate students to have with their mentors.  Graduate school is tough...and it can seem like your mentor really is trying to drive you crazy or is finding new research avenues for you to take that purposely make graduation elusive.  However, most of the time, your mentor really does have your best interests at heart -- you just may not realize it until a few years after the fact.  It is more likely that he or she is trying to make you more of an expert or more well-rounded than it is that he or she is simply trying to drive you crazy.  That said, some mentor/advisor relationships don't work out and you should seek guidance from other committee members or your department head if that's the case. 

So, what can you do to get through graduate school with a shaky mentor relationship?  First, I think it's important to know that it can be perfectly normal to have ups and downs in your mentor relationship.  Also, make sure you seek out mentorship from faculty members other than your immediate advisor and use these people as a sounding board to get different opinions (just understand that they might reinforce your mentor's advice).  Do what you can to finish, accepting the fact that your mentor might be right, and try not to burn every bridge while finishing up.  Remember, a few years from now you might be enjoying a cold beer or hot coffee with your mentor, discussing your current graduate student's shenanigans!

Guilt-Free Social Life, Part 3, Success Stories

Part 1:  Importance of Outside Activities
Part 2:  Steps Toward Guaranteed Free Time
Part 3:  Success Stories

The past two weeks have been posts about why it is important to have a social life outside of your graduate school career and some suggestions to feel less guilty about having a social life. This week, I’ll give some examples of how to make this work in real life.

How does this work in real life? As a graduate student, I went with a group of friends to every summer blockbuster movie on opening night (not an outstanding goal, but a goal nonetheless). We went to matinees to save money, meaning we had to leave the lab early on Friday nights. I'd feel a little bit guilty about leaving but by the time the opening credits rolled across the screen, I was happy to be relaxing. And I knew that I had worked late or on weekends enough the rest of the week that an early night to have fun with friends wasn't a bad thing.

A labmate had a schedule in place to where he didn’t come into the lab on Fridays. Friday was his day to spend with his children. He would still answer phone calls from the lab and sometimes read papers during naptime but those days he was able to spend with his children were priceless in ways no one could have known.

Another graduate student friend took a golf class that was offered by the university rec center. He told his mentor he had a class on main campus every Tuesday and Thursday, which was technically true. I think he was onto something – what better way to get rid of pent-up frustration than hitting a little white ball around outside?

Our graduate program was also very social so we would often try to get a group together for some sort of outing once a month. Sometimes we'd have long lunches at a favorite restaurant (perfect for when you're waiting on a timepoint and just can't read or plan anymore) or happy hour at a favorite bar. Our program also had an annual picnic and during recruitment weekend we’d have dinners, hikes, or other excursions to local attractions. Sometimes, as students we’d hear about an upcoming event and not be very excited about it but once we were there, it was definitely the break we needed.

Think again about your favorite outside activity that you’ve been putting off. Do you see any way that you can carve out some time for it? If you’re having a hard time thinking of something to do, browse your local Parks and Recreation Department or library for classes that look interesting. Even planning a once-monthly outing to see an area attraction (museum, zoo, art exhibit, etc) will put you well on your way to better personal and professional life balance. More importantly, it will give you something to talk about other than the weather or your research the next time you are at a conference or happy hour with your fellow graduate students.  Is it completely guilt-free?  Maybe not.  But you are important and taking care of your whole self is a big step toward productivity and success.

Guilt-Free Social Life, Part 2: Steps Toward Guaranteed Free Time

Part 1:  Importance of Outside Activities
Part 2:  Steps Toward Guaranteed Free Time
Part 3:  Success Stories

Last week, I wrote about why a social life is important and offered some suggestions on activities to take in order to be a happier (and more productive) graduate student. This week I'm going to focus on how to feel OK about doing something for fun when you could be counting cells.

It's hard not to feel like you're letting someone down when you take time to do personal things as a graduate student. You're either letting your mentor, your labmates, your loved ones, or yourself down by not getting your research accomplished in the shortest amount of time possible. However, you don't want to be locked in a lab all day every day or graduate school will really begin to feel like a prison sentence. ("Just 4 more years and I'm eligible for parole...I mean my PhD.") So, how do you get over these feelings and let your mentor (and yourself) know that you're going to doing things other than analyze data on Friday night?

First, you must open your lines of communication with your mentor. You don't have to tell him/her everything (or everytime) you plan something extracurricular but do let your advisor know about the new class you are taking at the rec center, your love of March Madness games, or your daughter’s ballet recital. It helps them to understand that things other than your research are important to you.

Second, you must be assertive. Assertiveness is something every graduate student must become comfortable with (I don't think a single student would get their degree if they didn't assert themselves). This doesn't mean you bully your labmates into getting out of the tissue culture hood so you can catch the 5:30 movie but it does mean that you act confident about the fact that you deserve a weekend camping trip because of all the hard (and productive) work you've been putting in over the past month...just make sure you actually have been working hard (not just at checking your email on the lab computer). Your mentor might tell you that taking Friday off is only going to extend your time to degree and you have to be OK with that. When you look back on your life, you are going to be happier knowing you spent every other Friday afternoon out of the lab experiencing new things or spending time with your family, even if it means you defend your thesis 2 or 3 months later than you would have otherwise.

Third, you must plan. As I mentioned in my previous post, if you find that you aren’t doing anything fun outside of the lab, you can schedule your extracurricular activities into your life like they are appointments (or experiments). This makes you committed to them and helps you plan your time in the lab accordingly. If you know you have a volleyball game every Thursday night, you can plan when you need to finish up on Thursdays in order to make it to the game in time. Maybe this means you come back to the lab after the game for a late night but you’re going to feel better knowing you took time for you before this late night.

Next week, I'll write about how this can work in real life.