The Advice They Don’t Give You
One semester down as a professor and principal investigator of my own lab. What a rollercoaster. What’s the transition to PI like? Imagine being roundhouse kicked off the back of a speed boat into the middle of the ocean. You were taught how to swim, but only in a quiet indoor pool. For what it’s worth, I’m not drowning yet. I’m flailing around and poorly treading water. Every wave gives me a little dip, bringing me closer to the eternal light. But eventually, I come up for air; each time a little more proud of myself.
Obviously, I have enough time to sit down and write this silly little blog, though. To be honest, I’m procrastinating. I got overwhelmed searching for just the right set of micromanipulators. Have you seen the price of micromanipulators? Even the manual ones. I feel like a large chunk of this job is me thinking “How much could it cost, Michael, ten dollars?” Followed by a ten thousand dollar quote.
Anyway, I’m here to talk about advice.
Group chat screenshot. My wife: “I’m so glad I could be the only one to give helpful advice in this group chat today.” Kaela Singleton: “bums these men!”
I get a lot of advice these days. From everyone. Some solicited, but most unsolicited. People seem to be overflowing with Chicken Soup for the Soul style anecdotes about their first few years as a PI and what helped them out. (If you’re not Southern and don’t understand the chicken soup for the soul reference, please educate yourself). I’ve started noting them down. Here are a few, in no particular order:
Only take advice from people you trust
Don’t worry about grants yet, focus on getting data
Drop everything and publish your first paper as soon as possible
You’re just barely setting up your lab! Now is the time to get out as many grants as possible
Don’t even bother with those early career awards
Apply for every career award
Do NOT buy a thermo fischer -80
When you’re recruiting PhD students, you should look at more than just GPA
Don’t even try and recruit postdocs right now
R21s aren’t worth the time and effort
I highly suggest targeting R21s
The students will try and walk all over you if you’re not tough
Block off time to write
Block off time for reading
Block off time to be in the lab
Spend money to make money
Stretch out that startup money for as long as you can
Don’t even listen to my advice
Honestly, the list goes on. It’s truly an incredible phenomenon. I refuse to elaborate on what I think is good or bad advice. Figure it out for yourself. Overall, I try and focus on the fact that so many people at least try to be helpful. They found something that worked for them, so they figure maybe it will work for me.
From the advice I’ve been given the past few months, I’ve settled on two things. The first is something I kind of already knew, but now I definitely know to be true: Listen to all the advice, but only use the ones that sit right with you. There are a thousand paths to success in this job. My ears are open and I’m always looking to learn; but in the end, I’m going to do it my way.
The next is a piece of advice I wish people gave me. I get told all the do’s and don’t’s of starting up a lab. I get asked how I’m doing and if I’m surviving. You know what no one ever says? Enjoy it. No one ever says enjoy it. In fact, I even feel a little weird telling people I’m kind of loving this gig. For some reason I feel like I’m supposed to tell people I’m exhausted and regret all my life decisions. Make no mistake - am I barely keeping my head above water in this ocean of new tasks and responsibility? Absolutely. But is it also kind of awesome? Absolutely. This is a sweet deal. Part of my job today was showing up to a free (and pretty good) lunch and listening to another PI talk about the work in their lab. That was like a real task on my to-do list. Sometimes I picture explaining to my grandpa (RIP) what I did at work today. He wouldn’t think it’s a real job. Today, I also got to speak with prospective students interested in working in my lab. Let me tell you - the students are the best part of this thing. They’re smart, thoughtful, excited, and so damn talented it’s absurd. They also have an energy and optimism we tend to lose over time that’s so refreshing. Even in the first undergraduate course I taught this semester (which WHEW was a total whirlwind), I found the students to just be awesome. A few knuckleheads, yes. But the kind of knuckleheads you really want to see succeed. Then…there’s my lab. This tiny little dream team of researchers that I’m so proud of already. They don’t even realize how good they are. I know I’m the PI and so-called “expert,” but I’ve already learned so much from them. All the time in this job, I go home feeling so grateful for the people I get to do science with.
Are you starting your lab soon? Or maybe in the trenches of getting your new lab up and running? Or maybe tenured and old and crotchety? In an endless supply of advice, here’s mine: Enjoy it.
-Daniel
