AsianScientist (Nov. 17, 2017) – In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best of times to attend a networking event. My experiments weren’t working, project review deadlines were fast approaching, and had only just gotten off the trans-continental flight I had taken to reach this conference a few hours before. I was overworked, sleep-deprived, jetlagged, and pretty sure I’d picked up a cold from the flight, but I’d somehow convinced myself that I was in a good state of mind to give advice to young researchers.
The event (luckily) had an informal format so I was able to plonk myself down at a table with a chocolate bar and a glass of wine and allow the brave few (fools?) who were willing to overlook my forbidding facial expression to approach me with their questions.
Now that I’m in a better frame of mind and have more time to think more deeply about the issue, here’s some advice I would give for the fresh, new scientists out there. As usual, it isn’t very science-y, and unusually, I am being serious (as I sometimes can be).
- Imposter syndrome is real but you didn’t get here by being stupid.
- Understand the nuances of planning
- Take care of yourself
This might seem like weird advice to give such a highly intellectual audience, but I feel it necessary. Some of you might have breezed through elementary and high school, got top marks while attending university, and then had some nice publications in respectable journals on the way to getting your PhD, completing some postdocs and making tenure without a hitch. Congratulations.
For everyone else, maybe feelings of inadequacy struck when you got to uni and realized you weren’t always the smartest one in the room. Or perhaps it was the repeated rejection of a manuscript, or even being asked a question you didn’t quite know how to answer during a seminar. At some point, you started thinking that you couldn’t keep up, that you were the weakest link in the lab, and your supervisor was going to find out any day now and throw you out.
If you have, welcome to imposter syndrome. But you are only human. It is normal to start a project not knowing everything on the topic. There will be times when you will believe something and others in your field will show that you’re wrong, but take heart; you’re in good company if this has happened to you. Just remember if we knew everything, we wouldn’t be doing this crazy thing called science.
When I started my PhD, I received a pamphlet about the importance of staying on track, and there was a line that struck a chord: “A failure to plan is a plan for failure.” So I dropped everything and made a chart outlining my project stages, when I would need to submit manuscripts, and the potential bi-annual project review dates to make sure that I would finish in three years’ time. I showed it to my lab’s resident Super Postdoc who pointed out two big flaws.
Firstly, the assumption that everything would go to schedule. Secondly, that in my excitement I had forgotten to make a complicated buffer and now needed to stay back late to prepare it for the next day’s experiments. This highlights the difference between small plans and big plans. Small plans, e.g. daily work, are the things you need to fulfil your big plans, e.g. career trajectory.
It’s easy to get swept up by exciting things that you want to do immediately, but plan things accordingly—there’s no point starting a 12 hour experiment after lunch unless you want to be at work at midnight. There was no point in writing down a date for my two year review when I hadn’t even reached my six month review. Basically, figure out what you want and how to achieve it, but remember that all your plans don’t mean much until you generate the data you need to get you there.
Please eat properly, exercise regularly, maintain contact with family and friends, and get enough sleep. This advice might seem obvious, but a study highlighting high rates of psychological distress in a sample of PhD students Belgium and the recent algebra paper dedicated to a postdoc colleague who had committed suicide means it remains pertinent.
I won’t sugarcoat it—making a career in science is difficult, and combined with people who are naturally high achieving or, to return to the first point in this column, work extra hard in fear that they will be found out, this is a recipe for burn out.
But work is not everything and all bad things must and do pass. Whether it is experiments that don’t work, repeated rejection of a paper or grant, struggling with an unsupportive boss or unmotivated lab members, remember to take breaks from work and ask for help if you feel you need it. There’s no point pushing yourself beyond your physical capabilities. Otherwise you’ll just end up giving out crap advice when jetlagged.
This article is from a monthly column called The Sometimes Serious Scientist. Click here to see the other articles in this series.
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Copyright: Asian Scientist Magazine; Photo: Shutterstock.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff
