Surviving Grad School (The Prologue): Good Guides
Though I’ve worked in labs as an undergraduate, picking one for graduate school will be very different, if only because it won’t just be an extra-curricular anymore, but pretty much my life for the next 5 years or so.
Some of the post docs that hang around the internet have compiled some helpful lists of how to choose labs and deal with lab politics. These lists are more than just lab advice, however, as it seems like they would apply to any sort of job or life situation.
Jenny F. Scientist recently put up a series of three articles on choosing a lab, and what kind of questions and topics one should pay particular attention to. The advice all sounds very sensible, and I will definitely be using the list as a way to focus when I’m juggling lab choices:
Post doc ergo propter doc has a “Lab Survival Guide” pair of articles up. She’s a chemist (probably organic), and the first part of the guide is more about the tools valuable for doing chemistry (e.g. different colored septa, a metal TLC spotter). Her second part is about dealing with people, and that’s something that translates quite well to biology:
- Lab Survival Guide Part I: Essential Lab Kit
- Lab Survival Guide Part II: Dealing with Difficult Lab Folk
Dr. Mom explains how to write the first paper, a great series that she eventually hopes to give her students as she starts her assistant professorship.
