I remember the day I opened my first paycheck as a postdoc. It was a cold day in mid-February and I had just finished a series of experiments in the lab. As soon as I cut the envelope open, I saw it. I cannot disclose the exact amount, but my biweekly pay was between $1000 […]
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Three Reasons Why Your Dogwalker is Probably is Richer than Most New PhDs
I remember the day I opened my first paycheck as a postdoc. It was a cold day in mid-February and I had just finished a series of experiments in the lab. As soon as I cut the envelope open, I saw it. I cannot disclose the exact amount, but my biweekly pay was between $1000 […]
The Roadmap to Your PhD Thesis
Those of you readers who are trying to write your PhD thesis know what a maize the process can be. At the beginning, while we are taking classes, the path is clear. We need to choose a supervisor, a project, and pass our exams. Once all that is done, however, the “hard” part begins. For […]
Do You Ever Feel Ignored by Your Supervisor?
I recently received a question through http://www.benchfly.com from a graduate student who was desperate because he felt ignored by his PI (PI= principal investigator, another word for advisor). His advisor never spoke to him and acted like he was not there. As a senior student, he was upset because he needed his advisor’s support to […]
The Impostor Syndrome in Graduate School
I write a biweekly Q&A blog on Benchfly.com, and I frequently get questions from desperate students who believe they are not “smart” enough for graduate school (to read the Q&A blogs go to: http://www.phdnet.org/deardora.html). They all think they are the only ones who do not belong there. Graduate school is just way over their heads, and […]
Ahh, Those Lovely Zzzzs: Sleep and Your Productivity
One of the major changes that I first experienced as a graduate student was an increase in the numbers of hours of sleeping. Of course, there was still lab work to do and courses to study for, but my schedule was no longer crammed with 2-3 tests to study for simultaneously, term papers to write, […]