1 Being a grad student

Aim to do honest work that you are proud of and that has value. Your work will likely take setbacks and perhaps you will never get the opportunity you need to breakthrough. In trying to genuinely make a positive contribution, if everything else is not working out, at least you can be confident that you have always been working to do the right thing. You can also support advocacy efforts to fight structural inequities.

Members of my lab have diverse past training and you will always feel limited in some capacity relative to someone else in the lab. Collaborating and learning from other members of the lab is an excellent idea, but also know that everyone has strengths, and you do too. You know yourself better than anyone, but it takes a lifetime to understand what your strengths are. Still, understanding your strengths, and working to them, will help you in your research. Don’t be a afraid to revisit what you thought you knew, and try to honestly reflect on your abilities to do best by yourself.

In present day academia, and beyond, a range of scholarly outputs are recognized. In my lab it is important to aim to publish peer-reviewed manuscripts, but on your way to doing so, try to produce quality products such as a robust literature review, a clean analysis with documented rationale, well-documented code, a nice repository of resources, or a helpful website. These products can all be showcased to potential employers to illustrate the quality of your work and can help demonstrate your abilities if you are experiencing long delays to having your work published.