I'm an early postdoc, so I haven't managed many people yet, but I was basically in charge of a rotation student who ended up joining GradLab--I thought up her rotation project, taught her what she'd need to know to pursue it, wrote code for some acquisition and analysis, helped her over the rough spots of analysis, and, once she joined the lab, helped her prioritize follow up experiments.
She was/is an exemplary grad student, so happily I wasn't required to use super-fantabulous management skills. I would say the biggest mistake I made with her was to be scared to manage her. Partly this may have been due to the fact that we were both grad students, and therefore I didn't always feel comfortable telling her what to do. But I see myself making this same error with others--I think they're screwing up, but if they resist my advice then I just back off.
I don't know if I'm just scared of the conflict that might result from pressing my case, or if I'm not yet at home being the one with Authoriteh! or what. Anyhow, the end result is that I get annoyed at the person I'm managing for continuing to mess up, instead of addressing the issue head-on as I should. I'll work on this.....thanks for the prodding, drdrA.
In the same line of self-improvement, BugDoc says:
An area where I could seriously improve would be in figuring out how to best get manuscripts written quickly in a manner that allows grad students to get some experience in writing, but doesn’t require me to rewrite everything. Suggestions welcome!My suggestion: once the MS bones are in place, sit down with the student and go over it paragraph by paragraph, explaining what you think needs redoing and why. Be as explicit as possible. This will take hours and hours, but it's way more educational for the student than if you rewrite it yourself. However, I'm quite curious how other PIs write papers with their students; I've only experienced one way.
1 comment:
I am graduate student and my experience with writing papers with my advisor has been a good one. Earlier in my graduate career, he would first have us review an outline of the paper with him. Then, after writing the paper according to the outline - he would take it and make notes. Then spend 10 - 15 minutes discussing changes that need to be made. After that, if any changes are needed - it was done via email rather than sitting down together and discussing it. After we become more senior graduate students, he drops the outline and spends very little time letting you know of any changes he suggests. This has worked well for me and I feel very confident in my writing abilities now.
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