What suggestions do you have for finding and choosing a mentor?
This can be a difficult question to answer as there are so many unknowns prior to a student actually joining the lab and experiencing the day-to-day realities of work firsthand. However, I've always found that speaking to former students, current colleagues, and your own mentors can give you a sense of the general tone of the lab, the types of supports that individual students receive, and the ways in which student have used individualized experiences to shape their own unique developmental trajectories. Of course, one first step is to determine if the mentor would provide the student opportunities to work on problems of interest or to learn the skills that the student wishes to gain. That initial match lets the student know that at the very least they will have the tangible outcomes they wished for at the end of the grad school process. Usually there are multiple people who have the skills the knowledge and the curiosity to match the student’s interest. So, the next question becomes, does the work style match? That is, are they compatible in the ways in which they approach science and carry out the life of the lab? This can again be hard to determine because often students do not realize what their own work style is. So, I think this is a preparatory question that a student has to ask themselves prior to assessing a lab. And, in the end, I think the most important ask question above all is: Will this mentor work with me as a human individual and create a dyadic process where we co-construct the training process?
What is the best advice that you received as a graduate student?
I received some wonderful advice when I was a graduate student. It was suggested that students find 2, maybe 3, research areas that are of interest to the student and that have a fairly solid foundation in the literature and the data. Or at least, one is solid and the other emerging as a new approach or field. These areas of research should typically not speak to each other and, instead, are carried out somewhat in parallel or in silos. The student then becomes the individual who acts as the bridge across these silos. It is the student who then allows these disparate communities of researchers to speak to one another. It would be hard to demand that a student become the world expert in “A” or the leading expert in “B.” However, if the student is one of the few people who can link A to B and communicate the emerging findings from that link, then that is a novel, important, and independent contribution to the field.
What is the best advice that you often give to your students/mentees?
Ironically, I think we lose site of the timing and tempo of development during a graduate career. A lot of the work we do takes time to bear explicit fruit. And so months go by and we worry that “I haven’t done anything.” But, in that time students have jumped into the literature and increased expertise, they may have learned a new analytic approach, they are collecting data, and they are engaging in conversation with peers and mentors. These activities are all vital to eventual success—but they often do not show up as a line in the CV. If you are going to monitor CV progress, then only give it a critical eye every 4 to 6 months or so. The rate of change will only lead to frustration if you expect it to go faster. More importantly, create new metrics for yourself that are not dependent on a set of words on a piece of paper.
What are the most rewarding and most difficult aspects of being a mentor?
I love interacting with a diverse group of smart people. They keep my day to day so exciting and allow me to see and think about the work from a point of view that I would not naturally take on. It can be difficult for me when I don’t have the answers – whether on a science question or a life question. We are often making decisions based on probabilities, heuristics, and guesses, and I worry that I am placing students at a disadvantage when I don’t have a clear cut “yes” or “no.”
What advice would you give to graduate students who want to have careers in academia?
You must diversify. And you must have luck. First, diversifying your areas of training, your methodologies, and questions of interest will make you a more unique candidate (see above). In addition, it increases the likelihood that in any one year you will be able to match to at least a subset of posted job listings. You can also then interact with potential collaborators and allow them to see how you will enhance their work as a future long-term colleague. Second, there is luck. You can’t always know which jobs are listed in any year, if you have geographic limitations, and who else is interviewing for the position. Step 1 gets you ready for the job market and increases your odds. It is in your control. Step 2 is not.
What advice would you give to early career scholars?
Be open new ideas and avenues of work. Yes, you chose a lab or program based on initial interests and matches. But you will be in grad school for almost half a decade (eep!). That is a lot of time to encounter new ideas and new areas of work. Take advantage of these opportunities. This can also open new avenues or post-graduate school careers, whether it be in academia, alt-ac, or in industry. Also, your friends and peers and family are crucial to your success. Do not neglect these relationships as you move through grad school. Finally, if you are not eating and sleeping, you will not also be doing the science.
What lessons have you learned as a mentor?
I have blinders and can get caught up in the inertia of day-to-day life. I need to be able to stop and take stock and make sure that things are going well for my students and colleagues. I also now know that when a student or colleague raises an issue, then it is real—do not second guess. Then it us up to deal with the issues, together, to the best of our abilities. I also know that I have to be true to my own personality and mentoring style. If I try to emulate someone else, even they are an amazing mentor, I will inevitably fall short because it would not be sustainable or authentic.
How has being a mentor/teacher influenced your research?
My students are so much smarter than I am. Working with a diverse expert team generates new questions and approaches that I would never—I could never—come up on my own. Indeed, I fully expect that by the 2nd year my students are out pacing me in their understanding of some literatures and most analytic approaches. In many ways, my role is to add context and history, and challenge the logic and purpose of the work we do.