A few generations ago, you could probably graduate from a PhD program and immediately land yourself a junior faculty position at a nearby university. But as grad school enrollment grew, a new quasi-professional job-description emerged in the nebulous middle ground between student and professor.



Lacking a better name, we just called them ‘postdocs’. It was an academic adolescence that implied they were ready to leave the nest, but not quite ready to fly freely.



Over time, academic institutions realized they had a good thing going. Here was a group of highly-skilled scientists who could churn out papers and grants with little oversight. And as a bonus, you didn’t have to pay them a salary commensurate with their position! They were ‘putting in the time’ in the hope that they, too, could one day run their own lab. “Think of it as an ‘investment.'”



The one-year postdoc/job search evolved into a two-year affair. Then it grew to two two-year affairs (in different labs, of course, so you can broaden your horizons!). Now, a postdoc may last 5 or 6 years, earning around $55,000 per year, and there’s still no guarantee of a faculty job light at the end of the tunnel.



But about ten years ago, something changed. The number of PhDs continued to rise, but the proportion of those graduates pursuing a postdoc declined.



What caused this shift, and what does it mean for academia and research in general?



We talked with a journalist who has been tracking the trend for years.







This week, we’re joined by Jonathan Wosen. He’s the West Coast biotech & life sciences reporter for STAT News, and holds a PhD in Immunology from Stanford University.



Over the last few years, Jonathan has been tracking the ‘exodus’ of early-career life scientists from academia. They’re foregoing the postdoc to find jobs in industry where they can often earn six-figure salaries.



We talk about the data behind these demographic shifts, and how a growing biotech industry has driven the trend.



In one article, an academic observer describes the change as ‘a tipping point.’ If there truly is a fundamental shift in how academic labs recruit and train postdocs, it could have wide-ranging impacts on academia, career opportunities, and the pace of scientific discovery.



You can read more of Jonathan’s work on this subject in the links below. Students and employees of academic institutions can use code ACADEMIC75 for 75% off of a subscription.



‘The tipping point is coming’: Unprecedented exodus of young life scientists is shaking up academia



Life scientists’ flight to biotech labs stalls important academic research



With biotech in a slump, the industry’s job market is upside down

Josh and Dan traveled to Washington DC for the Society for Neuroscience Conference 2023.



We chatted with students, postdocs, and faculty about everything from grad school applications to industry jobs to work-life-balance. And we recorded this special update from the hall of posters and vendors.







Here are a few photos from our vantage point at the Promega booth. There really were posters and vendors as far as the eye could see in both directions!

Karla already has a successful career. After completing her training, she’s worked as a pelvic-floor physical therapist for over ten years! Her patients love her, and she loves serving them.



But no matter how skilled she becomes at her craft, there’s still a limit to how many people she can help. A PT, working in a clinic, can see only so many patients per day if she wants to give each one the time they deserve.



That’s one reason Karla decided to go back to school to earn a PhD. She wanted to find a way to continue serving her patients, while also advancing the practice of physical therapists everywhere through research and teaching.



But quitting her job to enroll in a traditional PhD program wouldn’t work for her patients, or her lifestyle. She had to find another way.







Karla Wente


This week, we talk with Karla Wente, PT, DPT, WCS, CLT (whew, that’s a lot of degrees!) about her quest for a PhD. She’s currently enrolled in an online Health Sciences PhD program at Rush University.



Karla tells us how she made the big decision to go back to school after ten years of clinical practice. We talk about her career opportunities, the financial impacts of going back to school, and learn more about how an online PhD program works.



If you enjoy this episode, check out Karla’s work with www.thefirstsixweeks.com, where she and a team of clinicians support new parents during the first few weeks postpartum.

Graduate training has many milestones, but a few stand stronger in memory due to their importance.



You may remember the day you passed your comprehensive exams, officially becoming a ‘PhD Candidate.’ Or maybe you’ll remember the day you saw a paper you co-authored published in your favorite journal. 



And of course, every PhD remembers their defense – presenting years worth of work to an audience and receiving the committees’ blessing to graduate.



After each event, it’s important to take a moment to celebrate the achievement before pushing toward the next goal.  Maybe that means gathering with friends, popping a bottle of bubbly, and remembering the road that brought you to this point.



Well, at least that’s what we do with a milestone.  This week, we celebrate 100 Episodes of Hello PhD with a few of the friends we’ve met along the way.







Make a Toast



We start the Episode with a half-bottle of Guy Larmandier Cramant Grand Cru  Brut Blanc de Blancs.  This champagne is bubbly and light, with a touch of sweetness.



Just like our banter. ::ba dum shish::



And then, the guests begin to arrive!



Emily Roberts, PhD


First, we’re joined by Emily Roberts from Personal Finance for PhDs.  She’s been a frequent guest on the show, and she shares her secret for the perfect deviled eggs: get someone else to peel them.



She also gives us some quick pointers on tracking your spending and creating a budget in graduate school, and why that’s so important. “Tracking your spending will actually help you change your behavior passively.” she says.  “Graduate students should keep an eye on their irregular expenses.”



Emily also told us about her new podcast covering personal finance – you can check it out here: http://pfforphds.com/podcast/



Next, we’re visited by Randy Ribaudo and Larry Petcovic, the minds and personalities behind SciPhD.  Randy and Larry travel the country teaching scientists how to develop and translate their skills into an industry setting.



Randy Ribaudo, PhD


“Scientists don’t necessarily take advantage of the incredible experiences they have in solving problems, managing risk and delivering reliable results, which is really what companies are looking for,” Randy reminded us.



Larry adds, “In todays world, you are really also data analysts.  The data game is becoming bigger and bigger.  In many ways you have an advantage because you have experience already with working with data when you go into that first job.  A lot of folks don’t.”



To hear more tips for making it in industry, you can listen to Episode 079 or catch Randy and Larry in one of their on-site programs.



Mónica Feliú-Mójer, PhD

This week, we answer a listener’s question about whether he should pursue schooling beyond a Master’s degree.



Plus – once your formal education is complete, how can you continue to focus on learning? What steps should we take to become life-long learners?







Adam writes:




I have been given an exciting opportunity to continue my education and pursue a PhD, working with the professor who sponsored my masters research project. It would require moving across the country to work in the lab (since I was able to do my masters remotely). That would require me to either quit my job and just work on my PhD full time, or to switch roles within my (large) company and drop to part-time work while doing my PhD research. Either way I would be sacrificing my full-time salary for several years to either be living on just a stipend (a big lifestyle change, financially), or having to juggle PhD and professional work at the same time. Do you have any advice to help me decide if the sacrifices are worth it to continue my education? I am still unsure if the time, money, energy, and lifestyle changes to get a PhD will pay off, or if my masters will be sufficient, and I am struggling to figure that out. 




We offer advice on how to assess his long-term career goals, and help him consider the cost/benefit analysis of more schooling. For example, there’s data on how much a PhD can increase your salary over someone with a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree.



But wait, there’s more! Adam also wants to know how to continue his development once the formal schooling is over:




I want to always be a life-long-learner. I’ve been involved in formal education for most of my life to help guide my learning. Now that I am not in school anymore (at least for now), what  tips do you have to help me stay current in my field? How can I always be learning and growing in my knowledge, exposure, and skills, especially in a field as diverse and complex as robotics?




We have lot’s of ideas for ways that Adam (and the rest of us) can stay engaged in learning. From attending conferences to mentoring students to maker-spaces, there are plenty of opportunities to continue learning, if you’re willing to put in the work.

Just The Abstract is a new series where we explore a topic in a short, focused episode that’s easy to share. This week, we find out why most science PhD programs stopped requiring the GRE, and whether they’ll demote your application if you fail to provide a score.







We take our inspiration this week from a thread in the r/gradschool subredit.



knightshade017 writes:




I’m currently at a point where I’m applying to PhD programs in behavioral neuroscience, brain and cognitive psychology, and similar fields. Most (if not all) of the programs I am interested in have the GRE as optional, but I am a bit weary to say I won’t take it altogether because I don’t know if it will ding my chances of getting in… Any insight and honest thoughts/opinions would be greatly appreciated!




We cover the recent history of “GRExit” – a data-driven movement to remove the GRE as a barrier to graduate school after learning that the test is not a good predictor of research success.



Instead, application committees focus much more on prior research experience. How you’ve fared in your previous labs is a much better predictor of how you’ll do in the future. Unsurprisingly, a GRE that tests your ability to complete word antonyms and find the length of the sides of a 3-4-5 triangle are not indicators of success.



Here are some resources we mentioned in the show:



‘GRExit’ gains momentum as Ph.D. programs drop exam requirement



Predictors of Student Productivity in Biomedical Graduate School Applications



And here are a few episodes with related content:



112: Listener Mailbag – Leaving Home, Avoiding the GRE, Finding Collaborators, et al!



065: Does the GRE Predict Which Students Will Succeed?



023: Seriously, can we ditch the GRE already?



At the end of the show, we mentioned the recent tragedy at UNC where a graduate student killed his faculty advisor. If you, or someone you know, is experiencing a mental health crisis, there is help within reach. This guide from the NIH has links and phone numbers for crisis support and mental health resources: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/find-help

Here’s a controversial idea: what if graduate school finished on a predictable schedule the way (checks notes) every other academic training program does!



Since kindergarten, your education has had fixed milestones. You knew it would take 12 years to graduate from high school, 4 for college, and 2 for a Master’s or an Associate’s Degree.



Even medical school takes a predictable 4 years, with an additional 3-6 for residency and fellowship, depending on the field.



So why does graduate school take between 4 and 10 years, with a lot of discretion, uncertainty, and mental anguish in between?







Start the Clock



This week on the show, we explore the strange, but sticky, notion that graduate training should be open-ended with no fixed program of development.



If we could sacrifice that sacred cow, we might be able to design some requirements and milestones that feel less arbitrary and can consistently churn out bright, capable scientists.



Imagine a world in which your PhD program was limited to 5 years.  What type of training would build your research skills and make you ready for the workplace?



The fact is, our current system is extremely variable – each student has a unique project with individual successes and failures.  One student might sail through in 3 years, while another is forced to change labs and stays through year 9.



Is the first student smarter? Better equipped to succeed?  



Or is the second student better trained by the additional time?



The reality is that ‘time to PhD’ is not synonymous with skill or training.  And if time isn’t correlated with success, then there’s an opportunity to tighten up the training schedule without sacrificing pedagogical quality.



We share a handful of ideas and concerns about a fixed-term PhD, but we’d love to hear what you think!  Is it worth standardizing scientific training, and where should we start?



Breakfast of Champions



Fry up some bacon, pull down a coffee mug, and pour yourself a glass of breakfast. It’s the Morning Smack Imperial Milk Stout from Three Taverns Craft Brewery in Decatur, GA.



With maple-notes and a solid sweetness, this stout drinks like a dessert. And at 8% ABV, it’s probably wiser to save it for after dinner.



You can still sip it from a mug, though!

This week, we’re opening the mailbag once again to answer YOUR burning questions!







Change of Plans



We start with Allen, who was awarded a grant based on a research proposal he submitted BEFORE joining the lab. When he finished the summer rotation, it didn’t turn out the way he expected.




I have now been asked to write a report about how I used the grant for the grant committee. While I did learn some practical biology skills through this internship, and by that fulfilled the terms of my grant, it was by far not as much as I hoped for, and I can’t help feel a bit guilty about it…




He’s wondering whether he should have alerted the grant committee about the changes, or whether it’s okay that the research didn’t go as planned. We talk about the difference between project-based and person-based grants. In Allen’s case, they were probably funding HIS development as a scientist, so his experience fulfilled the terms of the award.



Making the Most of a Master’s



Next up, an anonymous listener wonders how to get support as a Master’s student in a department that seems geared toward training PhDs.




What can I do as a Masters’ student to navigate my way through academia since all the online and official activities are for PhD students?




We argue that training and mentorship shouldn’t change if you’re a Master’s student vs. a PhD student. In fact, you could be an undergrad or high-school summer student and STILL deserve communication, mentorship, and training.



We advise the listener to reach out to other Master’s students at the university, and either learn about the existing resources, or work as a group to create them. There’s strength in numbers, and you may be able to generate the support structures that all students need.



Bad Lab Hands



Finally, we hear from Lisa who feels like she understands the science, but she just can’t make the experiments work.




My technical skills are leagues behind everyone else in my lab. I have great ideas and I’ll suggest things to colleagues and they’ll get it work just fine, but for whatever reason, when I do things they always seem to end up a mess.




Lisa isn’t alone – there are aspects of research that each of us struggle to understand or perform. It takes real courage to ask for help, but that’s what she should do.



By shadowing her lab mates, or asking them to watch over her techniques, she can quickly make progress toward her goals. It’s likely that what she calls ‘bad lab hands’ is really just a subtle change in technique, or a skipped step in the protocol.

Wherever scientists gather, there is sure to be a poster session. You may see them at major scientific symposia, as well as your university’s departmental retreat.



To keep things interesting, a lot of conference organizers will host a poster competition. Entrants will have a chance to present their poster to a judge, who will score each one on the scientific content, clarity, and style.



Some poster contests offer cash awards, but either way, it makes a great line on your CV.



This week, we share an insider’s guide on how to craft your poster and take home the big prize.







Read the *#%$ Manual



We’re chatting once again with Dr. Zen Faulkes of the Better Posters substack. Dr. Zen has presented posters AND acted as a judge in competitions. He’s even written a book on the subject – Better Posters: Plan, Design, and Present an Academic Poster.



We start the conversation by exploring the benefits of entering a poster competition.



Aside from the modest cash prizes, it can look great on a CV, especially if you’re early in your training. You may not have a lot of papers yet, so having a poster award shows that someone has reviewed your science favorably.



The good news is that a winning strategy doesn’t have to be mysterious. Many poster competitions will share their score sheets or rubrics so that you can know exactly how the judges will be assessing your work. Just type ‘score sheet’ and the name of your conference into Google and you’re likely to get a hit.



Often, the judging criteria center around how clearly you’ve shared your hypothesis, methods, and results. For example, here are a few point-worthy items on a representative score sheet:




* Concise background information



* Clearly stated objective or hypothesis



* Concise explanation of experimental procedures



* Conclusions clearly support or refute objectives and/or hypothesis



* etc.




These criteria are grouped under headings, and the point totals are right there for you to exploit and gamify. For example, the previous rubric only assigns 10 points out of 100 to “Student Interaction”, while this competition gives a full 30 points to the presentation.



They’re different ball-games, and you need to learn to play by the rules you’re given.



We discuss many more topics of poster design and presentation including how to craft a title, how to engage your audience, and why you should always ask for colleagues to review your work before presenting at the competition.

The scientific poster is an academic oddity. Where else do thousands of people gather around hundreds of large-format printouts to talk about esoteric subjects!?



Posters might be the most common form of scientific communication on the planet. In your career, you will probably present more posters than talks or journal articles. And nearly anyone can create a poster – from an undergraduate on a summer rotation to a tenured professor.



So it’s a good idea to hone your skills at creating and presenting scientific posters – you’ll have lots of opportunities to practice!










This week, we’re joined by Dr. Zen Faulkes, Professor at McMaster University and author of Better Posters: Plan, Design, and Present an Academic Poster. He also writes the Better Posters substack.



Dr. Zen has seen a lot of posters over the years, and he’s devoted considerable time to documenting the do’s and don’ts of effective poster design. We sat down to talk through some common misconceptions that crop up in many academic posters.



Bust These Myths!



Here are some of those myths, in no particular order:



1. “Posters are worse than talks.”



2. “The point of a poster is to convey information.”



3. “Use bullet points to make it easy to read.”



4. “24 point minimum text size.”



5. “Put institutional logos on your poster.”



Dr. Zen walks us through the common mistakes he finds throughout academia, and then gives us a better way to leverage this powerful medium.



Rather than being an information dumping ground, he suggests that you think about your poster primarily as a conversation-starter. Your goal is to invite a viewer in, get to know why they’re interested in your work, and then use the poster as a jumping-off point, rather than a conversational dead-end.



And rather than figuring out how to fit MORE content into your limited space the way this poster does, he suggests that you look for things to REMOVE from the page. Any element that doesn’t contribute to the central goal of facilitating the conversation needs to go. That ruthless editing will leave you more space to make the remaining data larger and more legible.

It’s no secret that biomedical research relies heavily on animal models. Our mammalian cousins share so many common genes and pathways that we can often make breakthrough advances in human medicine through the use of animal proxies.



But animal research is neither easy nor fun. Experiments are expensive, time consuming, and it’s often dirty, smelly work. Many scientists balk at the ethical implications of making animals suffer for human health, and no matter your views, the work imposes a psychic cost.



This week we hear from a PhD student who needs to choose a lab, and it seem like her options include animal work, or finding another field of research entirely.







Brooke is a first-year student finishing up rotations. She needs to choose a thesis lab, and she has her heart set on studying neuroscience. The trouble is, most of the labs with openings for grad students focus on animal models, and Brooke is uncomfortable doing that research.




Besides probably committing to a longer PhD since mouse work takes a while, I also just don’t feel comfortable working with the mice yet and how dirty and archaic it seems. Everyone has been telling me you get used to it. I’ve gotten a lot better at handling them over time, and people have told me I’ve already improved so much with working with them. But, I just still prefer working in tissue culture hoods or in vitro settings.




Unfortunately for Brooke, animal models are a core part of many neuroscience programs. And while there are great labs using tissue culture, stem cells, or alternative systems like fruit flies, there are fewer opportunities at her university.



We take this week to discuss the world of animal research, the benefits and drawbacks. It is challenging work, and can take a mental toll on any scientist. But if you have an extreme aversion to working with animals either for ethical or sanitary reasons, we recommend finding another course of study.



We advise Brooke to explore other options. She may find opportunities that are neuroscience-adjacent in other departments. Through collaborations or PIs with dual-appointments, she may be able to find a project that utilizes tissue culture or simply collects samples from another laboratory that maintains an animal colony.



She can also explore other branches of biomedical research. There’s no requirement that you stay inside a single field for your entire career. A grad student studying cell biology, genetics, or pathology can easily find a postdoc in neuroscience, and at that phase, you won’t be limited by just the labs in one university.



That’s all for this week! You can tell us your ideas about animal research by leaving a comment below, or emailing us at podcast@hellophd.com.

Dr. Jimena Giudice has all the traits of a promising new faculty member.



Through her training and early career, she has earned more than a dozen grants and awards. She’s co-authored two dozen papers. And she has trained students and postdocs, gaining a reputation as a highly effective mentor.



You’d expect that Dr. Giudice’s undeniable success was the natural result of an early immersion in science and a dogged adherence to the well-worn path through college, grad school, and postdoc.



But of course, you’d be wrong. Before discovering a love for scientific research, Dr. Giudice spent ten years answering a different calling.







Changing Focus



Dr. Jimena Giudice


Growing up in Argentina, Jimena didn’t know that her eventual career in science was even an option.



“My parents are architects, my sister is an architect, my cousins are architects, uncles are architects or graphic designers. So I really didn’t have anyone close that I could imagine you could do science as a career,” she recalls.



So after high school, she enrolled in college to study industrial engineering.



Four years into a six year degree, she put her studies on hold and made a personal decision.



“I changed my path, and that’s when I started considering being a nun. I entered a congregation when I was 21.”



Jimena knew that after three years in the congregation, she’d have the opportunity get back to school to continue her studies. Her congregation was focused on education, which gave her valuable experience.



“I was teaching at different levels. Primary school, kindergarten, secondary school, people in the street, rural schools. I was full time working and teaching,” she says.



As her fourth year of service approached, she started to think about what she could study during the next three years that would help in her congregation. She visited the university to explore the available courses, and found that her options expanded well beyond the architecture and engineering paths she had known as a child.



“I remember the first image I have in my head is seeing students with white lab coats and the labs with glass windows and walls. And I have that image in my mind. I said ‘That’s what I want. I want to do that. I want to be with a white lab coat doing what they were doing.'”



That moment was transformative. Afterwards, she says, “I always had the dream of doing experiments, even though I liked education and teaching. Thats when I saw for the first time that science is something where you can study and work and have a career.”



One Good Turn



With her passion for science ignited, Jimena had a new problem. A chemistry degree in Argentina takes six years, but her congregation allowed just three years to pursue a degree while also working during the day.



She did the majority her classes at night, and traveled an hour and a half between the community where she lived and the university.



“I had to multi-task a lot of things. My philosophy was: when I am in classes, I am in classes, and I have to get as much as I can from here because I don’t have a lot of time to study at home,” she remembers.

This week, we open the mailbag to answer listener questions about getting extra research experience as an undergrad, and making a difficult choice between Master’s programs.



Stay with us!







Could Great be Perfect?



Our first letter comes from Owen. He’s a freshman who found a research lab he loves, and is doing some amazing work. He knows already that he wants to pursue a PhD, and he’s making progress on the experience and publications he’ll need to get there.



But he has a few questions about whether there’s greener grass on the other side of the fence…




I will most likely have a very strong recommendation letter from my PI, who has lots of connections, but I have seen lots of sources that recommend multiple “research based” letters of recommendation. I am unsure how to go about this… Is this actually necessary? Would this come from working in another lab? Or from a summer research program at another university?




In other words – does Owen need to stop his productive research experience in the current lab just so he can get more letters of recommendation?



He also wonders what he’s missing in other corners of the scientific universe:




I have been looking into graduate school programs across the country. I am open to studying many different subjects (proteomics, medical physics, structural biology, even particle physics or something else) so I have no idea if I should look for different research experiences in different fields even though my current situation is going so well. How can I make my grad school program search less surface-level? And how can I widen my research experience in the future without lessening the impact of my research at the lab I am currently in?




These are all wonderful questions to be asking before you make the leap into a PhD program, and as a Freshman, Owen is well positioned to do the exploration he needs to find out which type of research will make a compelling career.



Following Advice or Following Your Heart



Next up, Jack has to make a tough decision between two different Master’s programs. One has the training and support he wants. The other comes from a prestigious university that might help his job prospects down the road.



We’ve redacted the program names to protect the innocent…




Initially I was primarily interested in PROGRAM A because I like the available courses and it offered such a unique and focused research experience where participants get to travel the four partner institutions and are awarded diplomas from two of them depending on where they do their research project. Also, I’ve heard that you develop close relations with your cohort in PROGRAM A. But PROGRAM B’s ranking and prestige are so high, and people keep telling me that in the event I choose not to enter academia/pursue a PhD, the ranking of my masters institution is crucial to securing good employment. There is also the argument that since PROGRAM B is ranked higher than any of the schools partnering in PROGRAM A, the teaching and research quality ought to be superior and the faculty more influential in the field so I get a better chance of publishing papers & can make better connections.




So what should Jack do? Join Program A because it sounds like a better fit for the training he’d like to receive, or follow the advice from others and focus on the prestige of Program B?



We have lots of ideas for how to solve this conundrum,

When you think about your day, which events and activities feel the most fulfilling? Which tasks do you tolerate, but would rather avoid?



Maybe your experiments feel like a drag, but you get a lot of satisfaction out of crafting an abstract for your latest research article. Or perhaps you love training new students in lab techniques, even if you don’t love processing samples yourself.



If you find your joy in communicating science more than working at the bench, you may want to explore a career as a medical writer.







This week, we catch back up with Dr. Emma Hinkle. She recently graduated, and landed a job as a medical writer.



We ask what traits a student might look for to know if medical writing is a good career fit, and what they can do to prepare. The good news is that you can start to build a writing portfolio at any stage of your training – you don’t need to wait until graduation!



Emma also dispels some common misconceptions about the field (No, you DON’T need to be a subject matter expert in oncology to get a job writing about oncology!) and shares resources if you want to find a writing club near you.



If you have questions, leave a comment below or find Dr. Hinkle online @geneticginger.

A few months ago, Emma Hinkle was organizing her lab notebooks as she prepared to start a career. She had completed her graduate training, earned a PhD, and had a job lined up that started on Monday.



In those few moments of quiet between her years of graduate school and the career to come, she reflected on the challenges she faced, and how they had changed her as a scientist and a person.










“The five years I spent in grad school have definitely felt long, but as I reflect back on them I have grown so much as a person. I have learned how to deal with failure and get back up on my feet. I have learned how to keep going little by little,” she reflected.



This week, we sit down with Dr. Hinkle to hear more about her path through grad school, which events challenged her resolve, and how she kept moving forward when times got tough.



She discusses the anxiety of being a fourth-year, and not knowing how on earth you’ll ever get enough data to graduate. She shares her strategy for career development as a student, and why not everyone needs more first-author papers.



Stay tuned for our next episode where she’ll discuss her new career and long-time dream of becoming a science writer! You can find her online @geneticginger

It’s time to open the listener mailbag to answer your question about the human side of science, and life in the lab! This week: the importance of lunch, blending art with science, and the dream of a lab-based sitcom.







We didn’t have to dig very deep into to the mailbag this week because we heard from an undergraduate listener Monika. She asked a series of questions that covered so much ground, we devote the entire episode to her!



Her first question is about disordered eating, and how lab schedules might interfere with getting three square meals each day. She writes:




For the past year, I’ve been working in a lab with a grad student advisor, and was working there over the summer over 40 hours a week. However, in that entire time, I don’t think I’ve ever seen my advisor eat a meal, and I found that a lot of the time when I asked to take meal breaks it was seen with a sense of inferiority or “weakness” for taking time away from work. I definitely understand that food is not allowed inside of a lot of lab settings for safety reasons, but it was a bit alarming for me to see how little people in this kind of research slip into some unsettling habits like replacing meals with coffee or just skipping meals entirely. I feel like the grad student trope are just so busy that they don’t have time to consider proper nutrition, but as someone who has struggled with disordered eating and eating disorders, this is something I can’t compensate for, if that makes any sense. What are your thoughts about this?




It can definitely be alarming to see students or faculty ‘working through lunch’ because they’re too busy to stop. Long term, that habit is harmful to your mental and physical health, and no job is worth sacrificing those things.



We do our best to reassure Monika that skipping lunch is not pervasive in research labs. In fact, Dan took extra long lunches everyday just to get out of the lab! More seriously, though, you may not see your lab mates eating for a variety of reasons, but that doesn’t mean they’re not finding time to grab a bite.



Next up, we talk scholarships and fellowships:




What are your thoughts about the big research scholarships during undergrad like Goldwater, or postgrad like Rhodes, Marshall, Mitchell, etc.? Are they necessary for getting into grad school? How well would they distinguish an applicant (or not)?




We recently spoke with Elizabeth Somsen about her experience with the Fulbright Scholarship. She studied abroad in Turkey after graduating from college and before entering a PhD program. She’s written a helpful guide to Postbac experiences which is a great place to start your research.



To answer the question more directly, having these experiences on your CV is a wonderful booster, but it’s neither necessary, nor sufficient. Applicants will be judged mostly on their research experience and letters of recommendation.



If you have NO research experience, a postbac is not enough to secure your position. And if you have lots of quality research under your belt, a postbac looks great but is certainly not required.



Next, we discuss the intersection of art and science:




 I am hoping to double major in Film/Media along with a STEM major, as I really love art and science, and want to find a way to do both. I’ve recently been accepted into a study abroad program where I’ll be taking classes at a nationally-ranked film school and doing an entir...

 I feel a little disheartened because I’ve been rejected from many of the places I applied to and haven’t heard back from a number of others. Is it worth it to hold out hope for the ones that haven’t sent out updates?





 I have been rejected from 5 schools and am expecting 3 more rejections soon enough without any invitations for interview. I’ve had my time in regret and disappointment and I’m now thinking about what to do next. 





Should I just give up at the thought of me obtaining a PhD? I feel like a mess right now.




These excerpts are from just three of the many messages we received this year from grad school applicants who were moving through the stages of rejection grief.



Some understood it would be an uphill climb, and half-expected the bad news. For others, it was a surprise because they had followed all the advice on how to craft the perfect application.



For everyone, it was disappointing, demoralizing, and confusing – what can I do if I’ve been pushed off the only path I know to a career in science?



This week, we explore the arcane inner workings of an admissions committee, and detail not only WHY you received that rejection letter, but what you can do about it next year.







Why Not Me?



The first question many applicants have is, “Why did I get rejected?” In many cases, they have experience, grades, and strong letters of recommendation. So what gives?



The answer will be different for every person, of course, but there are some common threads that could lead to rejection. We take a look behind the scenes in an admission committee meeting to learn what makes some applications rise to the top, while others are cast aside.



Fierce Competition



If you only apply to schools your mom has heard of, like the Ivy League Yale, Stanford, or Harvard, then you’re much more likely to receive a rejection letter. The same may be true for schools on the coasts, or in heavily populated areas.



These programs receive thousands of applications from the most qualified students in the world, some of them with first-author papers. If you ONLY applied to extremely competitive programs, odds are, you got a lot of rejections.



Next year, treat grad school the way you did undergrad: with a mix of reach-schools, target-schools, and ‘safety-schools’. Having options is a good thing, and the research training at these other schools will be as good as, or better, than the Ivy League.



Early Birds



They say timing is everything, and that’s true in grad school applications as well.



Applications may arrive in the admissions office between the open date and the deadline, but the admissions committee will review those applications in batches. Their goal is to find the most qualified students to offer interviews, but the staggered nature of the review process presents a few challenges.



Early in the cycle, the committee may offer interviews to a few top-t...

Think about your favorite action movie that kept you on the edge your seat. Did it look certain that the hero would fall, only to emerge at the very last moment to save the day? Now picture a great movie trilogy or TV series. Did each episode introduce a dangerous cliffhanger at the end, enticing you to watch the next installment to see how the tension would resolve?



Those filmmakers know something about storytelling – crafting a narrative arc that brings the audience along for an exciting ride. Within just a few hours, they have to introduce you to the characters, invest you in their stories, and then take you along on a journey of conflict and resolution.



This week, we talk about how your scientific presentation or job talk can use those same storytelling tools to engage an academic audience, and maybe even land you a new job.







Every graduate trainee has experienced the highs (and lows) of scientific seminars. Typically, your department will host an invited speaker from another University. She’ll take an hour to present her research and then field questions from the audience.



The speakers at these seminars obviously want to make a good impression, as an engaging talk might lead to new collaborations. But there’s one type of seminar where the speaker’s entire future career hangs in the balance…



Of course, we’re talking about the dreaded ‘job talk!’ When a department hires a new faculty member, the search committee might review hundreds of applications, and invite just the four or five best candidates to host a seminar describing their work.



This week, we caught back up with Dr. Andres De Los Reyes, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Maryland. We spoke with him way back in Episodes 135 and 137 about his book The Early Career Researcher’s Toolbox: Insights Into Mentors, Peer Review, and Landing a Faculty Job.



He joins us this time with advice on how to make that fateful transition from postdoc to faculty hire by using the tools of great storytellers to craft your presentation.



He’ll describe his ‘Trilogy Tool’ and tell you how to curate just three pieces of research that you’ll describe in your job talk. Choosing the three elements, and how you link them together, is critical to the narrative structure. In the end, you’ll take your audience on a journey of academic discovery, and help them see all the potential that your future research holds.

We get asked all the time about strategies for more effective time management during graduate school. Not surprisingly, some of our most popular past episodes deal with time management. While we have covered a lot of ground over the years on this evergreen topic, there’s a new expert on the scene who seems to know a whole lot about… well, almost everything! Therefore, we welcome to the show the AI chatbot sensation, ChatGPT, to determine if there’s anything this new technology has up its sleeve (?) for helping us be more effective with our time.



Will ChatGPT replace us as podcast hosts moving forward, or does it instead provide word jumbles that sound nice but lack real substance. We put AI to the test for your benefit, this week on this show!



Check out some of our past (AI-free) episodes on time management tips and strategies:



175. Four Research Traps (And How to Avoid Them)



162. Get More Done with LabScrum w/ Dr. Lisa May



158. Five Strategies for Defeating Distractions



059. Simple Tricks for Time Management – The Focus Funnel



015. Simple Tricks for Time Management: The Pomodoro Technique

Scientific conferences are a great way to meet other scientists and share your research. Perhaps your advisor got lucky and was invited to give a talk. If your research doesn’t get time on stage, how can you make connections and tell others about your project?



The poster session is your ticket to fame and glory. Nearly anyone – from tenured faculty to summer undergraduate – can submit a proposal and tack up a poster.



That unlocks a world of opportunity to share your science, meet like minds, and network your way to a new project, job opportunity, or collaboration.



But creating a poster is more than simply clicking ‘Print’ on a few figures. Crafting your story takes planning, and we’re here to help with advice from real-live poster presenters!







Josh and Dan attended the American Society for Cell Biology’s Cell Bio 2022 conference in Washington, DC. It was a great opportunity to chat with scientists about their work, and life in the lab.



During the poster session, we interviewed some presenters – not about their research – but about how they approached the poster presentation itself.



Their advice is a great introduction to anyone wanting to create their own poster!



Seeing the Structure



Before you start choosing your favorite figures or writing an introduction, you need to give some thought to your poster’s format and layout.



Deborah recommends paying careful attention to the poster dimensions dictated by the conference organizers. She made her entire poster before realizing the sizes she chose wouldn’t work.




I waited until 10:00 PM before I checked and I realized I needed to make these dimensions different, therefore I had to start all over from scratch. So don’t make my mistake!




Sarah from Oglethorpe University used a creative approach to reduce the printing cost and to make transport much easier.




It will cost you less to be able to print it in sections. So instead of having a big 44″ by 40″, you can cut it in half and have it be printed for free, potentially at your University. And that’s what I did with my poster, chopped it up into two sections, and then on my board I pinned it together and it looks great.




Omar thinks about his poster design in sections, as if they were a series of individual figures or statements.




 I “grew up” in the era where when you made posters, each panel was an individual 8 1/2″ by 11″ piece of paper, and I’ve essentially kept that organization for large poster printing. Design it in a way where if you are only reading the section headings, you get the gist of the whole story. So in a sense they’re sort of like topic sentences, but the entire set of section headings on their own tells the full story, and then you can fill in the details later.




Omar’s section headings act as summary statements, and are readable from a distance.



Make It Visual



While you want enough text to help a viewer understand the story if you’re not standing right next to your poster, it shouldn’t be a wall of 10pt text. Posters are a visual format, so make your images vibrant and compelling.



Leia recommends making your own images, rather than cobbling them together from various sources.