How to succeed in Biology

发信人: glasscat (chasingLight), 信区: Biology
标 题: How to succeed in Biology
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Wed Apr 7 10:35:41 2010, 美东)

To my young Chinese brothers and sisters who want to develop their careers in biology.

A tenure professor means secured decent income and benefits, respectable social status, academic freedom, a leader of your team and a platform to earn more money if you like.

As an assistant professor, you have a very flexible working schedule, an independent office, and spacious working space for your team. You are invited to travel around country or world one or more times a year regardless you like or not, and to seat in the best local restaurants for free during your visits.

A tenure track faculty of biology is a boss to run his/her own business, not a worker anymore. You are invited to be a partner of the institute, but not hired as a labor. You always start with a small business and keep it growing. The institute does whatever it can to help (force) you to earn more money and more reputation because this is the best way to grow its shares. Most Chinese people don't understand it because China is different from the rest of the world, and many people here quitted before they can taste it.

I went through PhD and postdoc with tremendous helps from a good number of
Chinese colleagues and faculties around me, but I made numerous mistakes in the past. I share some experiences of my friends and me with you here. We truly expect you can go beyond us in future, and we believe so because you are Chinese, young, and intelligent.

First trick: everybody can become a professor if s/he is willing to work for it. However, quit as soon as you can if you don’t want to work for it. Listen to everything, but don’t believe in anything (include what I say here). You never know what is going to happen in the future, and nobody knows. You do what you can.

Second trick: APPLY FOR AWARDS. Most Americans learned this trick in high school, but Chinese didn’t learn it in China. Always apply for awards, travel supports or small fellowships when you have some data from either here or China. Most of them will give you a small amount of money or a certificate only. You can ask support from your program director or chair if your mentor is not supportive. Most non-tenured junior faculties do not want their chair view them as a selfish mentor. Make sure to report your achievements to your mentor, chair, dean, and the Campus News before add them in your CV. More good things will happen if you advertize your best picture. You should maximize your gain. I learned it from mistakes of my buddy and me.

Third trick: ENGLISH DOESN'T METTER IN BIOLOGY. This is not really true because you, of course, benefit from excellent English. You have about twenty years to improve your language skills in the biology field while you have your mentor, colleagues, secretary and co-investigators to work on your Chinglish.

Fourth trick: UNIQUE EXPERIMENTAL SKILLS. This is the most important key for a Chinese biologist with poor English to survive in America. (I am included.) Choose a lab using unique techniques, or suggest your mentor allowing you to try something unique if your mentor is doing routine stuff all the time. You have to be good at as much routine stuff as you can if s/he rejects. Try to publish a methodological paper (poster, or mini review) as first and corresponding author. Most mentors don't care about a small methodological paper (or a poster) unrelated to their scientific topics. Make sure the unique skills have perspective, in another word, market in next five or ten years. Please pay attention to tedious and difficult techniques that are classic. Many pharmatheutical companies need these techniques for the trial.

Fifth trick: LINK TO THE BIG NAMES. Unfortunately, US scientific field is still a human society. Human factors are everywhere. In addition, the limited financial supports always go to those established groups. Your strategy is always to go to the most famous university, and the biggest name. You knew that when you applied for PhD here. However, if you cannot get in the top of your list, here are the tricks. Dig in the root of your mentor because s/he may come from a big lab. Build your own links by advertizing the best of you by any chance, including meetings, email for questions and papers, or visiting friends. The last trick is to choose carefully in the search for your committee or postdoc position. This is a very important investment for your future applications for green card or jobs. Don't forget to send them a Christmas card if they are Christians.
To be continued.

Sixth Trick: KNOW WHEN YOU SHOULD MOVE FORWORD.
To be continued.

Seventh Trick: TEACH A UNIQUE COURSE.
Teaching skills are very important when you seek a tenure track position. Most people don’t want to be a TA during their PhD period, and have little chance to teach during their postdoc period. This is a mistake. Study the market to identify the courses that are short of teachers. Try to be a TA in one of these courses if you are a student. You have to find a way to give a lecture in the course if you are a postdoc. It is easier for research faculty to ask to teach. Please be careful when you negotiate about teaching load as a tenure track faculty. Rule of the thumb is to teach as little as possible as a tenure track faculty.

Eighth Trick: BE A GOOD PRESENTER.
To be continued.

Ninth Trick: BE NICE TO ANYBODY.
The janitor of the floor may be a nephew of your dean. Human network is far more complicate than any cell line. Be careful what you say anytime.

Tenth Trick: GRANT, GRANT, GRANT …
It is true in most cases that you have to have at least one independent grant to be qualified for a tenure-track position today. Therefore, work on it as early as possible. First, try to be a co-I on your mentor’s grants when you are a postdoc. Second, ask for a research track position as early as you can, so that you are qualified for R awards in most institutes. You need an independent grant (R03 or R21 level) if you may leave your mentor’s institute. A K-award may lock you in a postdoc of the same lab for additional one or two years, and requires a green card. It is a different story if you have a chance to become a faculty at the same institute as your mentor. K99/R00 is an exception.

Eleventh Trick: A GOOD MENTOR HELPS YOU TO GET GRANTS.
Many people on this forum have questions about mentors. Mentors are not baby-sitters, so that smiling faces and nice words are useless. In my opinion, the best mentors will help their postdoc to get the grants. They list their trainee as a co-I on their grants, promote postdoc to research track faculty, and serve as a co-I on trainee’s grant applications. They may be pushy, say ‘F’ word all the time, or yell at trainees. However, they have your career in their hearts. The worst mentors can not, or are not willing to, help postdoc to become independent. You can talk to the postdoc or pervious postdoc of the lab, or check eCommon for NIH grant information. Make sure to have an agreement on grant applications with the mentor before join his/her lab.