Summary: <br> You send questions to podcast@hellophd.com, and we answer them on the show!<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Is research always this lonely?<br> <br> <br> <br> This week, we hear from “Foobar”, a computer science PhD student in Germany, who is wondering whether academia is always as lonely as she is feeling right now.<br> <br> <br> <br> She writes:<br> <br> <br> <br> Just like every other student, I had to find a teeny-tiny problem which lies in a sub-field of a sub-field and make it the topic of my PhD studies. The group that I am in counts five people, me included, and everybody studies different problems in different sub-fields. Each student has their own experiments, which are not related, to the point where I am not familiar with the technical details of their work, and they are also not familiar with my experiments. Collaborations are not really encouraged, as we need first-author publications, and there is no immediate incentive for them to discuss any detail of my day-to-day experiments with me (let’s not even mention helping). People come in and are polite, but there’s not much to talk about, and our PI is incredibly busy — we get one hour a week to discuss whatever we need and that’s it.Am I under the wrong impression that PhD students / academics may work more closely? Is it normal to be 100% on your own? Most of my friends are outside the university, and they are not computer scientists, thus it happens often that I cannot discuss my everyday work life with anybody.<br> <br> <br> <br> “Foobar” is in a tough situation. She finds herself in a lab where collaboration is not only difficult because of disparate subjects, but it’s actively discouraged in favor of first-author papers.<br> <br> <br> <br> The good news is, academic research ISN’T always so siloed. Not only have we experienced great scientific collaborations, we’ve also enjoyed the camaraderie working in a lab with some truly wonderful people.<br> <br> <br> <br> Our advice for “Foobar” is to make collegiality one of her criteria as she graduates and looks for a new lab. She can also find ‘research buddies’ within the department, on Science Twitter, and at conferences.<br> <br> <br> <br> Will a medical lab technician job help me get into grad school?<br> <br> <br> <br> Next, we have a question from Grant, who is wondering whether getting a job running medical lab tests will help prepare him for a PhD program.<br> <br> <br> <br> Thanks for your inspiring pod! I have a BS and want to get research experience in order to attend grad school, and like the recommendation to become a lab tech first. I am considering a two-year program that would make me a Medical Lab Technician, but am not sure this is the kind of lab tech experience grad schools would value; I don’t think it would count as research experience. What are your thoughts?<br> <br> <br> <br> As an avid listener, Grant has heard us say time and time again that a great way to get experience for your grad school application is to work as a lab tech for a year or two.<br> <br> <br> <br> But what he points out is that we use the term ‘lab tech’ pretty loosely, and never really define it!<br> <br> <br> <br> First, we encourage Grant to think a bit about his career goals. There ARE jobs for which a Medical Lab Technician role can be a stepping stone to a career he’d love.<br> <br> <br> <br> But for a PhD program doing basic, exploratory scientific research, that medical lab tech role might not be as helpful.<br> <br> <br> <br> Basic research is dedicated to answering questions no one has ever asked before. It’s tied intimately to the Scientific Method that starts with a hypothesis, tests that through a series of experiments, and reaches a conclusion.
