Before diving into your PhD research, you’ve already made a choice that could significantly influence the success of your project and even shape your future career: you’ve selected a specific research group and chosen a thesis advisor or supervisor to guide you on this journey.
In making this choice, you probably invested considerable time pondering your research direction. You likely asked yourself questions like:
Do I want to build on the work I did for my senior thesis or Master’s degree, or should I venture into a new field?
Am I more inclined toward hands-on experiments in the lab, or do I gravitate toward a theoretical approach?
Undoubtedly, you’ve given these personal preferences a lot of thought.
There’s another key factor that plays a significant role in ensuring a productive and enjoyable research journey: the group you’re working with. Imagine your team as a tight-knit community on an island, the core social unit of scientific research—science’s nuclear family—the research group. For the next few years, you’ll be ‘stranded’ with these individuals, for better or worse.
Each research group has its own distinct chemistry and group dynamics. However, certain patterns are worth noting. It’s essential to think about the type of group where you’ll feel most comfortable. While choosing a group that aligns with your scientific interests is crucial, other aspects like the group’s size and nature also matter. Consider the unique contributions each member will bring to your small research island and how they’ll influence both the group’s efforts and your research.
In this post, we’ll explore five archetypal research groups, ranging from a small team led by a budding assistant professor to a large group under the guidance of a seasoned full professor. We’ll weigh the typical pros and cons of each group type. Take these factors into account before making your final decision. If you’ve already chosen your group, this insight will help you navigate the advantages and challenges that come with it.
Joining a Start-Up Research Group
Imagine you’ve joined a brand-new research group led by a young assistant professor. In this situation, you’ll be part of the first generation of PhD students under their guidance. Your advisor is likely bursting with energy and eager for data, which means a lot of that data collection will fall on you. However, there’s something to keep in mind: young advisors often design very ambitious research plans. These plans might need to be adjusted once the reality of limited resources and time sets in.
In such a small group, you’ll have frequent, in-depth interactions with your advisor. This close relationship is crucial because your advisor’s early career success largely depends on the work of their first students—you. Assistant professors, despite their lack of experience in supervising, often compensate by dedicating a lot of time to their small team. Since they usually have fewer teaching and administrative responsibilities, they can spend more time in the lab with you. Your advisor, filled with fresh ideas, may behave more like a collaborative partner than a traditional boss.
However, there are challenges. The pressure on your advisor to secure tenure can be intense, and not everyone naturally excels at management and interpersonal skills. Therefore, building a strong, positive relationship with your advisor is essential. If you don’t connect well or lack shared enthusiasm for your project, your time in the lab could become difficult.
In a start-up group, you might find just one or two other PhD students or postdocs working alongside you. Your projects will be closely linked, and the success of one often depends on the others. You may also need to spend significant time setting up the lab, building equipment, designing models, or writing new computer codes, as the infrastructure of an established group won’t be there. Since everyone in the group is contributing to these efforts, it’s important to establish fair agreements on sharing the outcomes, such as deciding the order of authorship on papers from the outset. This can help prevent conflicts down the line, especially since start-up groups might not yet have clear publishing policies, and the first generation of students might face limited output.
So, how do you know if a new group leader is someone you can thrive under? After all, your young professor doesn’t have a track record yet in guiding a group. While there are no guarantees of success, here are two tips that might help you decide:
- View Your Application as a Two-Way Selection Process: Just as the professor is looking for the best possible student, you should be evaluating whether the group is a good fit for you. Use your interview to ask questions that will give you a sense of the group dynamics and the advisor’s leadership style.
- Investigate the Professor’s Background: Try to find out how the professor performed during their postdoc. Did they take on responsibilities like setting up new experiments and acting as a leader, or were they still functioning more like a senior PhD student, following instructions and working independently without leading broader initiatives? A professor who already demonstrated leadership and independence during their postdoc is more likely to have their act together as a group leader.
Joining a start-up research group can be exciting and rewarding, offering you the chance to contribute significantly to the group’s foundation. However, it also requires careful consideration of the potential challenges and a proactive approach to building strong working relationships.