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Ask Slashdot: Advice For Summer Before Ph.D. Program?
First time accepted submitter tookul03 writes "I'm a graduating senior from a small New England liberal arts college, and have secured a spot in a Biological Science Ph.D. program for the next five years. I realize this coming summer will be my last out of the lab for a long time and am not sure If I am interested in doing something related to my research interests or use it as an opportunity to find some new hobbies/interests. I figured the Slashdot community had a number of individuals who were/are in a similar position (albeit different fields) and could shed some light on things they (or others) had done. Thanks."
It's a pretty awesome experience.
A lot...
If you've already found a position, then don't do research! Do something wildly different! You're going to be working on something very specific for the next several years. This is your chance to experience something new! Escape while you still can! This is from someone in the MIDDLE of their PhD work!
Sex, drugs, rock & roll. Next!
and party often
The sooner you start, the sooner you will finish and get a job that pays better or is more prestigious.
Simon's Rock College
Travel! Don't do research but travel and charge your batteries for what comes ahead.
(Currently writing up PhD thesis and in desperate need for a vacation)
I travelled across the country going from music festival to music festival the summer before I went to grad school. You will have plenty of time to do something research related. Just relax and have a great fucking time, you've earned it.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Get settled into your new apartment and have fun with hobbies. Homebrew is a good one. If you get bored then you can always read up on your lab groups research topics. Our you could just go smoke weed and fly a kite and sip beers with the college freshmen girls who think your hot shit cuz your going to graduate school.
Turn back while you still can.
How about girls? That's a nice hobby.
I recently completed my PhD so I can offer some very recently acquired information for (hopefully useful) advice.
First of all, you need to find something else when you finish your PhD. Usually, academics went for a post-doc and non-academics went to industry. The game is a little different now, though, and pretty well everyone needs an academic post-doc, even to go to an industry position. Hence you should be thinking now about what you want to do when you finish, figuring out how to get there from where you are about to go. It really is never too early to start thinking about that. Some people say that the most important thing you do in grad school is line up a post-doc position.
Second, networking is critical. I highly recommend that you try to get to as many conferences as you can manage when you are a grad student.
Third, the job market for post-docs right now is terrible, unless you are in the right field at the right time. Right now it seems structural biologists are in high demand but in 5 years it could be something else entirely. Keep an eye on where the job market is going and know how to market yourself to the demand.
Fourth, start thinking right away about your committees for your time in grad school. You'll probably have a qualifying committee, an advisory committee, and a thesis exam committee. Obviously your advisor will be on all three but the rest might or might not carry over much between the three. Know how to deal with those people, how to keep them happy, and how to get them to help you graduate and network.
Fifth, if you don't have an adviser already, start talking to current students in the labs of advisers who are looking to pick up students. You want to know what your life will be like, and how long potential advisers generally keep their students around for before they graduate.
In other words, don't take this summer to escape academia. Take it to prepare for it. If your school graduates most PhDs in 5 years you really don't want to be the person who takes 7 due to lack of preparation.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Drone Hunting, get a group of friends together with body armor, firearms (if they are still allowed in your country), and video recorders, than go Drone Hunting.
Should make for an interesting summer. You can upload the video to youtube, and than use the experience when applying for employment.
Or you could just go Camel Spotting. Camel Spotting could be a lot safer, but not as fun as Drone Hunting.
You'll have a head start on your class mates in practical biology
As someone that has completed their PhD in Physics. I recommend training your liver for heavy drinking.
Trust me I'm a Doctor.
Please, don't do research this summer. You're not going to get a real leg up on anything. Go out; enjoy yourself; get laid.
Build something with your hands. Travel. Trek. Try something you've never done before. Do something out of doors.
I didn't, I wish I had.
P.S. Graduate as soon as possible. You don't get more points for doing more work as a graduate student. Your post-doc record is way more important if you are trying for the academic track.
Backpack Europe or somewhere more exotic if you're so inclined. Get some world perspective, have some adventures, experience other cultures. Don't forget to get laid.
PhD is brutal, and the labor market for PhD graduates afterwards is even worse. If you don't want to spend this summer before your PhD to do your research, you don't have enough drive to get through the toughest days ahead and exit from it unharmed.
Why not? The appalachian trail is driveable relative to you, or if you want an even more amazing experience go out to California and stay a week or two in Yosemite. Or surfing, go somewhere where there's surfing! It's not hard to pick up if your even semi athletic. Whatever you do, you can try photography at the same time, it really lends itself to being a hobby while doing another hobby. Travel or hiking or whatever, wherever you are, you can be taking photos at the same time. Go on an adventure.
If you really can't decide on your own how to spend your free time and you need someone to tell you what to do, perhaps you're well suited for a career in the military.
If you've never been to Europe, I would do it that summer. Travel with a friend and use Eurail (there's benefits for students) and stay in a hostel. If you can swing the airfare, that would be my recommendation.
If plan to work in industry (private sector) or a national lab, then by all means, go ahead and blow off some steam before the slog. But if your plans include an tenure track position in academe, you've got no time for such frivolity. Competition for academic positions in the biological sciences has reached the highest levels ever. Expect between 150 and 250 competitors for each position you will apply for. With that kind of competition, only the shining stars become assistant professors. And current expectations have risen to ridiculous levels of productivity and achievement. So if it's a tenure track position you're after, better use your last summer to get started on a grant proposal and submit your first few manuscripts. That's what it takes these days to succeed in academia.
" I realize this coming summer will be my last out of the lab for a long time... "
I'd get a head-start on your PhD. Five years in the lab is nothing. Why waste a summer doing something different and getting a bit of life experience?
Here's what I did my summer before starting a PhD program:
Sat on my ass for a month, hanging out with friends every day.
Went on a three-week bike tour from NYC to Niagara and then Chicago
Came back and worked a week as a summer camp counselor just for the hell of it
Then worked two weeks teaching a science camp also just for the hell of it
Then spent the remainder sitting on my ass and hanging out with friends every day.
It was probably the best summer of my life.
Seriously,
though it might sound disrespectful, find a girlfriend and get laid as much as possible while enjoying life, because after you start you would not have a change for doing it in years. Leave the research interests research on private time and the late nights in the lab, for when you are actually there.
You are never going to be the same age again, or on the same emotional/psychological level as you are now, or have the opportunity to be "free"
Ph.D. programs are intense. They're a ton of work, and they take most or all of your mental capacity, physical well being, and willpower. I'm just about to finish one myself ... its been a long time coming. Here's some of the things that I wish I'd done (or done better) in the summer before I started.
- Pay off most or all of your debts and/or build up a balance in your bank. Ph.D. students don't make a lot of money. You'll want to do things, and buy things, in the next few years, and you'll be better off if you have some cash on hand. Its not a bad life, but the lack of funds for your personal life can be stressful. If you don't need to worry about that, then....
- Get in shape. You're about to spend the majority of the next 5-6 years sitting on your ass. So take the opportunity now to get in shape. Find a good solo sport you can do (running, biking, swimming, etc) that you don't hate. When you get to your program, try to do that at least 90 minutes a week. And on a related note ....
- Learn or come up with a few easy to make recipes that taste really good (to you anyway) and are good for you. They can be staples of your diet, rather than the vending machine. And finally ....
- Read some books, take in the sunrise and sunset for fun, visit your family, hang out with your friends. Do all the things you won't be able to for the next few years that you know you're going to miss.
Good luck!
Considering the fields you're studying I would recommend practicing the phrase, "Would you like fries with that?"
You mean there is something outside the lab?
TODO: create/find/steal funny sig.
http://disciplinedminds.com/
"In this riveting book about the world of professional work, Jeff Schmidt demonstrates that the workplace is a battleground for the very identity of the individual, as is graduate school, where professionals are trained. He shows that professional work is inherently political, and that professionals are hired to subordinate their own vision and maintain strict "ideological discipline."
The hidden root of much career dissatisfaction, argues Schmidt, is the professional's lack of control over the political component of his or her creative work. Many professionals set out to make a contribution to society and add meaning to their lives. Yet our system of professional education and employment abusively inculcates an acceptance of politically subordinate roles in which professionals typically do not make a significant difference, undermining the creative potential of individuals, organizations and even democracy."
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
You will spend a significant amount of your life time in front of a computer inside a lab.
Go get a life in the outdoors: hiking, climbing, travelling as much as you can.
I didn't do that, now I feel like "OMFG, I should have done that".
In almost every case it is acceptable to use a comma before "and". In the case of a series, it's a Harvard/Oxford/serial comma (and is either present or absent, depending on the editorial style of whoever you're writing for). In the case of a compound sentence, it is required. And in the case of a compound predicate (as in this sentence), it is considered optional. As a rule, you should not use a comma in a compound predicate unless the sentence is fairly complex. I probably would not have put in that comma, but I also probably would not have objected if someone else had put it in.
The only situation I can think of in which it is actually wrong (as opposed to being required or being a style issue) to use a comma before the word "and" is when you're writing a simple series of two things, e.g. "The boy, and girl went to the store."
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Move to your new university and use the summer to do (at least one) research rotation.
Here's why: you said "for the next 5 years." I'm not sure where you got that time period from, but if you're doing your PhD in the US, you're going to find that it's a completely open ended process. This is *really* important to internalize, because every other form of education that you've had experience with has a fixed term: you do what they tell you to for the prescribed time period and at the end they hand you the diploma. You can't run down the clock on a PhD. You don't graduate until you can convince your advisor that you've done enough to merit the degree. And it's generally against your advisor's personal interests to let you graduate.
So, if you want to complete your degree in a reasonable period of time (e.g. 5 years), you have two tasks: 1) Find a lab with a research advisor who you like and trust, because you're putting your life in his or her hands. If you wouldn't give him/her copies of your keys and your ATM PIN, you shouldn't be in that lab. 2) Get established in that lab so you can start organizing and taking charge of your own project and working toward first-author publications.
The first step towards this is doing lab rotations. Summer is often a good time to do these, because your first year is likely to be filled up with classes which will make it difficult to spend enough time in a lab to really get a feel for it. Just make sure that the PI in whichever lab you're rotating in is going to be around (sometimes they are gone for months at a time in the summer) because the most important thing you need to get out of the rotation is deciding whether you trust the PI.
I suspect there will be several threads of people recommending various voyages of self-discovery or self-education. If you had something that you really *wanted* to do, I wouldn't try to talk you out of it, but from the way you've phrased your question it doesn't really sound like there is, and there's no point finding a new hobby this summer that you won't have time to continue once you start your program.
Best of luck with your program.
re: commas don't go before "and."
.
There are three types of rules: rules meant to be followed, rules meant to be broken, and rules that fuck with your mind. [see the example of what I did there?] When you have a list with multiple items separated by commas, it is permissible to put the "and" prefacing the last item even though it will be preceded by a comma.
;>)
Just to be persnickety is why I point this out. Now that particular rule does not apply to the ask-slashdot-author's sentence, but I thought I'd point out that the simple rule of commas not going before "&" is not as clear-cut as it seems. [notice the comma before the ''but'']
You have the rest of your life to work and the next 5 years (it's cute you think you'll be out in 5 years ... 6 to 7 is more likely especially in biochem) to toil in the lab. You won't be making any meaningful contribution (certainly not manuscripts or grant proposal) to the lab or science until your third year.
Get out and see the world.
If you are doing a PhD, your subject matter will have to become your hobby. it shouldn't be your only one, but you should be absolutely enraptured with what you're studying. You are guaranteed to run into a dichotomous moment in your 5-7 year program where you will honestly consider quitting. It will only be through your personal passion and drive that gets you through the 'salmon of doubt'.
Since your spot is secured, you either have obtained grants, you have an academic advisor, or both. Spend the summer reading everything your advisor has written, and read everything in your field. If you are coming into a new PhD program you will most likely have a comprehensive exam (ours is verbal) where your committee will test your knowledge in the field to the point they would be comfortable allowing you to research independently. If you have not formed a research committee, use the summer to select internal and external examiners for your project. Selecting your committee is like drafting for a hockey team: there are heavy hitters and there are marginal academics. you may even encounter, as i have, a committee member that will attempt to sabotage your research. that's all part of grad school, so investigate who you're working with through previous students. Your prospective committee's individual publications is a good first step.
Spend the summer reading to the level where you can converse with someone in your field and be able to drop first and last names of the most pertinent research done between the last 50-100 years ago; much of this research (at least in my field of fish larval development) will be in the stacks and in the library; it is incredibly irksome to encounter a PhD candidate that has no references out of what they could pull out of an online paywall. A lack of understanding the foundational research makes the researcher rootless; it is as if a leaf has no idea it is attached to a tree.
Don't stop reading. keep reading. you should be reading already, but keep reading throughout the summer. clearcut an entire state of trees if you need to; keep reading. This is a primary failure mode of the graduate student: not everyone can take graduate school because not everybody can stand having their brain physiologically rewired on a daily basis as they encounter conflicting research, bad research, obscure research, and science-related gossip. Read until you feel comfortable holding conflicting ideas in your head. read until you find yourself asking a question that leads to no answer, and begin to formulate your project from there.
Changing gears slightly, the second most important thing to knowing your pertinent research intimately is the ability to communicate science to non scientists. My program stresses and indoctrinates strong presentation skills. i would highly recommend reading a book like Randy Olson's Don't Be Such a Scientist. Learn the jargon, and learn to internalise the jargon and be able to speak to non-technical audiences. the more you can communicate your message and research, the better you will be.
Good luck!
Either (as others have suggested already) go traveling as its nice to do something not PhD related, although at least in the early years of your PhD you will have likely have the chance to travel to conferences in places far away from home and can always take an extended trip afterwards. You'll also have some time off in the early years of a PhD, but don't expect any in the last year!
Alternatively try and get a high paid job for the summer, if possible in something related to the PhD or that will give you some useful skills.
I'm guessing the PhD doesn't pay too well compared with some of the graduate jobs you could be doing (mine didn't at least). Depending on your funding it might be nice to have a bit of extra cash and some extra work experience might help secure a postdoc position in a few years. I don't know how it works at your university, but at mine most people take longer to complete their PhD than their funding lasts, so having some extra money saved up for the end is really useful.
You'll work for the rest of your life whether you want it or not, do something that defines who you are, no what you are. Don't become like most of the losers here. You should work to make money and enjoy life, not to make work the purpose of your life.
Other than that, just have fun. No matter what anyone says, these are among your last few days of freedom, after that, unless you win big at the lottery, you'll work for the rest of your life and worry about money after you stop.
Now is your chance.
In between my Ph.D. and first post-doctoral stint, I took three months off. Bicycle touring, surfing lessons, and visiting friends across the country. It was one of the best things I've ever done (even considering the credit card debt).
So whatever counts as an adventure for you, go and do it now. Unstructured time off is hard to come by in the sciences, except for the very few elite scientists and engineers who can manage their career on a 40 hour work week. I'm now in year 5 of my post-doctoral work, and I don't see another vacation like that any time soon.
And once again, the collective /. intelligence drops a little.
"What should I do the summer before I start my PhD program, party or work?"
Jebus, dude, it's simple. Here ya go (budget 6 weeks for this):
1. Buy/rent skis and a good road bike.
2. Obtain plane/train/bus tickets to Zermatt in early June.
3. Ski the glacier for a week.
4. Ship the skis home (you don't want to haul them around for the next month)
5. Bike down the Alps to the coast, meeting the water at or around Nice
6. Continue your bike trip from Nice, down the coast, until you hit Barcelona
7. Turn inland, through Zaragoza, Guadalajara, until you get to Madrid
8. In Madrid, find a little bar. It's kinda near the Plaza del Sol. Tell Nico that Pete (the weird American that used to go out with Asphen) sent you. He'll hook you up.
9. Party a couple more days.
10. Sell the bike and fly home
11. Continue with the rest of your life.
12. Profit!
Oh...you don't like doing that? Well then...find something else. (but don't blame me when you have a crappier time)
Go to Paris (not the one in Texas.) Seek out the company of amiable women (or whatever you're into.) Drink, eat, sleep, repeat. Do not take your laptop with you. Take the train to Barcelona of Brussels.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
It's never too late to go back to middle school; hopefully, this time they can teach you that commas don't go before "and." :p
Your use of semicolons is archaic; did you attend middle school in 1854? And there is nothing wrong with a comma before a conjunction. (Were you thinking of lists?) If you want to be picky, formal grammar would like an "I" pronoun in the second clause, but it is a slashdot question, not his thesis.
BTW, for us non-yanks (sic), hwo do you move from "liberal arts" to a science Ph.D. ? Have they lowered the entry requirements that much?
Go hang around the startup community. One of the things that drives many a PhD into the dust eventually is the never ending cycle of
grant-writing- > farm out the cool stuff to less senior people -> attend endless PI meetings -> rinse & repeat.
It's good to get perspectives from communities of people who dream big and fail (or succeed) hard. Gives you a different way to think of things, and sometimes that's all you need to rise to the top and become someone who influences the direction of Big Science rather than feeds at its edges. Go to TED. Find TEDx if you can't go to TED.
But spend your summer Thinking Big.
Counting from the start of my PhD program, I have spent over 15 years doing science (biology) -- most of my grown-up life. I'm still doing science, it's my life. And what I have to say to you, young padawan, is not nice.
You are about to do the most thrilling (awesome, exciting, depressing, frustrating, crazy, fulfilling, everything at once) thing on Earth, you will be doing bloody science, and you think about getting ...new hobbies? New interests? All that in a fashion of someone shopping for a new T-shirt? (ah, skydiving, seems nice, I'll take a pair).
How will you come up with ideas for your research if you have not enough curiosity and interest in the world around you, and you have to fish for interests / hobbies on Slashdot? This is how your question sounds for me: "I just got an apprenticeship at NASA, can someone give me an idea for a new hobby? 'cause I have none". If you need to ask a question like that, then better ask yourself whether PhD in science is really what you want.
Apart from that, if you already have anything that you like to do with your free time, plus you have some kind of relationship (or plan to have one), plus you will take your science seriously, you will have barely any time to pursue "new hobbies / interests". Go and read http://www.phdcomics.com/.
And get out of my lawn.
Go get a minimum wage job for the summer, so that during grad school, you can look back and remember what it was like to be rich.
Get a minimum wage job doing the most physical task you can find and work the longest hours they will give you. Dig ditches, be a waiter or a cook in a popular restaurant, Push a lawn mower, pave roads, work construction, or join a roofing crew. If it's hot, dirty and low paying job, apply!
You will earn some money to pay some bills, so pay on your student loans (if you have them). If you don't have loans, put the money into savings or treat your parents to a vacation.
But the real benefit is you can look back when you get tired of being locked in the lab and tell yourself "I'm NEVER going to work like that again, so I need keep my eye on the prize and to study hard!"
Find a teacher and learn tai chi.
You will never regret it and may well find the benefits profound.
You are welcome on my lawn.
This will be one of the last time you will not have a research project in your life. Do something that you enjoy that does not involve science. Working the summer before does get you ahead. You will finish when you finish.
Really, the only thing to do that makes sense is to spend your time enjoying yourself in the most hedonistic way possible.
Once your classes start you will be working 16 hour days 7 days a week until your dissertation is accepted.
And then if you choose an academic life it will start all over again until you get tenure.
This is your last chance for what could be more than a decade. Make the most of it.
I'm in the write-up stage of my PhD. My advice would be not to sweat it, when you're doing your lab work you'll have time to go and do things if you are well organised; like tacking a week of holidays onto the end of a conference trip and so on. When you start to write up, write papers and so on, bear in mind that it will take you longer than you think most of the time. By the end of it all you will be sick of it and it just takes forever to focus and sift through that mountain of data and experience to distill it.
for the entire summer on what to do, and by the time you figure it out the summer is over. Problem solved!
So, some university thinks you are smart enough to be part of their phd program (I'm assuming they are also pumping some money into you), but you can't figure out what to do with your last summer. Wow! I hope they don't let you use sharp objects. Next time you are in a conundrum flip a coin genius... heads is choice A, tails is not choice A. If it lands on the edge go join a monastery.
Because you're going to be busy.
I suggest hookers, a case of viagra and pounds of coke or ex.
He's attending a liberal arts college. He didn't say he was a liberal arts major.
Such places often have science curricula and grant science degrees.
Here is an example of such:
http://www.bates.edu/biology/
read http://www.phdcomics.com
You don't want to pick up new interests unless they directly support your life/sanity as a PhD student. Things like learning to cook or getting into fitness, yes. Things like learning Haskell for a great good, picking up Arduino, not so much. Learning R, okay maybe that'll save you time down the road. You only have so many spare cycles for technical stuff, I've found, and any half-started projects will only linger around frustratingly.
If you have a qualifying exam in your program, find out what's on it and get an idea of how difficult it will be. Start studying; it doesn't have to be every day, but it'll do wonders to go into it with confidence.
I know people with Bio PhDs who became stay-at-home mothers, fathers, cafe workers, janitors and low level IT people. You should spend the summer thinking about what your job prospects will look like after getting no marketable skills after five years of graduate school.
They've only found a position until the preliminary exam process, sometime in year #2. They have to pass the exams in order to have the remaining time they seem to be thinking they have.
Just saying that maybe you should reconsider alternative things you could also do. I'm not saying that PhD is a wrong decision, but its a painful one. Research is hard and getting stuff published in respectable places is even harder. Make sure you are ready to spend the best years of your life doing that.
In the case of a compound sentence, it is required. And in the case of a compound predicate (as in this sentence), it is considered optional.
When is a period before the word 'and' permitted?
psilocybin mushrooms
You might alter the path of your life.
Like others, I recommend traveling, but internationally. Go somewhere beautiful, affordable, and that has a few world heritage locations. Europe is nice, but very expensive. Go to Peru, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam. Get out and see other cultures, eat interesting foods, struggle with foreign languages and communication. This will be scary and fun and exciting and stressful and will give you more perspective than simply doing the AT or getting drunk with other foreigners in hostels around EU. Any international traveling will give you perspective, but IME I prefer the less traveled path. Live cheap, travel light, take nice photos and have fun.
|plastic....or gasoline?|
Get a job first. Infiltrate this business; learn how things work. Then quit and start your own company. Read "How to Get Rich" by Felix Dennis.
No one has suggested this? Get yourself a wow account, huddle up in a basement somewhere and blow your year on a terrible addiction. Then you will not need your extra letters on your name, you will have a bloodelf that will do you proud!
...
I graduate from my PhD program this May (*epic sighs of relief*), and have a lot of friends who are going the PhD route.
Some of them have a good time, more of them have been having a bad time. PhD programs have something like 50% dropout rates, and if you finally do graduate the job market sucks.
Regardless of how well you like it, you will work your ass off. It will consume the next five years of your life, and that's before you even hit "real life".
I actually had a pretty easy time during most of the first or two of my program -- I didn't find the coursework difficult and the research load was not yet high. My then girlfriend (now wife) and I would go to restaurants as much as we could afford, do things outdoors, do things in the city; we just generally had an amazing time of it. Then, we both got slammed as I entered the heavy research phase and she started to get slammed in medical school. When we graduate I'll get a job and she'll go right into residency.
I told you all that to tell you that for a time, I worked less hard than I could have and did as much fun stuff as possible (within reason), and I don't regret it for a moment. The fond memories I have of the time still cheer me up today, and I wouldn't trade them for anything.
Don't you get it? If the man has reached the high echelons of academics, no prole such as you can dare speak ill of his faults. It is like you are new to the upper classes. :p
Europe is very bike friendly. The best places with bike paths and campsites are Holland, Germany, Denmark, etc... that's what I did before starting my PhD in biophysics... it's cheap, very rewarding, and gives you time to reflect. the music festivals suggestion above is also a good one! i wish i had done that!
In almost every case it is acceptable to use a comma before "and". In the case of a series, it's a Harvard/Oxford/serial comma (and is either present or absent, depending on the editorial style of whoever you're writing for). In the case of a compound sentence, it is required. And in the case of a compound predicate (as in this sentence), it is considered optional. As a rule, you should not use a comma in a compound predicate unless the sentence is fairly complex. I probably would not have put in that comma, but I also probably would not have objected if someone else had put it in.
The only situation I can think of in which it is actually wrong (as opposed to being required or being a style issue) to use a comma before the word "and" is when you're writing a simple series of two things, e.g. "The boy, and girl went to the store."
English major or not, I bet you're really glad for those English classes you took.
Finally, a Liberal Arts smack down on Slashdot! This and the recent criticisms against Apple make me realize that times change - even here on Slashdot!
Or the World is coming to an end. Wait - criticism against Apple gets modded up. An English Major gets modd'ed +5 - OH GOD! THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END! WE'RE DOOMED!
Nearly all the Masters' and Ph.D's I've had the "pleasure" of working with are completely incapable of _doing_ what they spent a decade _learning_. I'm convinced they just took the grad school route to simply delay the inevitable.
The best advice you will ever get: Starting today, spend every single day studying for your PhD exams. Next summer, after you finish the exams, you can hike the Appalachians. Your professors will consider you a genius, or at worst hard-working, and they will write you great recommendations. Don't waste time while you're in graduate school.
I had a short summer, as my undergrad got out late and my grad school started early. Lucky for me, my little brother had just graduated from high school.
We started hiking the southern end of the Appalachian Trail, starting at Springer Mountain. After about three weeks, we managed to get to Clingman's Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
This experience changed my life. I absolutely loved it.
Brother and and I got struck by lightning. On separate occasions. (more like shocked)
We stopped for a full day about every week to rest and recover. At the start it was hard to do 10-12 miles per day with a full pack. At the end we were doing 20-25 with no trouble.
Out with nature, relaxing, nothing to really think about but getting to the next stopping point and feeding yourself.
Awesome experience!
Some (many?) programs will let you start doing rotations and projects the summer before you start your program. There are a whole heap of reasons for getting there early. Once school starts you'll be expected to be taking classes, doing research, selecting a lab/PI, and getting familiar with a new area (going from a small liberal arts college to a research university may involve a change of city in your case).
In your early years there is a lot pressure to do well in classes, and f you are coming out of undergrad there will be momentum to focus on your coursework, particularly as you get ready for quals. It is hard to get settled into a new lab and be productive, so your research suffers and it is hard to do well and impress potential advisors and be happy about your research work. If you start during the summer, you'll have some research momentum that will carry you through your classwork time. It also gives you time to learn the new area and all the little details you need for your life. Finally, many programs don't already have a PI picked out for you, so you can spend time going to any summer seminars are going on, sit in on different lab meetings (to learn about the culture of how the lab works), and generally start to learn about what is actually going on. Anything you are reading in papers or even on the lab website is about what the lab used to be doing, sometimes wildly out of date, and sometimes the projects that are already well established are precisely the ones you won't be able to work on or won't want to, because there is already an army of postdocs and grad students already working on them. You can scope out the landscape and find the interesting new research areas that are just emerging.
I wouldn't worry about starting a hobby right now. Once school starts, you can meet your no cohort of students. There will usually be some people who are into something new that you aren't into (rock climbing, wine tasting, soccer, skiing, distance biking, juggling, whatever). That's a good way to discover new hobbies and interests, and a good way to bond with your colleagues. Science is good about bringing together people from eclectic backgrounds, particularly globally/internationally, and it is good way to be exposed to different cultures, foods, ways of thinking, etc. One big transition from undergrad to grad school in science is that usually there is a big jump in the internationalized character of the grad students and postdocs you interact with. They will definitely be introducing you to new things. At the very least, your new university will have student groups, and usually there will be an activity fair (yeah, even for grad students), so you can have a chance to learn about new groups. You can even put together an intramural team (choose your sport) in your department.
A few years into school, you will have time and options to try something new. There is a big lull after you finish quals and classes (and hopefully finished TAing) while you are just doing your dissertation research, that is a sort of the long dark stretch. That's a good time that you will want to be getting out of the lab now and again so you don't go bonkers. Don't think about it being "my last out of the lab for a long time". Grad school is a long, indeterminate stretch of time. It's a marathon or endurance run not a sprint, so you will need to take breaks and vacations as you go. Once you are in the long research stretch, you will actually have some flexibility to take vacations and so forth. Most advisors are fine with you taking some away breaks now and again, as long as you are being really productive most of the time.
Good luck in grad school! It is can be really trying at times, but it is fun and worth it. The upcoming sequester is going to have big effects on how biological science is funded, good luck!
"Politics is for the moment, an equation lasts eternity" -A. Einstein
The summer before I started my biological sciences PhD in the mid-1990's, I temped in offices and other work low-paid environments. All places I worked at thought I was fantastic and two offered me permanent positions with a promotion into management.
As someone who had never worked outside of a research environment, this was an excellent experience for two reasons. 1) it showed me I had skills and a work ethic to succeed in the outside world and 2) it showed me that most "normal" work is tedious, boring, regimented and difficult. There were several points in my career since where I truly valued this insight about other options. I took on more risky projects because I knew if I failed at science I could get a real job and when I've gotten bored or frustrated with being an assistant professor, I realize that most people have it waay worse.
The other thing it taught me to deal with the kick in the gut when you don't get hired.
(I also went to Vegas for a weekend.)
Get out. Breathe some fresh air. Go to some big events. Get some exercise. Live it up.
To all the people who say he should choose between being "serious" and pursuing something non-work-related, I say this is BS!
The best physicists, biologists, engineers, etc. I know have a healthy love of non-work-related activities, whether its hiking/backpacking, surfing, woodworking, cycling, music, literature, dance, whatever, It makes them much better at their field because they can think beyond the rut. I can't tell you how many people I know have had their breakthrough insights as they were doing something that invigorated them that had nothing to do with work.
Play video games, drink beer, and occasionally masturbate. I think that pretty much covers it, and it also covers things that you probably won't have time to do during grad school.
/Uni prof
You have a few months to experience life in another location and with another culture with few restrictions. Seize the day.
--Sam
screw the Appalachian Trail...well, not really. Don't let other people's idea of 'adventure' bias your decision.
The idea is, do something that requires alot of time and commitment that you truly enjoy. Something that the future you're going for may not allow the flexibility for. It can be something challenging like a long backpacking trip. That's a popular thing to do in this situation.
Let's say you're going to be an oceanographer. You're going to have all kinds of adventures in your program. You probably already have had some interesting research trips. You might want to try to see a baseball game in every stadium in the National League or something like that.
Don't be the kind of person who does things 'for the story' so you can look cool.
Thank you Dave Raggett
Many commenters have said 'party' or 'get laid a lot'...this guy gets +5 for 'start working early'...both seem like good options.
The point is, by this point in your life, you should have some idea of what kind of 'work/life' balance works for you, so now you execute.
What I'm saying is, do both: get involved in work you love and get out and have some fun. You will most likely be in your current town for awhile. Branch out, start making professional contacts, go to art gallery openings, go to 'meet ups' or happy hour networking bullshits...
For better or worse, 'work' and 'partying' overlap a lot more than some university students think. It is hard to provide evidence for such a claim beyond annecdotes...it's true. You don't have to mix work and pleasure, but you at least need to get an idea how you can fit into different situations.
Thank you Dave Raggett
Congrats on having your ego stroked by Slashdot. Who, except you, cares that you achieved a spot as a doctoral student. Big whoop. Must be a slow news day for this to be considered news for nerds.
if you don't already have one. And maybe try something out of your research area.
PhD students usually live their work, so you may be so used to not having hobbies that you don't realize it ;)
Anything that involves moving around is probably a good place to start.
Thank you Dave Raggett
Have some fun. If you're going to spend the next 5 years grinding it out on your leather ass for some jack-off advisor, at least get properly fucked up for the summer before.
I'm in my 4th year in a CS Ph.D. program. This is your last vacation. Ever. Do nothing. Do less than nothing. Do even less than that.
I took a tour of Belgium for 30 days and it was a great experience. Small country with great food and people, the university there is incredible and very old (Leuven). I would also recommend trying to get a chapter from some classwork, and picking a committee with members who are older and won't use your diss to make a point but help you get through it.
Just for context, I am a prof. in a US biology dept. I'd recommend experimenting in areas nearish but not in your area of interest (experimenting as in trying/playing, not slapping on nitrile gloves). Think of analogies: if you are going into biochem, and think of a cell as a factory, read up on how actual factories run. If you are curious about phylogenetic history of plants, read about how religions have branched through time. If you will be doing a lot of coding in R, try doing something in a very different style -- maybe program in lego's mindstorms visual programming environment. You will be getting specialized soon, but many great ideas in bio were partially inspired from seemingly unrelated areas. Famously, Darwin developed some of his ideas about evolution whule reading Malthus for fun, and the more you can be like Darwin, the better off you'll be (just don't marry your cousin).
seriously...
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Get some training in HPC and ensure you have a strong statistics background. You can do this while fucking around like everyone else suggests.
Do lots of drugs and enjoy yourself.
It's permitted whenever it reads well. It's a myth that one cannot start a sentence with "and" or "but", just as it's a myth that split infinitives are categorically forbidden.
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
Name one example of a 'rule meant to be followed'? Not a law of physics.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
I have a bio PhD from a prestigious school (think top 2 in the world). I love science, enjoy benchwork, have a good work ethic, great at networking, have published well, etc. I know the game, very well, so listen up. The job situation sucks balls, especially if you want to be an academic. It is a path to misery my friend. You think you are special because you got into a PhD program? You are not! It is a sweatshop, and you are drone 4315387. My advice: the PhD is not worth the sacrifice. And the academic path is a never-ending sacrifice. I would not do it again. if you really love bio, get into industry, learn everything you can, climb the ladder, make connections and money. Connections+money = options and quality of life. If you're hard up to 'answer questions' (eyes roll) industry has R&D as well, with the difference being that you're addressing questions in the context of more practical constraints (price, efficiency, yield, etc.) that are much more valuable in today's economy. You can always go back to school if you really want the paper. If you are really determined to get this PhD now, do it as quickly as possible. 'Passion for science' and 'curiosity' are the carrots that professors throw you to keep you working on their hare-brained schemes. Don't fall for it! Find the most bread-and-butter project that guarantees you a paper a year. And when I say guarantee, I mean guar-an-fawk-ing-tee. Then start agitating to graduate after the first paper is published with the goal of being done in three years. I've seen good scientists do it in three years with solid publications. They got their degree and moved on to whatever they wanted to do. Or you can take 6 years to figure out what protein X's role in yeast secretion is (like all the other lemmings). Sincerely, Dr. Drone 2431769
"am not sure If I am interested in doing something related to my research interests" ---- this is a warning sign!!!! You should not do it! You need to have passion and luck to succeed after you defend. It doesn't look like you have the first component. Also how are your writing, communication and marketing skills? - these are becoming more important than research when you plan to stay in academy. PhD in biol. sci., while fun to study, is a horrible choice career and life-style wise. I have one... Good luck anyway!
... a nice compact one.
My recommendation would be to spend some time looking at what jobs are available to PhD graduates in your field. Then look at the salaries. Make sure that you are happy doing the job and making that salary.
If you aren't, it's not too late to switch to chemistry or bio-chem or whatever you want to be doing when you graduate.
I cannot stress how important it is that you think hard about it now, because this will be your last chance to change fields without a massive hit to your resume or your personal life, if at all.
Also, if you are thinking about taking the summer to get your ya-yas out before graduate school starts, you're still thinking like an undergrad and may not be ready to go to graduate school. Your peers (and future competitors) are probably pursuing research positions for the summer before they ship out. Jobs are tight right now and bio grad-students are plentiful and cheap. Work hard to set yourself apart from your peers or don't bother with the grind.
Before you waste any more of your life
When you begin working on your PhD, you will continue working on your PhD until it is complete, at which time you will either directly enter industry or a postdoc. A gap in a resume is a serious concern to many employers, unfortunately. If you do a postdoc, you will continue doing postdocs until you get a job and then you will work for the rest of your life, with bills to pay and mouths to feed. A three-month vacation is not in your forecast at any other time in your life other than after you retire. Now would be a good time, not just to vacation, but to have the best vacation of your life. Go where you've always wanted to go with someone you'll have a great time with. The probability that you will ever have another opportunity like this is slim to nil. And go ahead and spend some money. It's okay. You won't be as poor being a grad student as you were when you were an undergrad.
That doesn't mean some preparation won't help. First of all, you should try to think about what kind of biologist you want to be. You should try to be good at it, whatever it is. It's going to require some planning and introspection. One thing to anticipate is that you're going to be very busy and under a lot of pressure. You should plan for ways to deal with that in advance. One way of dealing is to have some hobby or something as an occasional escape. Be careful though in choosing your hobby. Try to choose something that doesn't take much time, and that isn't intellectually taxing. My hobby was learning Japanese, a bad choice on both grounds. If I was to do it over, I would try a sport or something physical. That gets your mind off your work, and it can release a lot of stress. Another thing to prepare for is planning time for your own personal study. You're going to be terribly busy studying for exams and doing homework, etc. Find something that you're interested in, and look into that. Figure something out on your own that is not required work. This actually helped me a lot at the times when I felt overwhelmed. Another thing you're going to want to work into your schedule is some career planning. Do something once every few weeks. Look at indeed.com, craigslist, jobiology or whatever, and see what companies are looking for. As bad as it sounds for biologists, as I'm looking for jobs, there are many more options there than for physicists. If you're reading slashdot, you likely have some technical abilities. Programming often comes in handy. In physics, some programming was used in about 80% of PhD's, and I'd guess it's somewhere around 60-70% of biologists, but don't quote me on that. Anyway, if you like programming, it couldn't hurt to get a little more experience here. Scientific programming is different from sys-admin or soft-dev, so maybe look into some of the well-known programs in your field and get to know them. Chances are, these days, a lot of them will be open-source. At least many in physics are. Personally, I think it's a good idea to program in a language that is common in your field. If it's Fortran, then it's Fortran (it's not as bad as it used to be). But go with the group on this so you can cooperate with your colleagues.
In your PhD, the three keys to success are not location location location, it's Adviser Adviser Adviser. This is one of the big choices you will make in your life. Do it carefully. Your adviser will be your parent, prosecutor, parole officer, and savior (or destructor), all in one. There are some very excellent advisers out there and there are some real assholes too, and it's actually kind of hard to tell even after being there fore a couple of years. Other commentors have mentioned some useful ideas for selecting an adviser, so see those too. It's sometimes hard to get an honest comment from current students of some advisers because of the conflict of interest, so really ask around and talk through your ideas with some of the older grad students, but definitely more than one. One other point I'd like to make is that you should select someone as good/prestigious as possible. I opted not to go w
Jersey Shore
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Work to save up so you can pay back your loans faster.
You're going to attract women like a shoe sale. There's a bar here in town where guys in med school and chiropractor's school hang out and women are all over it trying to land one. VERY HOT women I might ad. Females here Dr. and biology in the same sentence and you're going to think Brad Pitt is standing behind you.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Go get a job instead.
Compete in the Mongol Rally! http://mongolia.charityrallies.org
Nice, but citation needed.
The _last_ thing you want is to arrive to school already burned out. Realize that you will have plenty of opportunity for burn outs in school. Trying to look up and study something right now is probably a waste of time. Once in grad school, and under a watchful eye of your advisory, you will have the judgement on what to study and how to prepare yourself. For now, just take it easy and do something fun. I'd visit music festivals, national parks, travel abroad, etc. Enter the grad school well rested and ready.
But also, if you don't know how to program, you should learn, and quick. Not only will it help being able to create and run new simulations, it is also a fantastic fallback.
If you struggle to get a job in a lab afterwards, you could go for scientific/engineering developer with great domain knowledge. Think the guys that write software for bio-engineers.
Might as well join that PhD program that researches the limits of stupidity in humanity.
Lose your virginity. Trust me, I have a Ph.D.
Modded down because you're flat out wrong. It was explained quite nicely to you by the post above yours.
Semicolons are useful; some of us are sad we can't use regular colons more in everyday writing, and they let us pretend otherwise.
I'm a graduating senior from a small New England liberal arts college, and have secured a spot in a Biological Science Ph.D. program for the next five years.
It's never too late to go back to middle school; hopefully, this time they can teach you that commas don't go before "and." :p
You should omit a comma before "and" when you're doing a list: apples, bananas, cherries and dates.
Otherwise, the normal rules apply, so that if it is a new clause, you can most certainly end the old one with a comma and start the new one with "and".
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
The pursuit of science and art has always had a significant but under appreciated aspirational component. As the market has become tight due to oversupply of candiates and industry contraction, the stories of overworked and dead-ended people are becoming more common and backstopped with ephemeral ideals like, "at least I was doing what I loved"
I would recommend that you spend some of your summer clarifying ideas about how to make sure you don't get stuck. Develop a plan to exit when you see you are mired down.
Dan Rather just put together a decent piece on the reality for scientists in the trenches. I'd recommend making it your first stop after reading the comments here.
http://www.axs.tv/blogs/phdont-march-5-2013/
Second get thee to the Science careers forum for great advise and support
http://scforum.sciencecareers.org/viewforum.php?f=1
Good luck!
He's attending a liberal arts college. He didn't say he was a liberal arts major.
That is not helping! What does a "liberal arts college" mean? What is the point in calling something a "liberal arts college" if it also does science degrees?
Here in the UK most universities do courses in a wide variety of subjects, from hard science through to fine arts, so it doesn't really arise, although you do get ones specialising in science subjects e.g. Imperial College.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Just go out and enjoy life. I understand the desire to get prepared and be on your A game for the first day of your program. But we're talking about 5 years of your life that are going to be centered around your studies. Enjoy a couple solid months off.
Wow how about some advice that he actually asked for instead of a bunch of bitter, heres-the-reality PhD rants?
The summer between undergrad and my PhD I went on a 3 week road trip with another high school friend who was in the same position. We hit most of the southwestern US and visited several National Parks. It was a ton of fun and a great experience for both of us. We camped out a lot or stayed with friends/family which saves cash and was fun too. This was before digital cameras took off and I also got my first cell phone just before the trip. I have a ton of great memories and recently looked back at the pictures/video.
So my advice is travel. Once you get older you'll start having more and more commitments, enjoy this 3 month period where you really aren't beholden to anyone or anything (no work, no school, no family to support/care). Don't get me wrong, the later life stuff is great, it's that this is your best opportunity to enjoy this type of freedom.
The largest problem that most scientists face, is that most people get involved in Science because they are not good with people. LEARN HOW TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY! That is the best advice to give anyone going into any area of science. If you don't volunteer as a journalist, spend the time communicating in some productive way. Practice practice practice. The better you get, the more entertaining you are, the more likely you'll be pushed up to the very top of your profession and with it have more fun at your job then all the others stuck in a lab somewhere. Trust me, learn to communicate and your life will be more enriched, both financially and professionally.
You likely won't have large chunks of free time for the next five years, or maybe ever again in your academic career. Is there something you've always wanted to do, but never quite had the time for? Go do that. I drove across the US and hiked, biked, and visited lots of national parks (I was moving from Boston to Berkeley, so it made sense to do the road trip). Another friend went climbing in Thailand for 2 months, and another went hiking in the Andes. You can do a lot in 2-3 months.
If you are feeling burned out from undergrad, remember that it is also okay to relax! One friend of mine went and stayed with her parents all summer--she read tons of books, went hiking in the hills around the house, played with the family dog, etc. If that sounds like your idea of a good summer, by all means take some time off and focus on your mental and physical health. Grad school is a long, hard road without many opportunities for mental recovery.
--5th year physics PhD student
NOAA runs the National Observer Program that puts Fisheries observers on commercial fishing vessels at sea. Being an observer on ships in the Pacific Northwest was, for me, an amazing education in applied biology. http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/observer-home/index
It also pays you a salary while you don't need to pay rent (you're on a ship). I'm specifically recommending Pacific Northwest because it's an amazing piece of ocean to spend some time in: you train in Seattle, fly to Alaska, then get on a ship where it can snow on you in July.
You'll have some good stories when you get back.
Play the banjo
How best to explain this?
A liberal arts college (in the US) generally offers most of the same undergraduate majors that the larger universities do. They have the same or in some cases more stringent requirements to get that major. In almost all cases, liberal arts colleges are smaller schools that offer few if any advanced degrees. One advantage (in most cases) is that all classes are taught by actual professors and those professors are usually hired to teach first and do research second. They have actual office hours, and unless you're in a large intro level course, you can usually get one on one time with a professor.
Aside from size, just about all liberal arts colleges require that in addition to courses required for your major, you also take a number of courses in various other departments to round out your education and thinking. The exact requirements vary widely, but usually there are requirements for humanities (literature, history), hard sciences, softer sciences, etc. Many require writing and/or language courses.
One possible downside is that since these schools are smaller, they may not have quite the same resources as a large research university. On the other hand, the students in general are better prepared for higher education. They also often have stronger alumni networks.
As a final note, don't confuse a liberal arts college with a "liberal arts" major at large state universities. These are usually (with a few exceptions) just a renaming of "general studies" that sounds better and is offered for the less intelligent athletes on scholarship; no offense to any athletes who actually have a brain.
I would wager that the small liberal arts college did not have multiple offerings in many of the areas of modern biology. So why not consider being near the top of your new graduate cohorts by reviewing all the stuff you either did not cover in your UG courses, or never got to really learn the first time around? Read some textbooks on any of the sub-disciplines of biology. Approach what you do with a drive to be outstanding not some average dude who spent the summer ...........
When I did my PhD, I had to changed language and also move across the country. Before starting, I visited a bit with my family and old friends, but most of my spare time was spent working to earn dearly needed money. Many years later, I am now retired from a fruitful and very enjoyable carrier. No regrets there! However, there is only one thing that I feel sorry about, from time to time: I should have taken more time to be with and enjoy my family during the period preceding my departure.
Don't do ANYTHING related to it. You will have time for that. Go walk, spend a month in india, climb the andes, whatever. Those things you will miss.
Some classic biology papers are in available only in German or French.
Personally advise German rather than French.
-Current Biology Grad Student.
Chicago 14th ed., sections 5.29 and 5.33.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Wow, everyone who posts here had a miserable time in grad school. I'm in bio grad school at Harvard and it's relaxed and fun. Sure, some people are miserable, but the rest of us are just doing what we enjoy. If you hate grad school as much as the people on Slashdot, you're doing something wrong. Maybe you're not in a good enough program, or maybe you're doing it for the wrong reasons. Maybe your entire approach is flawed.
I suggest you travel for the summer. You'll spend the next 5 years in grad school, so you'll have plenty of time for academics. If you don't know how to program, then you can learn that on the side (it's actually very easy)
If you're planning on going an academic route in the long-term then I have some advice....which comes from having sat on hiring committees gawd knows how many times....
If you know what your "main" research direction is going to be topic-wise (and I surely hope you know at this point....if not, get there BEFORE you start) then the following might help you get and secure an academic job.
First, jobs at "big name" or "tier 1" institutions are, umm, rare. You'd better be VERY frigging good with VERY good contacts in a VERY hot area to get one. Seriously. Work as if you want to get employed at those places, but don't base your life plan on it.
Odds are good you'll be at a lower tier institution where the department is smallish. So it's useful to have multiple "teaching" hats for those places. That's the kind of place I teach at. It's not where I WANTED to teach, but it's where I've ended up (just for context....I have publication numbers that warrant a big place, as many as the top 3 or 4 *full* professors PUT TOGETHER at my institution....but not the connections or the "hot area" for a big place....the biggest myth I've had blown up for me as an academic is that academe is a meritocracy....it's just not).
This is where the advice comes from....when we hire at my institution we're looking for someone with broad enough expertise they can teach in multiple areas, and the more unrelated those are (well, within reason) the better....just to cover our bases for sabbaticals, leave etc.
My advice is to dig around and find a project tangential to your "main research interest" that you can work on for the summer that you'll get one or two publications from as a co-author. The project can be related to your main interest, but different enough from the main one that it expands your background so you can talk about BOTH at any interviews. For instance, if you're work is going to be lab-based muscle physiology then find an exercise kinesiology project for the summer so you're getting applied experience.
If you can, keep your thumb in that other project for the years you're in your PhD....having a side project really enhances your hiring options.
On the hiring committees at my place we actively look for people that can collaborate with others in other research areas....that can find joint research synergies. Working just in ONE lab doesn't demonstrate that, having people in another lab that you work with just might.
From my own experience as a student....I did the research in my group and published a fair amount during my PhD....I went to all of the big conferences that my lab did. I also went to a smaller conference (paid for out of my own pocket) that no one else in my research group did. Where did I get my jobs from? Not from the "big name" connections at major international conferences I went to with my supervisor....those never panned out (all SORTS of politics involved). Nope. I got my employment in my field from the connections I made at my smaller conference that no one else in my research group went to.
And why am I posting anonymously? Because of this comment.....I'm the only PhD out of my lab in 13 years that was a non-equity hire (ya, I'm a white male, and certainly not the only one out of the lab) that has a tenure-track job. The rest of the few PhDs hired out of my lab group over 13 years all allow the hiring institution to check off an equity box (and they ARE at bigger institutions despite MUCH weaker CVs). Am I complaining? No. But I AM saying that if you WANT a job you have to set up the conditions for it...and part of that is understanding the job market that exists.....such as expecting to work at a small place NOT a large place and preparing for THAT kind of job....and a broad background helps with that.
Best of luck.
And, by the way, I agree with the other posters that say get out, get out now. If I'd truly understood what a profs job was like I would NEVER have done a PhD. I think it was probably a great job in the 70's and 80's. I think it stinks like a rotten carp now.