Supervisors' role?

<p>Well I wanted to know if there's anybody out there having the same situation or if they have experienced the similar situation. I finished my undergrad study and now working in a research laboratory. Sometimes I'm having a feeling that I wanted to further my study, that is to say "go for graduate study" where I'll be learning, networking and sharing the idea in the least. </p>

<p>OK here it goes: I wanted to know What exactly is the purpose of having a supervisor? It's obvious that Prof or PI are more experienced than we all are, of course, in research field. But What role do they play for? My current Prof is always demanding. Speaking of "demanding", I need to clarify that. For instance, when a student falls short of his/her GPA in high school, parents can remind their child to do better or improve their grades, or at least they could encourage their child in study. That's because the school curriculum is fixed. The exam question is Yes or No, Multiple Choices: there's a stipulated grading system where students can work out to achieve their goals. That's pretty simple. But when a graduate student falls short of the so-called "data" to publish, what exactly is the job of supervisor? Let's say the supervisor is anticipating to discover a new "novel" gene in the project, which would make a good data to publish, but a graduate student couldn't find any relevant transcript in his endeavour. In such a case, is it compulsory for a graduate to look for that imaginary genes or bear the brunt of the supervisor's mood swings? My feeling is as in research, we all are trying to understand what exactly is Nature which is obviously not a pre-defined arena. If Nature is already simple, everybody will be picking up Nobel Prizes. </p>

<p>So I wondered if there's any graduate or anybody who have had such experience in research or it's just me who don't understand the way Prof can swing their mood? </p>

<p>I have heard from my friends who said their Profs are very flexible and used to encourage them "Research is like that, we are walking in an unexplored terrain." Then I wonder what exactly is the job of supervisors? Are they there to encourage their graduate students OR to show the right way if students go the wrong way OR demand whatever whim they have from graduate students? </p>

<p>I'll look forward to hearing CC members experience which would help me a lot when I consider whether or not I should go for grad study. </p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>You mentioned how objective and straight forward high school was with clearly defined goals and rules and then contrasted that to research where everything is subjective. You should apply the same thinking to the role of a supervisor. Some supervisors act as though they are people’s bosses, monitoring their day to day activities, suggesting certain test groups in experiments, giving them literature to read. While other supervisors act as a provider of resources and technical expertise. My PI falls into the latter in that he provides funding for the lab to operate and purchase supplies, he helps inform overall project strategy and arranges collaborations, but he would not dare finding literature for me to read, nor would he tell me what controls to run in a given experiment. If you perform your experiments carefully and the hypothesis proves to be negative, there isn’t much you can do about it except to propose a different hypothesis to explain a phenomenon and test that.</p>

<p>Hi belevitt, thanks for sharing your experience. Your PI seems nice to work with. I hate the part where PI gets upset all day because of the elusive data. If there’s someone who would be happy to get data, I’m certain we’d be the immediate ones who would be ecstatic over successful experiments because we’re the ones who’re working on the experiment daily. There’s a few more realities out there in the lab where it’s bitter to swallow the situation though.</p>

<p>Belevitt is correct. Every PI (or “supervisor”) is different.</p>

<p>Your word choice suggests that perhaps you are an international student. If this is the case, you may have run into lab culture shock – a different system than you’re used to. Graduate students and researchers are supposed to be somewhat independent while still working within the scope of the PI’s research. Very few PIs are “hand holders” and instead they expect their researchers to take a problem and work toward its solution, with periodic reports on their progress. Beyond that, however, anything goes. Some labs have weekly meetings to discuss problems and results while others never meet; instead, progress is discussed one-on-one with the PI. </p>

<p>If your PI seems demanding, it may be that you are not performing up to graduate/research assistant levels. Are you reading the literature without being asked to? Are you approaching the research with a solid understanding of what has already been accomplished? Are you being assertive in finding worthy topics for journal articles based on your data? If you feel that the research is flawed, do you have a reasonable basis for this? Can you suggest an alternative or even an explanation of why the results aren’t there? I’m often surprised by how many graduate students have not yet papers written by their PIs; it means that they can’t possibly understand the direction of the research. </p>

<p>But yes, PIs are human. Some are nice, and others are not.</p>