lab choice - (Jan/04/2007 )
hi guys
i always feel that i did not make a good choice for my Ph D lab. the lab i was interested in moved to another university the same year i came to this university. i dont feel very happy with the lab atmosphere, i'm always worried that my project does not work cause im not very lucky but i work hard. the PI does not give a project but let the students do their own projects. i thought at the begining to work on a project that i found later its collaborative project with many people from other lab involved without proper interaction so that people might do the same exact thing at the same time and the PIs didnt mind that as they dont care who do it as long as it will be done. so i decided to get away from this project and do my own project. i searched the literature till i found something not very well understood and decided to work on it. few experiments worked but sometimes things just dont work. I fell bored and worried that things will not work. do u all feel worried too ll the time.
seems like the right lab to me
dont worry! but my advice pick up something that is not so difficult to get results from. remember that you need to publish some papers and graduate not win a nobel prize in some field! I feel worried all the time may be because i saw people working too hard for their Phd with no papers to graduate but i never let this feelings interfere with my work , i keep hoping that i can do something good.
As for ur PI believe me its OK to work on ur own as long as u searched for something not too hard to get.
wish u all the best.
if you can chose, I'll advice to chose more than one topic as a start, after one year or so you can chose for the one that works out fine. there is always the chance that one topic doesn't work, so if you have only that one, you're stuck 