Chapter 7 - Choosing the right Professor!

If there is one person other than you and one factor other than the choice of University that would determine the success of your PhD, that would be the Professor! PhD is a long-term (and most of the times a life-time) commitment where the Professor (Supervisor)-Student relationship is very critical! There are academic family trees where you will be identified with your Professor long after you finish your PhD! Given the importance of this relationship, choosing the right Professor (for you!) is such an important decision that should be taken with a lot of wisdom!

 No human is perfect, including Professors! Now, I hear someone murmuring that their Professor is inhuman! Ahem, I better condone the murmur and move on. Each individual has a personality and it is important to select someone with whom our ‘chemistry’ would work! Depending on your personality and what you want to achieve, choose the group and the Professor wisely. Though I can’t go to list all the personality types and ask you to do psychometric tests for the Professor and group members, I will talk about a few generic personality types and group dynamics that might help you in the process of choosing your supervisor.

 Big group vs Small group

 Before I move on the personality of the professors, let us talk about the size of the group and its impact. Some groups are really big, having anywhere between 50-100 people, including the senior post-docs, post-docs, PhD students and other graduate students. On the other hand, many groups have modest numbers within 10, having 2 or 3 post-docs, 2 or 3 PhD students and a couple of other graduate students. Both big and small groups have its own pros and cons. Depending on your personality, you might fit into either of them. I will talk about a few pros and cons of both to give you hints before you make a choice. Big groups usually enjoy a good funding, a lot of projects in the pipeline and an opportunity to work with a variety of projects and people. You will not only have the depth of the project but also a breadth of related projects. However, there might be several limitations (well, depends on you) as well. Given the sheer number, the equipment availability for each individual might be an issue. Most of the times, you will have to primarily work with a post-doc for your PhD and your interaction with your PhD Supervisor might be minimal. I have seen cases where the chemistry between the post-doc in-charge and the PhD student spoiled and the PhD student has to go through a lot of struggle. Another point to consider is that you might end up with a large number of publications (which is important and is good) by a small contribution in terms of the experiments or data analysis which might make you lose your focus on your ‘prime’ contribution. In other words, you might be too used to working in large groups and getting easy help that if you want to start working individually later during your post-doc, you might feel the heat. I am talking about cases here and this is not the norm but like I always say, better be prepared for the worst-case scenario. Small group, on the other hand, gives a lot of mentoring time with the Professor. Your individual contribution will become very important and you will be forced to learn and operate a variety of equipment that would be useful in the long run. In terms of cons, if the Professor is micromanaging and your personality type doesn’t suit, that will be a huge problem. You can’t even avoid him/her as the group size is too small and limited external help as there will only be a couple of post-docs. Successful PhDs come out of both the types of groups even as you are reading! Think of these points beforehand so that you will be well-prepared to start your PhD journey.

 Supervisor and Co-supervisor

 More interdisciplinary the type of PhD topics become, there is an increasing trend to have two supervisors, specializing in different areas. While this is good, the relationship between the two supervisors will play a role in determining how smooth your PhD journey would be! I had two supervisors and I was glad I had two! They perfectly were for each other and I have never seen any contradictions between them. If the position that you are taking is associated with two groups, it is always good to talk to the students before to understand the dynamics!

 Self-learning vs directed-learning

 There are many different types of groups and supervisors. The first generic group I can think of is self-learning vs directed learning. There are certain groups where you are left to decide on your PhD topic, the progress, and the means of doing it. While some may think it is horrendous, I am of the opposite view! I did such a PhD and I was completely satisfied with it! I had a lot of learning and it was a very fruitful and valuable experience! Of course, it was a lot of hard work and long nights, nevertheless, the most fruitful of my career so far! But it will not suit everybody. Some may require or prefer directed learning, where the project is already there and there are people to help and guide in every step. There would be clear objectives to achieve and a clear path to traverse, of course laden with uncertainties and surprises. Depending on your personality type, evaluate which type of group or Professor would fit you well. Current staff and students would give you the most valuable inside information.

 Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor

 One criterion to consider is also the academic title of the PhD supervisor. Assistant Professors will have a lot of time for you, as you are an important part of their career and your achievement and their achievements are intertwined. This also means that you will have lot of attention and sometimes a little more pressure. Full professors are established in their research field and might be burdened with many administrative works, your time with them might be limited.  Associate Professors are somewhere in between. Again, some might prefer a very pushy Assistant Professor, that they would learn and do a lot within a short amount of time while some others would prefer established full professors to learn and glean from their experience. This is just a generic guideline and doesn’t mean all Assistant Professors will be pushy and all full Professors will not have enough time for their PhD students. A lot of other factors like availability of a senior post-doc in the group or the structure of the PhD program will also play a role in balancing the PhD experience as a whole. Again, the current staff and students would give you the most valuable inside information.

 Milestones vs Micromanagement

 There are professors who set milestones and will not disturb you until that time. They might inquire you of the status periodically to check if you are progressing in the right direction to achieve that milestone. There are others who might do micromanagement. They want to know what you do every day and expect an update. I have seen both approaches and though I personally love the milestone-based approach, there were people who benefitted from the micromanagement as they would exactly know what to do next. When I was doing my PhD, I know of a Professor who would call my fellow PhD student every day and talk for an hour. They did not have any regular weekly or biweekly meetings but individual updates every day! Though that was pressurizing for my friend, he ended up with a long-list of impactful publications and a secured future. And that professor was an Assistant Professor ?.

 Effort-oriented vs results-oriented

 There is another generic distinction between the personality of the professors that I could think of. Some are effort-oriented while some are results-oriented. I will explain with examples. There was a professor I know of in Singapore and whom I have collaborated with during my PhD, whose criteria for his PhD student’s graduation is very simple, 4 research papers in decent journals. Seems pretty straight-forward right? Despite all odds, they have to achieve the goal. He will do his best to provide the infrastructure but the learning and progress is the student’s responsibility. I know many of his students, some appreciate this approach and went on to do well later in their academic career while some couldn’t achieve the goal (for genuine reasons not of student’s fault) and did not get submit their PhD thesis for graduation for 7 years (but went on to do well in a very reputed company, that’s a different story! ?). There are other professors who would value your efforts and learning throughout the process rather than just the result (publication or others). As long as they are confident that you have done enough for your PhD in terms of knowledge contribution, whether it is published or not, they might allow you to graduate. If you get a Professor, who is both, who is interested in the results but also cares deeply about your efforts, nothing like it, go for him/her!  

 How do I know or evaluate the group or the Professor?

 The best way is to get inside information from the current students and staff! Talk to people and understand the dynamics of both the Professor and the group! Be careful in your evaluation, don’t take everything that is told to you as such. Do your analysis! What someone might hate might be just the thing that you are looking for in a group or a Professor! If you are a current undergraduate or Master’s student, the other best way is to volunteer to be part of the research group (student volunteers, research assistant, research intern, summer intern, etc.) to learn first-hand and evaluate if it would be right environment for you to do your PhD. If you are a graduate and considering to do a PhD, apply for research assistant positions to evaluate both your interest in doing a PhD if that would suit you and also the Professor or group that you are interested in!

 Now that I have written so much, this is not all. And there is no one blanket rule or criteria to select a Professor and intellectually, I don’t see a point in telling only one approach is right (e.g., milestones over micromanagement). What I emphasize is that each one is different and what is best for one might not be the best for another! What will work for one will not work for another! Assess your personality well, talk to people from the group, talk to the Professor himself, evaluate if you will fit in well with the group dynamics and take a wise decision. I emphasize wisdom here as this relationship is a life-time relationship and many a times it might be emotional too! Choose a one who will mentor you for life and will serve as a role-model for you and your career! Choose the one whom you think you can trust! Choose the one who is genuinely caring and concerned deeply about you and your career! I know it might be hard and tedious but if you find one, you are one of the luckiest persons!