Multiple RAships?

[TheSquirrel]

Hi everyone,

My supervisor has received a grant and wants me to RA for him (for a long-term project/contract). I said yes, but we have not signed the contract yet though I'm doing some minor work for him currently (on the agreement that he will pay me for those as well). The other day I received an email from another faculty member, and she was offering me a RAship... Now, I don't know how these thnigs work in different fields, but in my program (political science), we often have small RA contracts and do small amounts of work for different professors. So there's no program-long commitment by profs to fund a student.. mind you, my supervisor got the grant for 3-4 years, and my impression is that he wants to fund me for at least 3 years, but that's the exception, not the norm.. I'm short for money, so I thought this second RA offer was a good way to make some extra money (besides, she wants me to do some coding of interviews, which I've never done before, and she said it would be a good learning experience for me, which is true). I told the prof ok, and went to see her today, and did tell her that I have this contract that I will be signing in the near future. She didn't seem to mind it. She said she'd do the contract from now til the start of the fall semester, and I can then decide if I have the time to continue with her.. That seems fine. However, I still have not told my supervisor about this second RAship, and I'm not sure how to tell him about it, or if i should...? It's not like i'm keeping it a secret, but I don't know if it's something that I should be telling him about, or if he would be upset if he finds out.. Any thoughts on this?

[lyonessrampant]

At my program I've been told that you can do an RA in addition to teaching a class or in addition to your fellowship, so I think it is okay. . .Who knows about your program, but given the response of the second prof, it seems like it isn't out of the ordinary. I'd be upfront with the prof you're doing the long-term project with. As long as he knows that his RA is the priority and the other prof is fine if you need to quit working for her if you get too busy, I'd think you're fine.

[Zencarrot]

Tell him. You need to make it clear to your supervisor so that he understands the workload you are dealing with. There is nothing wrong with holding two RAships. I held two long-term RAships throughout the course of my Master's. I was extremely busy and had almost zero social life for a while but it was worth the money and the experience.

If you believe you can handle the workload, then your supervisor will have no reason to be upset. If you are worried about him feeling like you have "betrayed" him by taking on an RAship with another professor (I can relate to this feeling because there can be a lot of egos and politics within universities), try not to sweat it. Even if he does feel this way, tell him that you are trying to glean knowledge from everywhere you can and that it is to your benefit to broaden your horizons at school. Need to be looking out for number one (after all, you are the one paying tuition and doing most of the work ) !

[mechengr2000]

This is the equivalent of moonlighting in industry. I think its unethical to accept a 2nd RA ship without asking your current PI.

[TheSquirrel]

Hi ,

Thanks for the replies.

mechengr2000, how is this the equivalent of moonlighting? I'm not using the stuff I research for Prof A, in the research for Prof B. They're in different subfields. There's no conflict of interest involved. My main concern is that he will think I consider the second RAship as equally important as his RAship, when in fact that's not the case at all, since the second RAship is not even in my subfield (I only took 1 course on it, because it was mandatory, and the prof knows my abilities and offered me the research opportunity). Also, I don't want to be seen as someone who wants to take all the opportunities for herself, although it's only fair if the prof preferred me over others.. SHE contacted me with the offer, I did not go to her and ask to RA for her...

That said, she told me she would do my contract, but I haven't heard back from her so far. Maybe she just changed her mind or something. At any rate, I don't think I'm an unethical person or that I'd be unethical for accepting her offer. I'm not even trying to keep it a secret from the prof I RA for.

[TheSquirrel]

Zencarrot,

Well, yeah, I will tell the prof about it the next time I see him. The reason I didn't want to tell him about it is that I KNOW I won't be able to do two RAships during the upcoming semester (alongside two courses and a TAship). I *told* the second professor that. Which is why she suggested that we do a contract from now til mid-September. My semester starts early September, and the serious research work for my main RAship will probably start around that time as well. SO I assumed that there won't be an overlap, and even if there is, it will be now - and I'm not taking any courses now. I was explicit with the 2nd prof about my inability to do a longterm /big project with her, even though she told me she had $22,000 to give out. I'm not willing to replace her with my own supervisor. She's not even in my sub-field.

Is it actually common practice to turn down RAship offers from professors? Usually it's probably the other way around, profs turning down requests from students to RA for them. I imagine that turning down a prof is not a great thing.... is it?

Edited July 22, 2011 by TheSquirrel

[kaykaykay]

tell your supervisor. I was in a similar situation and my supervisor. I told her and for my biggest surprise she seemed to be happy that some other prof wanted my help too .And this came in handy later when I could not work enough to the other prof because I had to work for my supervisor she cleared the situation.

[ZeeMore21]

I did two R.A ships without informing each adviser...I guess I just didn't think it was wrong to begin with. I also didn't think it was something I actually had to hide...I would have informed them if I needed to. I was able to do both position effectively given that I had specific blocks of time devoted to each R.A job.

[Zencarrot]

Is it actually common practice to turn down RAship offers from professors? Usually it's probably the other way around, profs turning down requests from students to RA for them. I imagine that turning down a prof is not a great thing.... is it?

It is common enough - albeit less so than the latter scenario that you mention. If you know you won't have time to juggle both RAships then it's not worth it. They are excellent opportunities, but if you are overworked to the point where your performance suffers in either domain then you will be less likely to reap some of the benefits of the RAship that you would have otherwise. Put differently: would you rather have two rejected or mediocre conference papers, or one excellent conference paper?

Anyway, no one knows what you are capable of better than you, so the decision ultimately falls to you. Good luck! Rest assured that there is nothing wrong with taking on two RAships if you know you can handle it.