Advisors: The Good, the Bad, and the Ambivalent

[Scantronphobia]

Okay--so I am in a really hard program. And I'm happy to be working with my first choice advisor out of all the people at all the schools I applied to. And this person is an impressive researcher--very accomplished and respected in the field.

 

But I am having some doubts. This advisor will say, "I will look at your work and get back to you."  And then after not hearing back for a week, I have to schedule a meeting to get that feedback, which is usually helpful, pretty broad, and never heavy handed. As you all know, however, time is important when you're playing Beat the Clock during every semester of grad school, trying to crank out brilliance (hah!) as you labor beneath a pile of research and reading you have to complete by week's end.

 

On the other hand, the advisor seems to like the work I am doing. I get emails sometimes out of the blue with information that might be helpful to me, and that is encouraging, like I'm not just a blip on the screen.

 

And now, after a semester of, "don't worry, you're doing fine," I have had to ask for an extension, which was granted if I need it. This makes me feel like a failure, like I can't do the work in the time allotted.

 

While I have never had an advisor that I would describe as amazing, I have had a truly bad advisor in the past: someone who forgot about our meetings, who hardly ever got back to me despite polite, carefully timed emails to jog the advisor's memory. I worked as hard to get this advisor to help me as I did doing the work itself. I said that I would never again put myself through that. 

 

So to the point of this post:

 

I am psychically tired. I am overwhelmed. I do not have the energy to force someone to help me. The problem is, I feel like I am not sure whether this person is a bad advisor or not. So I ask all of you to tell me about your experiences. What are the hallmarks of a bad advisor? Of a good one? Are there any warning signs I should be looking out for?

Edited May 3, 2015 by Scantronphobia

[bsharpe269]

I don't think that what you describe falls into the good or bad advisor category but is strongly related to fit. My current advisor is like this. I send him some results after a few weeks of not seeing him then his only feedback will be "keep up the good work." My advisor likes the work I do but simply doesn't want to be very involved in his student's research. I can only guess but from what you describe, it sounds advisor might be like this. He might want you to do your own work and only come to him if you get really stuck.

 

It sounds like you would like an advisor who is involved in your work and there are plenty of professors out there who want this. You probably have enough stess already so you don't need to feel additional stress due to your advisor's mentoring style! If you decide that you want to change labs then there is nothing wrong with that. I think you should take some time to reflect on how happy you feel and whether you can accept your advisor's mentor style or if you would be happier with someone else. If you stay in your current lab then is there a postdoc or more senior PhD student who you could seek feedback from instead? The most senior PhD student in my lab realizes that our advisor isn't around much and goes out of his way to be available to answer questions. We have pretty different research interests so I cant go to him for feedback on my work but sometimes it is nice to have someone look at a poster before you print it or tell you who to email for computer help etc.

 

I'd say that around 5% of the time I feel a bit upset about my advisor's lack of interest/help. This usually only happens when I am really excited about cool results and have spent a lot of time on them and send them over and just get a a couple word answer. The other 95% of the time I feel thankful that I get so much independence. I have learned so much from having to figure stuff out on my own and have been able to drive the research in the direction I want, without limitations. There are pros and cons to all sorts of advising styles so I really think you should just think about what works best for you.

[knp]

Advisor relationships can be tricky! But why don't you start, whenever you send him stuff, asking to schedule a meeting, too? Like "here is my [output], can we meet two weeks from now on Monday or Tuesday to talk about it?" It doesn't address your broader concern, which is that you prefer a more hands-on advisor than the one you have, but it might make your working relationship a smidge less stressful.

[fuzzylogician]

I've been in situations where I would only get feedback from someone if/when I scheduled a meeting to that end. Manuscripts I would send would get a "I will read this and get back to you" response but they would never get back to me until I scheduled a meeting. If that's the situation you are in, it is not at all uncommon. You need to figure out if you can live with it, and you probably need to learn to work this system better. That is, stop expecting to get written feedback, because this person just doesn't seem to do that. Instead, send a meeting request along with your manuscript: "Dear Prof X, here is the latest version of my manuscript. Could we meet next week to discuss it? I am free Monday at 2pm." Ask for the meeting for a time when you would expect other professors to email you back some comments. It can be very beneficial to get comments from such a person, even if they are not in writing; you just need to be able to accept that this is what this person can give you.

[BiochemMom]

Personally, my MS advisor was the very best I could ever ask for. We synced in research fit and personality. He has a knack for being able to change his style of advising depending on his students. I'm praying my PhD advisor lives up to my expectations set by my PI. Ahh, I'm going to cry again. Leaving is bittersweet. My office is cleared out and tomorrow I'm proctoring my last exam as a TA and turning in my keys. I already defended and submitted my revisions.