People Over Projects

At his Synthetic Remarks blog, Fredrik von Kieseritzky says that were he to "offer only one piece of advice to the young scientist getting ready to enter the field, it would be: Prioritize people before projects." Von Kieseritzky says this advice might seem counter-intuitive, particularly for scientists who do not consider themselves "people persons," but adds that people matter. "Say you have the chance to do diploma or graduate work for two different groups," he says — the first group conducts cutting-edge research but is led by a micro-managing PI, the other does "stuff you have never heard of before," but the PI cares for the group’s well-being. "Go for group B – without a doubt," von Kieseritzky says. "I have wasted years in A-constellations and I have been fortunate enough to be part of B-teams several times. In hindsight, the decision was ridiculously easy."