Jack Collins

In 2021 I finished my PhD and ever since I have been planning on writing down some tips and guidance in the hope it might help some others considering applying for a PhD program. After several drafts and almost 18 months after finishing I landed on a list of 5 points that I think are the most important when assessing whether a lab provides a good environment for you to excel when undertaking your PhD. This list comes from both having done a PhD and also now helping supervise others doing their own PhD and seeing the different ways in which labs are run and hearing stories from other candidates. If you are fortunate enough to have multiple opportunities on where to study and complete your PhD then the points below will help inform your decision on where to go.

Top 5 Ingredients

1. Supervisors – This is one of the most important points, if not the most important point when applying to undertake a PhD. Most people will try and choose the most prestigious academic institutions or professors with the greatest academic profiles and apply to that lab. This is not the best way to go about it. Although aligning yourself with a successful member of the research community is a good idea, a PhD is about learning how to become an academic. What you want in a supervisor is someone that you can communicate naturally with and someone who will have time to teach you and assist you in building your own academic profile. I was fortunate in this regard as I had three supervisors (2 university supervisors and 1 external) that combined to give me a good amount of 1-on-1 time, guidance, support and experience.
2. Resources – Some academic fields require specific equipment to be able to conduct research, for example in my chosen field of robotics you need robots and compute. When looking at the available resources of the lab you are interested in joining I think there are two important points to assess, (i) does the lab have good access to platforms or equipment you will need when researching your PhD, and (ii) does the lab offer support while using that resource. The first point is easy to assess, however, the second point is harder to assess. What I mean by support is are there others who can teach you to use the platform and is there someone to maintain it.
3. Reading Groups – Reading groups are fairly common in academic institutions, they are a chance for all members of a group to sit down, analyse a paper and discuss ideas. The reason I think it is important for a potential lab to have one is for several reasons, (i) PhDs are often a solo endeavour so a set time to meet and talk about ideas is important, (ii) it helps with staying up to date and learning from others perspectives, and (iii) you will get to improve your presentation skills when it is your turn to present a paper.
4. Directed Learning – On top of becoming an expert in a niche area of a field, a PhD is a time to learn new skills. A good supervisor and lab will push you to do this whether it is through set deliverables, group learning sessions or some other mechanism. Some of the best mechanisms I have seen for doing this are book groups where you meet fortnightly to discuss textbook chapters, hackathons and competitions among others. As long as these activities are available and don’t take up the majority of your time then they can really assist you with getting the most out of your PhD.
5. Funding – So you have written your first paper and are now trying to find funding to attend the conference where it was accepted. Unfortunately, not everyone is in a position where they are able to attend and considering sources of funding before starting a PhD is a good way to reduce stress while studying and ensure you get the most out of the experience. There are many other costs associated with a PhD that include tuition fees, living costs, publishing costs, travel costs and equipment costs. Applying for scholarships and bursaries or aligning yourself with an industry partner is a good way to ensure you are able to focus on the PhD and won’t have to worry about funding everything yourself.

So if you are in the midst of trying to assess whether a lab is right for you or are tossing up several PhD offers then I hope these points might make the decision a little easier as in my experience these are some of the top indicators that a lab will help you grow into a successful researcher.