Friday, December 7, 2012

What they don't teach you in graduate school

Doug Natelson has a nice post Things no one teaches you as part of your training which discusses some of the crucial skills that scientists (whether university faculty or industrial managers) must have but are never taught.
These include managing people, writing, being a good colleague, ...
The assumption is that these skills are hopefully absorbed by osmosis.
One could argue that they should be more explicitly taught, even if only informally.

One that is particularly important to experimentalists and I had not thought about is managing budgets. Consumables, and equipment purchase and maintenance can easily blow out. If there isn't enough money for these then a lab can grind to a halt.

Some of the comments list useful resources for helping learn some of these skills.

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