The Audacity of Asking Questions!
On April 25th a tweet from Dr. Kate H. Choi produced much consternation in my Twitter feed. Whilst I believe she was expecting to receive support and approval from her academic colleagues, certainly on my feed all she received was vitriol regarding her own entitlement. Her tweet was as follows:
For many years I worked supporting graduate students and postdocs, initially in a lab setting and then outside as an administrator. I saw many instances which mirror this tweet where a professor couldn’t believe that an underling had the audacity to question them. Them! Clearly the underling mustn’t know who they are dealing with as otherwise they would just genuflect and venerate the professor as they deserved! (I am using underling in a sarcastic manner, whilst students/postdocs amongst others are below a professor in the academic hierarchy it doesn’t make them any less deserving of respect). I would hope that when this attitude is shown clearly as in the tweet, it becomes obvious why this is wrong. But if not, I will spell it out!
Climbing the Ivory Tower is challenging and those that make it reap the rewards of having individuals interested in working with them. Note, I said with and not for. This is an explicit difference that I am convinced that certain individuals forget and believe that the underlings are their own personal minions. They are NOT. If an individual chooses to work with a professor they are placing an awful lot of trust in the professors ability to guide them appropriately for a number of years. That involves receiving the appropriate training and support for the student/postdoc not only whilst they work with the professor but also afterwards once they leave for career advice and letters of recommendation. Some professors however seem to forget their responsibilities to the student and focus on the fact they are getting cheap hands to perform their research which will aid the professors’ career. Some believe that they are doing students/postdocs a favour by allowing them into their presence and put forth the absolute minimum effort to assist the student/postdoc on their academic journey. This is a disgraceful attitude to have when part of their job responsibilities is to prepare the next generation of researchers. To put it bluntly this is very short sighted considering without the students/postdocs performing research colleges and universities would fail and the professors would be out of a job! Literally the schools’ mission and institutional learning outcomes undoubtedly state that they are training and developing students therefore the institution should expect that as a bare minimum from their professors. Any attitude which diminishes teaching/training responsibilities therefore clearly demonstrates that perhaps being a professor might not be the most suitable career for some!
My opinion regarding the student asking the professor to describe their qualifications to supervise their Master’s thesis is this is a student taking ownership of their graduate studies and I am here for it! Especially considering this is a Master’s student who is probably paying for the opportunity to be there. That is a considerable financial commitment and I think it is quite understandable to ensure she receives the education/training she is expecting. If a professor can't explain why a student should trust their next few years studying with them then perhaps the professor shouldn't have students? Whilst that might be controversial, I stand behind it 100%. Considering how important the student/postdoc and professor relationship is I believe questioning potential professors is the absolute minimum effort any potential mentee should do. If students/postdocs don’t perform the due diligence ahead of time in my experience they are far more likely to experience difficulties during training. Asking questions can therefore ensure that students/postdocs select the appropriate mentor for themselves. If potential mentors don’t take questions seriously, or show a bad attitude, that is a clear red flag that perhaps they shouldn’t be trusted with someone’s future.
I have resources available for advice on how to select a mentor. Please utilize them to spot red flags before it is too late! Have the audacity to ask questions to ensure you have sufficient information to make decisions.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/bYGKIdrnQvg
Patreon has an extended version of the YouTube video and my guide to select a mentor: https://www.patreon.com/posts/51144740
