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Experience Sharing | Planning Your PhD: Choosing a Lab, Exploring Academic and Industry Careers, and Preparing for the Future
Biolog Session 08 Recap
Panelists
Xinyu — Postdoctoral Researcher, UC San Diego
Jocelyn — Fourth-year PhD student at Johns Hopkins University; received an offer from an MBB consulting firm
Angela — Second-year PhD student at Johns Hopkins University
Sophie — Third-year PhD student at Sanford Burnham Prebys
This Biolog session focused on several questions that many PhD students face throughout graduate school: What matters most during a PhD? How should you choose a rotation lab and eventually a thesis lab? How do academic and industry career paths differ? How important are publications? And how can you build a sustainable relationship with your advisor?
Below is a summary of the main discussion points from the session.
1. What Matters Most During a PhD?
It is easy to focus on publications, research output, and future career opportunities during graduate school. However, one of the strongest messages from the discussion was that maintaining your physical and mental well-being is essential for a sustainable PhD experience.
High-quality publications can be important for an academic career, but pursuing research outcomes at the expense of your health may have long-term consequences. PhD and postdoctoral research often require years of sustained concentration, repeated troubleshooting, and uncertainty. Without reasonable boundaries and self-management, burnout can become a serious problem.
Maintaining interests outside research, building supportive relationships, and communicating openly with mentors and colleagues can therefore be just as important as experimental progress.
At the same time, the PhD is not simply about producing papers. A major goal of doctoral training is to develop independent thinking, scientific judgment, and problem-solving skills.
Rather than evaluating your PhD only by the number or impact factor of your publications, it can be more meaningful to ask:
Am I becoming a more independent researcher?
2. How Do You Choose the Right Lab?
Should you prioritize a famous PI with many high-impact publications? Is a large, established lab better than a new PI's lab? Should research interest outweigh resources?
There is no single answer.
Large and Established Labs
Large laboratories may offer:
- extensive resources and infrastructure;
- established research directions;
- larger professional networks;
- potentially more opportunities to contribute to high-profile projects.
However, the PI may also be relatively hands-off, with much of the day-to-day mentoring provided by postdocs or senior graduate students. In a large group, it may also be more difficult to develop an independent project or secure a first-author opportunity.
New or Smaller Labs
Newer PIs may be more hands-on and directly involved in training students. Graduate students may also have more opportunities to participate in building the laboratory and shaping its research direction.
At the same time, newer laboratories may have fewer resources and greater uncertainty around funding, staffing, and long-term project development.
Before joining, it can therefore be useful to understand:
- the lab's current funding situation;
- the PI's plans for future projects;
- whether the lab expects to recruit additional postdocs or research staff;
- how much direct mentorship the PI provides.
Interest vs. Resources
Research interest matters because spending several years on a project you do not care about can make it difficult to maintain motivation.
At the same time, resources, mentorship, lab culture, and project feasibility can strongly shape your day-to-day experience and your ability to make progress.
The ideal choice is therefore not necessarily the most famous laboratory, but one where the science, mentoring style, working environment, and available resources are all reasonably compatible with your needs.
Rotation periods are especially valuable for gathering this information. Talk with current students and postdocs, observe how people interact, and pay attention to factors such as:
- whether students graduate successfully;
- how frequently people leave the lab;
- how conflicts are handled;
- how available the PI is;
- whether trainees receive appropriate guidance and support.
3. Academia or Industry?
Another major topic was whether to remain in academia or pursue a career in industry.
In academia, completing a PhD is only one step. For those who want to become faculty members, the more difficult transition is often moving from graduate training and postdoctoral research toward an independent PI position.
Academic research can offer substantial intellectual freedom and the opportunity to pursue long-term scientific questions. At the same time, researchers must continually secure funding, publish, mentor trainees, and manage increasing administrative responsibilities.
Industry often offers higher compensation and a wider range of career paths, but scientific priorities may be shaped more strongly by company goals, product development, or business considerations.
Before deciding that you want to “go into industry,” it is helpful to identify what kind of industry role actually interests you.
Possible directions include:
- biotechnology;
- pharmaceutical research and development;
- data science;
- consulting;
- business development;
- scientific strategy;
- other research-adjacent roles.
Different career paths require very different skills.
During the PhD, students can explore these possibilities through consulting clubs, entrepreneurship programs, case competitions, internships, company events, and conversations with people already working in industry.
For international students, work authorization and employer sponsorship may add another layer of complexity, so these considerations are worth exploring early.
Most importantly, career plans do not have to remain fixed. Some students begin their PhD intending to stay in academia and later move into industry, while others discover new interests after several years of research.
The PhD can be a time to explore rather than prematurely commit to a single path.
4. How Important Are Publications During a PhD?
The importance of publications depends heavily on your career goals.
For many industry positions, hiring decisions may place greater emphasis on technical expertise, project experience, teamwork, and problem-solving ability than on publication count.
For academic careers, publications remain an important part of demonstrating research productivity and scientific contribution.
However, the discussion emphasized that publishing in a particular set of high-impact journals is not the only measure of a successful PhD.
The quality and originality of the work, the skills gained, and the ability to carry a project from an initial question through experimentation, analysis, and scientific communication can all matter.
Even when a PhD program does not formally require a publication for graduation, completing at least one substantial manuscript can be valuable because it demonstrates experience with the full research process.
Another important consideration is project feasibility.
An intellectually exciting project may still be difficult to complete if it lacks sufficient resources, preliminary data, technical support, or a realistic experimental path.
When choosing a thesis project, it can therefore be useful to consider not only:
“Is this scientifically interesting?”
but also:
“Is there a realistic path to answering this question during my PhD?”
5. How Can You Prepare for Industry During Your PhD?
If you are seriously considering an industry career, preparation should involve more than publications alone.
The first step is to identify the type of role you might want.
A data science position may prioritize programming, quantitative analysis, and computational skills, while pharmaceutical research may place greater value on experimental expertise and drug-development experience. Consulting requires yet another combination of structured problem solving, communication, and business-oriented thinking.
Internships can be especially valuable for understanding how industry works and developing relevant experience.
International students should discuss work authorization requirements, such as CPT when applicable, with their institution's international student office well in advance.
Other useful ways to build industry exposure include:
- joining career-development or consulting organizations;
- participating in case competitions;
- attending company talks and industry conferences;
- finding mentors working outside academia;
- developing professional networks;
- practicing communication with non-specialist audiences.
Industry résumés also differ from academic CVs. Rather than emphasizing publications alone, applicants may need to highlight skills, measurable project contributions, teamwork, leadership, and problem solving.
Scientific communication is particularly important. The ability to explain a complex research problem clearly to someone outside your immediate field can be valuable across many industry roles.
6. How Do You Manage Your Relationship with Your PI?
Consistent communication is one of the most important parts of maintaining a productive relationship with an advisor.
Regularly update your PI on your progress. Even when experiments are not producing results, you can still discuss:
- problems you are troubleshooting;
- papers you have been reading;
- new hypotheses;
- alternative experimental approaches;
- changes in priorities or timelines.
This helps maintain alignment between you and your advisor and prevents problems from remaining invisible for too long.
If a PI has extremely high expectations, it may also be necessary to discuss what is realistically achievable and establish reasonable boundaries around workload and experimental goals.
Ideally, you should investigate mentoring style before joining the laboratory.
Current and former lab members can often provide important information about questions such as:
- How does the PI respond when experiments fail?
- How frequently do students meet with the PI?
- Do students generally graduate successfully?
- Is lab turnover unusually high?
- Have trainees left because of excessive pressure?
- Does the PI adapt their mentoring style as students become more independent?
These observations can be highly informative when deciding whether a laboratory is a sustainable environment for several years of doctoral training.
Key Takeaways
- Protect your physical and mental well-being while developing independence as a researcher. A productive PhD should also be sustainable.
- Choose a lab based on fit, not reputation alone. Consider scientific interest, mentorship style, lab culture, funding, resources, and project feasibility together.
- Publications matter differently depending on your career goals. For academic careers they remain important, while many industry paths place greater weight on transferable skills and project experience.
- Explore career options early. Internships, industry events, professional organizations, competitions, and conversations with people in different careers can help you make more informed decisions.
- Communicate actively with your advisor. Regular updates, clear expectations, and reasonable boundaries can make a major difference in the quality of your PhD experience.
There is no single “correct” way to complete a PhD. The best path depends on your scientific interests, values, working style, and long-term goals. The earlier you understand what matters to you, the easier it becomes to make intentional choices about your lab, your research, and your career.