Recently I found out what most strikes fear in many undergraduate student workers, graduate students and most other employees I work with. That is talking with the PIs. Yes the dreaded PI, not the MCAT, VCAT, BMAT or GRE, the dreaded PI. We normally interact with 6 or 7 of them and if I suggest talking with any one of them you’ll get a dozen excuses on why they can’t do it. Even if it is just to drop off some paperwork, the anxiety of simply knocking on the door is too much to bear. There is usually a long pause of silence and the excuse, “Uh, I have to go home and clean my bathroom”. Many of these students have never even bothered to interact with a PI, so what is all this fear about? Well, I happen to be one of those that really have to push myself to knock on that door. At this moment I’m supposed to be dropping of some requested items to a PI but here I am writing this and thinking of something to say and coming up with a potential escape plan. Sometimes I have to pace up and down the hallway, peek in the open door and maybe, just maybe they won’t be in there. Why do I dread interacting with PIs? First off, sometimes I can’t escape; even a simple chore ends up being and hour and a half lecture on how to do drug preparation. I have to prove how I got my answer and even if it is correct they don’t like the way I got to the answer, even if another PI was the one who trained me on drug preparation. The reply is “ Well I’m not Dr. So and So, this is the way I do it”. So I get a very long retraining session. Then you realize every other PI has there own way of doing calculations, experiment descriptions and views of life in general. This isn’t so bad if there are only a few PIs, but when you have a half dozen to deal with it can be daunting. There’s always that question on how the graduate project is going or as they reach for huge notebook, describing in excruciating detail, what they did for their postdoctoral research. Sometimes you get the father figure routine, which sometimes comes across as nagging. It can be quite difficult to feign interest, especially when you’re not a good actor. Then you realize the PIs don’t always interact with each as much as they should. They are a source of valuable information and guidance to anyone that wants to listen. They won’t turn you away and available a good portion of the day.
Maybe I need to be understanding and tell myself and others to just go talk to the friendly PI; they’re lonely and need someone to talk to.
I think there is a certain prestige that goes along with being a PI. It's only human nature to be nervous about interacting with someone who has been deemed such an important person. It's taken me a couple years as an undergrad and a year of graduate work to finally get over the dreaded interaction with my PI. Though, I occasionally get nervous right before lab meeting when I have to report my findings to my PI. I wonder if they know the affect they have on us lowly grad students?
ReplyDeleteYes, Kira, we do know the effect we have. Don't ever forget that we were once in that same chair, fighting the same nerves as you have now. We might forget as time passes how that feels. But, if you keep in mind that we made it through with our heads still attached to our necks, then you'll be just fine. :-)
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