Thoughts on academic supervising
Once you start leading people, you have a different job. You are no longer responsible for doing things yourself, but to get the best out of the people who work for you. Given the amount of stress and problems that young researchers tend to have, it’s worth thinking about this role some.
Academic supervising is a bit unique because it’s a delicate balance of independence and teaching, of workers who are constantly coming and going.
Front matter
Why management?
Common problems
- Management antipatterns
- Survivorship bias
- Conflicts of interest
- Publications for group leader vs publications for junior researcher
- Exclusive focus on publications
- Graduate on time vs cheap labor
- Getting stuff done on time vs exploring
- Do it right vs freedom to fail
- Junior research’s network has many of the supervisor’s collaborators
- Will a supervisor pay the most attention to those who care about an academic career track?
- Diversity of future careers
- n vs n+1 theory
- Academic career ladder
- Labor freedom
What can you do?
Mentors