P2P No. 2 - The superbvisor checklist

Know thyself — and you will have guidance on your path

The superbvisor checklist

The temple of Apollo in Delphi calls for self-reflection. Indeed, this is a valuable strategy for making our personal requirements concrete, even when looking for a supervisor.

Recently I had a deep conversation with a researcher I can count as one of my mentors, and he shared with me advice that might seem counterintuitive:

when choosing your job (Ph.D. included) it is more important who you work with than what you work on.

This reminded me of my long quest to find a place for my Ph.D. Unbeknownst to his advice, I put people first and was flexible about the research topic. I had nothing to do with causality or theoretical aspects of representation learning during my studies, and, alas, I am working on both now.

I was lucky In this regard: since my undergrad, I could work with people who are awesome both professionally and humanly. However, this also meant that I operated totally in exploitation mode and feared going out into the world to explore. Shoutout to the people who encouraged me to do so since the upside was better than imagined.
I had fears that I could not wisely select a supervisor since there was no opportunity to get to know anybody (so I thought) amid the second wave of Covid-19.

The ancient Greeks already knew what counts: there is no one-size-fits-all, not even for a Ph.D. The ideal candidate depends on your preferences: do you prefer freedom to more hands-on guidance, a big or a small group? The questions are countless, and you need your answers to effectively select a supervisor. For example, a more senior researcher can probably give you more context about a particular topic but potentially will have less time to spend with you. It is also natural to be undecided about some aspects: you might not know what the ideal group size could be, but you should be explicit with yourself about it.

Your answers form the checklist that can lead towards an awesome supervisor, or how I call such invaluable people: superbvisors. Of course, this is only part of the game since there are things you can only get to know via interaction (do reach out to past/current lab members!), but for posing such questions, the starting point is to know what you want.

Let me share my favorite question I asked the supervisors I interviewed with:

Is there any practice in your lab now that you wish you had during your own Ph.D.?
My intent was to test whether the supervisors can recall the time as a Ph.D. student and what he or she would have appreciated having.

For you out there who think you are in the wrong place: I feel you. I have heard first-hand stories about flawed environments, and all my respect belongs to those Ph.D. students who were brave enough to jump into uncertainty by leaving behind something certain though suboptimal or even toxic. If you know someone, be encouraging and give a helping hand, for no one deserves to be in such a place.