Hi,

I am starting a plant sciences PhD in October and just before i finished my UG my supervisor rang me up and offered me a lab assistant job for a flexible 8 weeks.

It is good i get to work with people and test out the university and area in my summer. I was wondering though is there any other preparation i should be doing? I am reading a lot of papers (and scaring myself a bit) and i am using equipment i will hopefully have to use but is there anything i am missing to make the transition any smoother? any essentials i should be asking my supervisor about etc?

Thank you for any answers, all appreciated :)
xxx Splendins:-)

it will be a warm-up match before the real match :) - and its always great to spend more time with your supervisor to get inspiration/knowledge and experience :) Best of luck

Hey Splendins! Welcome to the forum and congrats on your PhD place! Are you off to a different uni than where you did your undergrad then? If you're off somewhere new then I would just make an effort to get to know the place, the people, how the department works, who you need to see for what etc, and just get a feel for how the place runs. It's great to be reading papers, and you'll probably spend a lot more time doing this when you start, but I wouldn't overwhelm yourself with too much of the academic stuff before you get started- there's plenty of time for all that! Of course if the opportunity arises on your placement to learn techniques that you'll need for your PhD then great, but other than that I would wait until you get started and just enjoy your summer! Good luck with it all, stick around on here! KB

Hi Splendins, congratualations on getting your PhD place straight after your undergrad degree, as well as a job, sounds like your new supervisor has a lot of faith in you! I'm kind of in the same position as you, I start my PhD later this year but I am also doing my MSc dissertation (submit at the beginning of September) so have a lot to be getting on with. I am also writing my PhD proposal as they accepted me before I had submitted a formal application (I did my UG and MSc in the same department so they know me). I am having to redraft my proposal with my supervisors so that the writing is PhD standard, they say they want to "hit the ground running" when I start so they want it to be as perfect as it can be. I think you're doing absolutely the right thing by reading papers etc, but make sure you enjoy your summer as well! I would also try to do a bit of writing as well, and maybe ask your supervisor about when your first review is so that you can start quite quickly. Hope that makes sense and has helped, good luck with everything! Nx

Thanks guys :) I am a bit daunted by starting my PhD (I think it is the paper reading and just thinking i might not be 'intelligent' enough for it and it is in a new city) but I really want to make a good impression. I think you guys have affirmed im doing the right things :) I will ask about the literature review and, yes, i am human and really looking forward to a bit of holiday! ;-)

Thanks again
Splendins xxx