I've placed my Ph.D. students at many schools - some research, some teaching, some abroad.
When they leave campus, I offer pretty simple advice. They must learn what is expected in their new place.
If a student goes to a teaching school, they need to learn the relative weight of teaching versus research versus service - then optimize their time invested.
Students who go to a research school get the same advice.
Students who go to a school abroad get the same advice.
Am I cheating by giving the same advice?
No.
Paths to success depend on each uni's resources, priorities, & paths.
Determining paths to success depends on sorting out the local weights.
Once you have, you can work on meeting requirements (here are some tips on how to do so: https://lnkd.in/ey4C_zBv).
However, after a post on assessing progress (https://lnkd.in/eTitbR7B), a former student asked how to resolve the dissonance between local values & their training.
They explained.
While trained to write papers & go to conferences, they were not valued at their school.
They struggled to see their friends progress in their research, go to conferences, & place papers in top journals.
They felt left behind.
I paused.
I explained that I knew that feeling.
They were surprised.
No matter where you place or how well you do, you will always see someone doing as well or better than you at another school.
You will wonder what they did better.
You might feel left behind at best or jealous at worst.
I lived with those feelings for years.
I once thought those negative feelings were healthy & used them to motivate me to work.
I've come to know they are not.
Feeling left behind or jealousy leads to sadness at best (e.g., derogating yourself) & counterproductive behavior at worst (e.g., derogating your school or others).
So how to resolve the dissonance?
Keeping in mind your training, local norms, & your discipline, develop your own definition of success.
Develop definitions that fit what you are doing now and what you want to become.
As you do, you need to recognize there will be trade-offs - you can't have it all.
One simple illustration.
Coauthoring papers with students.
I used to envy my friends who first authored papers with their students.
I didn't like being known as "et al."
However.
I realized that while the ideas were sometimes mine, the students put in more effort.
So, I made et al. a personal norm.
I found tremendous satisfaction in (a) not worrying about author order and (b) recognizing my student's work.
When I recognized that #satisfaction, and that it was enduring, I became much happier in my #academiclife.
So while having been taught #firstauthor mattered, learning it didn't matter that much to me, helped resolve much dissonance.
When you develop personal benchmarks, you will find the dissonance more manageable & seeing positives becomes easier.
Best of luck.
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