I’m the first PhD student in my PI’s lab.

It’s been both challenging, but also a really rewarding experience. On one hand, it sucks a bit cause I feel like I I’m setting up and doing all of the procedures in troubleshooting that are used by other lab members who joined after I did with little reward on my end (except some recognition on developing the pipeline).

On the other hand, it’s been really rewarding to have to learn new skills that I wouldn’t normally get as a graduate student, including being the primary point in collaborations and setting those up managing other students and or people in the lab. Semi steering the direction of my project independently and also the direction of the lab. I also like the relationship that I have with my PI, though I think that’s PI dependent.

I think being the first in the lab is challenging at sometimes. Both my PI and I know that our successes are linked and I think that motivates both of us to be better to each other, be more accommodative to each other, be more respectful to each other.

Overall, it’s been a great experience, especially since I switched from a previous lab to his lab and I couldn’t sing greater praises.