This is a great question – and one I think is on the mind of many trainees throughout their career. My first piece of advice is to encourage you to challenge the premise of the question. Whose expectations are you trying to meet? Expectations carry a lot of weight and come from many directions: your PI, your program, funding agencies, your committee, your department, your peers, and yourself. Trying to meet the expectations of everyone simultaneously is enough to discourage anyone.
The easiest first step is to start with yourself. Outline your short-term and long-term goals and make concrete plans on how you are going to achieve them. Give yourself manageable actions with estimated deadlines for each step. Remember to make your goals and timelines realistic for your training level and experience. This can be in a formal context like an Individual Development Plan (IDP) or a more casual format for your own reference. Having a concrete outline to return to is an excellent way to confirm to yourself you are actually making progress—even if it doesn’t feel that way. It also gives you a document of reference for aligning your expectations with others. Importantly, science is a competitive field, but that does not mean progress is inherently competitive. Constantly measuring yourself against your peers is often counterproductive. Everyone has their own path and own rate of progress.
Independence is also a very nebulous concept that is difficult to measure. Do you want to be independent executing an experiment, designing a protocol, writing a grant, or running your own lab? You need to break “independence” down into clear components so you can better measure your own progress and ask others to provide their insight too.
Finally, while meeting your own expectations is important, there is also a responsibility to your program and/or position. This is where clear communication is important. Once you have defined for yourself what progress looks like, you should have an honest conversation with your supervisor(s) about the alignment of your expectations. In the best-case scenario, your supervisor will provide written expectations. Ideally, this is a conversation at the start of your position, but you should check in regularly, regardless. I also challenge you to take initiative and bring up these questions. Often, the easiest way to know if you are meeting expectations is to ask. Good mentors should be able to provide feedback on your progress frequently, not just at formal evaluations. Here are some examples of questions I recommend using to start the conversation:
- What is something I am doing well? What is something I need improvement on?
- Are there any expectations of my position that I am consistently falling short of?
- What skills do I need to improve to be independent at _________?
- I’m feeling ready for more independence and responsibility. What opportunities for growth are available to me?
- I’m feeling overwhelmed and in need of more help. How can I get more support with _____ while still working towards independence?
Science is full of feedback: grant scores, paper revisions, committee meetings, practice seminars. It is easy to get lost in the minutia and have trouble seeing the bigger picture of your own journey and growth. The two best ways to combat this are to have clear expectations for yourself and clear communication with those measuring your progress.