---

Question: What is one thing you did in grad school to set you up for success as a post doc?

My path to a PhD was far from conventional. Rather than following the traditional rotation model, I entered graduate school as a Master’s student in a cancer biology lab with the intention of completing my doctorate there. That plan was derailed when an increasingly toxic lab environment made it untenable to continue. With the support of a senior colleague, I transitioned to a microbiology-focused lab, a field in which I had no formal background. What I did bring, however, was hands-on expertise in mouse models and FFPE tissue processing from my cancer biology training.

That skill set proved unexpectedly valuable: my new lab worked with human patient biopsies, and I was the only one with the technical foundation to lead that work. The transition was not without its challenges. Though my new lab was collegial and led by a principled, supportive PI, I often felt isolated in my research. When I encountered obstacles, there was no one nearby with the expertise to help me troubleshoot. Rather than viewing this as a limitation, I reframed it as an opportunity. I began actively seeking collaborations outside my lab, contributing to diverse projects across different groups.

While these efforts did not always yield first-author publications, they produced a meaningful bibliography that reflected the breadth of my scientific contributions and expanded my professional network considerably. This approach also opened doors I had not anticipated. I secured a fellowship that placed me under the mentorship of a leading scientist in my field: an opportunity I could not have accessed through traditional channels. That experience reshaped how I understood my own research and gave me a level of scientific perspective I had not thought possible at that stage of my training. My postdoctoral position, too, was ultimately secured through the relationships I had cultivated over the course of my PhD.

If there is one lesson I would offer, it is this: proactive connection-building is the most valuable investment you can make during graduate school — more so, perhaps, than a first-author publication or a narrowly focused research agenda. Collaborations and mentorships compound over time. They open doors that credentials alone rarely can.