Tips & Tricks

If you’ll submit that all-important packet for the next step in your career next spring, you might not be thinking much about your recommendation letters this August. And, if that is indeed the case, pay close attention to this #ProTip: You should reconsider your strategy.

If you're premed, you have approximately 8 months until it's time to ask for letters from your professors (give or take a few weeks depending on your specific circumstances). But that doesn't mean that you have 7 1/2 months until you need to think about those letters.

A student asked us to help her understand the difference between a resume and a CV. She had read “a bunch of stuff online” and was confused what she should name her document. She said, “ I’m a bio engineering major but am applying for volunteering for a job in an art museum.” So which is it a resume or CV?

In a week or so, many of you who participated in a full-time summer research experience will once again become a part-time researcher and full-time student. Keep this tip in mind from the article we posted earlier this summer, 10 Things to Expect From Your Summer Undergrad Research Experience.

The salutation you use in an email matters.

A salutation is the first thing most people read, it sets the tone for the rest of the email, and it demonstrates your level of professionalism. For good or bad, it also carries the power to influence your reader. And you don’t want the person who reads your email to be annoyed or offended right from the start—especially if your plan is to ask a favor.

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology has a monthly publication called ASBMB Today that has both print and online distribution.

Your lab is a bubble. You work with a team of people with supporting, overlapping, or related projects. You might use different techniques, methods, or approaches than your labmates, but overall you’re all working towards common objectives, and trying to solve a few big questions with the science. It’s good to be in that bubble.

Every time someone writes a letter of recommendation for you, it’s important to send a thank-you email expressing your gratitude. It doesn’t need to be a long email (in fact you want to keep it under six sentences), but it should be sincere.

For the maximum benefits, send the thank-you email the same week the letter is done. However, if someone wrote a letter for you last summer and you didn’t know to send a thank-you email, get it done today. It can still count.

Although there are more, here are three reasons you should send a thank-you email:

Note: This tip won't work for all research environments. In some labs, there is no-phone policy. Usually, it's because the work being done is easily compromised by having a phone around (because the phone cannot be sterilized) or because having a phone distracts the researcher in a way that is a safety hazard. So, this tip only applies to students who have discussed the lab's cell phone policy with their in-lab mentor or PI, and are allowed to use the phone.

If you find yourself in the enviable position of getting to choose between two research positions, don’t let the fear of missing out prevent you from making a decision.The best strategy is to start by considering each position individually without comparing them to each other.

After yesterday's post, Tips on Being a Good Labmate, (http://www.undergradinthelab.com/node/92) we received three inquiries asking what it means to invest in a research project.

One undergrad asked if it meant to design a project or come up with their own research question. Another asked if it meant starting a crowd funding campaign to pay for supplies. Although these will certainly show dedication, and be great if you do them, most undergrads will demonstrate their investment in other ways.