How To Survive As A CSD Graduate Student

Seán Slattery

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Your Immediate Concerns

• Finding an advisor

• Doing some research

• Classes & other requirements– Writing/speaking/hacking– TA’ing

• Staying sane

Finding An Advisor: Step 1

• Find faculty you might be interested in– IC Talks– Web pages– Faculty Research Guide– Suggestions from students & other faculty

Finding An Advisor: Step 2

Find out more about them– Ask them for a meeting– Talk to their students– Talk to their ex-students– Read some of their papers– Maybe attend a project meeting

Finding An Advisor: Step 3

Come to an agreement– Tell them you’d like to put them down as your

1st (2nd, 3rd) choice– Verify that they’ll ask for you too– Fill out your marriage form accordingly

Finding An Advisor: Questions

Questions to ask:

Availability – does s/he have room for you?

Commitment – will s/he stand by you?

Personalities – will you get along?

Research style – can you do it that way?

Research topics – are you interested?

Resources – do you want travel and toys?

Finding An Advisor: Pitfalls

• Not getting the one you wanted

• Not getting along with the one you got

• Losing the one you got (they leave CMU)

Reassurance: you can change advisors, but– Don’t do it too many times (more than twice)– Don’t burn your bridges

Finding An Advisor: Variations

Multiple advisors– More benefits, more pitfalls– Often one has the money, one has the time– Maybe you want a non-CSD advisor– Sometimes a tactful way to transition

On Having an Advisor

• Like having a temporary parent– Invested in you, responsible for you– Sometimes that makes them act weird

• Communicate lots– Tell them what you’re doing– Tell them how you’re doing– Tell them what you think you need

More on Having an Advisor

Advisors are human and flawed– Often under lots of pressure– Don’t always have great social skills– Often forget to give any positive feedback– Can unintentionally seem rude or disapproving

Coping advice– When you can, don’t take it personally– When you can’t, ask for reassurance

Research: The Early Years

What you’ll (hopefully) get out of it– Learn your own research style, and whether it

meshes well enough with your advisor’s– A publication or two– Your hacking/writing/speaking requirements

Doesn’t need to lead straight to thesis work.

Research: How’s Your Ego?

Undergraduate work– Get given a task, complete it well, get praise

Graduate work– Find a problem you want to solve– Get grudging support for working on it– Have to justify why your work is worthwhile

Do it because you want to

Classes, Skills

• Classes– May seem very hard or very easy– It’s not unusual to fail one, nor is it a big deal– Always take more time than they should

• Speaking/writing/hacking requirements– Still being debugged

More Stuff

• TA’ing– Always takes way more time that it should

• In general– Take your advisor’s advice on scheduling

Black Friday - How it works

• The faculty meet and discuss each student

• Key question: Are you progressing and do the faculty believe

you will finish eventually?

• Your advisor writes a letter giving you feedback and setting goals for next semester

• Jeanette signs the letter

Black Friday – What to do

• Make sure your advisor will be there, or has arranged for someone else to be

• Talk to your advisor about what they’ll say

• Give your advisor information to work with

• Then, stop worrying– Go back to your work– Go to the Black Friday TG

Staying Sane

• Don’t get isolated– spend time with people– talk to people about your work

• Remember – there’s life after CMU– there’s life outside CMU– you do this because you want to

• Work on something you love

Staying Sane: Maladies

Imposter syndrome– You think you’ve been successfully faking

being good enough to be here, but one day you’ll fail and everyone will scorn you

– Is very, very common

Best cure– Talk to other students, admit feeling that way

Staying Sane: Maladies

• Spiraling perfectionism– Your work is too trivial for anyone to care

about and you freeze up

• Best cure– Read papers, go to talks, go to conferences,

recalibrate

Staying Sane: Maladies

• Trouble and panic– Failed exam or course– Research stalls or doesn’t pan out– Fight with advisor

• Best Cure– Remember it happens to everyone sometime– Remember help is available

Resources

• Sharon (busy, but wise)

• The Ombudsperson (Shawn Butler)

• Your advisor

• Other students

• The CMU counseling center

• The Zephyr anonymoose (see the FZQ)