Ten Simple Rules to becoming a principal investigator

The very first post on my website, is to share this great article. Ten Simple Rules to becoming a principal investigator, by John S. Tregoning and Jason E. McDermott, for anyone who wants to be a PI, or someone who has already become a PI.

A quick summary:

The rules and suggestions shared in this article are very practical, especially to readers who are in science and engineering fields. The 10 rules are:

Skills:

1. Have ideas.

2. Publish papers.

3. Research what the job involves and learn to juggle.

"Before losing sleep about not becoming an academic, understand what an academic career involves. Spoiler alert: It is mostly juggling. Before becoming a PI, Dr. Tregoning drew heavily from fiction to form vague and entirely wrong ideas of the role, with elements of Hogwarts, Jordan College in Lyra’s Oxford (from His Dark Materials), and the Jurassic Park cloning lab (before the dinosaurs escaped). However, a closer parallel is that you are an entrepreneur running your own business within an organization that provides some core support services."

4. Develop your skills.

Behaviours:

5. Focus on the prize.

"A lot of becoming a PI boils down to attitude: A major defining quality is relentless perseverance in the face of the odds."

"Make the most of your time: Think about what you are being asked to do and how it helps you become a PI. For example, be selective about the work you do: Don’t start any work unless you can see the route to publication."

6. Bounce back from failure.

"Depersonalize it"

7. Develop your brand.

"We have two things to sell, our ideas and ourselves. Of the two, the main product we sell is ourselves, which (at work at least) is defined by our CV: what we have worked on and who we have done it with and where. Develop a single memorable “personal brand,” which can be used when meeting potential collaborators, conference organizers, and funders. Have a single line “elevator pitch” that summarizes what you do, backed up with an exciting case study. The brand includes the types of research you aspire to do and the initial projects you might run. The hope is that by pitching this brand successfully you will be at the forefront of people’s thoughts when they are putting together grants, consortia, or seminars."

8. Believe in yourself.

9. Build a network of mutually supportive people.

"Networking is central to being a PI."

10. Know when to quit.

"Chasing after something long after it has eluded you is not going to add to your overall life happiness."

Ultimately, it is social intelligence (sometimes referred to as ‘soft skills’) that can make the critical difference.

Original article: Tregoning, J. S., & McDermott, J. E. (2020). Ten Simple Rules to becoming a principal investigator. PLOS Computational Biology, 16(2), e1007448.

I decide to revisit this article many times in my future career path, on the way to be a PI.