Advice
Helpful advice from past and present fellows
“As long as you’ve got a good project, a good supervisor and you’ve got funding, there’s no obstacle you can’t overcome…” |
“Maintain the balance between your clinical and academic work… – in 5 or 10 years time you won’t be judged on whether you did that extra on-call shift, but on the quality of your research…” |
“Do something that you enjoy above all, rather than simply choosing someone else’s project” |
“Make the effort early on to get involved in what’s going on in your research community” |
“I would recommend the Edinburgh ECAT programme in terms of the opportunities it gives for choosing a project and choosing a supervisor rather than having to pick someone else’s project.” |
“Doing research actually helps me to appreciate the science in medicine” |
“I missed clinical medicine more than I anticipated and I found the balance between what to prioritise difficult to get – time helps with that.” |
“Why do a clinical academic career? – It’s an amazing opportunity to be creative in your work… and pursue what you’re interested in.” |
“It’s been exciting… doing western blots and DNA replication – all these things you’ve read about before but haven’t actually done” |
“It’s exciting meeting scientists from other countries [at conferences] and exchanging ideas” |
“It’s definitely part of the PhD experience to come across things that you find difficult and don’t enjoy…” |
“Some people might have to think very hard about whether they want to do really basic science or whether to incorporate some clinical research” |