I always have a plan before I go into a meeting with my PI – even a casual one. Most PIs are busy people and I prepare for my meetings beforehand as a respect for both of our time, as well as to cover all the things I want to discuss. Additionally, I’ve personally found that it shows that you are organized and prepared.
You’d be surprised how many graduate students I’ve talked to who walk into their PI’s office without having considered what they want to accomplish in that meeting. They’ve shared that they feel caught off guard by questions or things that the PI asked that they hadn’t thought of. That feeling of not knowing something or feeling like you disappointed your PI can be anxiety-inducing. Here, I will share some pointers on how to prepare for your meetings. There is, of course, something to be said about personal style and the mentor as well. Here, I’m sharing what has personally worked for me and something that my PI has been receptive to. I hope that this will help inspire your personal approach to meeting preps.
I prepare a presentation PowerPoint for each meeting – now this may seem excessive but it really just involves putting some figures onto the slides (if I have any data) or bullet-pointing my experimental design for a future experiment or to show a timeline of where I am with a current project/experiments. I find that it doesn’t take that much time as I make these presentations as I move along my project. If I finish up an experiment, then I analyze it, create a graph, and copy/paste it onto the PowerPoint slide. Then, I will naturally think about my next step and I find that typing it out helps me think through my future direction and experimental design.
I am also a highly visual person and I feel that projecting what I want to say on a screen helps me be in the driver seat of the conversation.
If your PI has a tendency to ask you certain questions then you can do your work beforehand and put it in the notes section as guidance. For example, my PI will ask me what other research groups have shown and I’ll jot down what I’ve found in my literature review. He will sometimes ask me stats questions, so I’ll make sure to review that beforehand and put it in the notes section beforehand.
Your personal approach may and probably will look very different. Perhaps you’ll bring in a notepad with things you want to discuss/share. Or print out some things you want to show your PI. Regardless, the important thing I want to highlight is to put in thought and planning what you want to discuss and what you want to get out of your meeting.
