Managing your advisor: the art of the meeting

An effective student-advisor relationship is the foundation of good academic research. This relationship is often structured around weekly meetings.

As a student, keep in mind that your research problem is your main and only work focus and you are expected to initiate and test out ideas as well conduct the majority of the creative (design prototypes, UIs, design experiments, code, think of a proof structure, etc.) or grunt (code, prove, conduct experimental runs, etc.) work.

The advisor is usually your backup, wiser brain. Often, the  advisor presents you with the research problems. She will likely guide you through the problem, outline solutions, remind you of the big picture, refer you to papers, make you think of alternative solutions, designs, implementations, unstick you if you find yourself stuck, help you analyze or figure out the experimental data, and so on. The advisor, however, is a busy, multitasking machine, often advising multiple students with varying demands on her time, teaching courses, writing grants, building research networks, serving on conference committees, or dealing with university business. I never appreciated the faculty workload until I became an assistant professor.

The advisor brain is thus an expensive resource, which you must efficiently manage. I hope you would find some benefit in these advisor meeting & management tips: Read the rest of this entry »