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Convince people to work in a new lab
One of the biggest roadblocks new PIs encounter when recruiting is that most postdocs and graduate
students are a er big names and established labs that they can leverage for their career.
If you find yourself in this situation, try to focus on what differentiates you. You are young, you've
come with many new ideas and you have cutting-edge techniques at your fingertips, so highlight why
new PIs are best. Here are some insights that may help.
Finding good people is essential, but motivating them to come and
start up a lab with a young PI is difficult. If you're successful with
that, there's a high chance that the rest will fall into place. Although
some people say new labs are more risky, I'd say they are safer
because it's very important for a young PI to make sure that they
have projects and papers out in time while established and well-
funded labs can afford hiring people who won't publish anything,
as there will always be someone else who publishes. The transfer of
knowledge is better in new and small labs since you work directly
with your PI. Another thing is the pleasant environment. There is
more support and more focus in small labs versus established labs.
Young PIs are extremely motivated [in helping their staff] because
their team's success is his or her success too.
Nikolina Sekulic
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