disadvantages you believe are easily to cope with, you also avoid bad surprises after you have already chosen. (ii) If you made it here, you have done a lot, but not everything. Besides knowing the candidate labs, it is important to get information about yourself! It could sound a commonplace but it is critical for a good decision. In fact, even when you know everything about the labs of your interest, you may still not know which one will be a good choice for you. For example, you find out that your lab of interest is small lab. So what? Big labs are not better than small ones, neither the contrary is true. What is preferable for you may be terrible for others. Obviously, it is important to know how you would fit in: a big group vs. a small group, a relaxed environment vs pressure for publish, a close supervision vs. great autonomy. Only when you know yourself and what you need in this moment of your career/life, you are able to realize which one is better for you. As you can't ask Google things about you, below is a suggestion of an exercise that may help you know you a little bit. 1. Start by reviewing your past professional experiences (if you don’t have scientific experience consider professional non-scientific experience, or academic experience if you don’t have any professional experience) - Review each project/period and note the ‘High’ and the ‘Low’ moments. - Analyze important decisions. What made you decide? What can you learn from them? - Remember what your main tasks were. Note which ones you most like/dislike to perform - Look at the core relationships (Boss, PI, Colleagues, Tutors, etc.) and note relevant aspects 2. Evaluate yourself in some critical tasks.
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