The CS Assistant Professor Handbook
- How to attract students? The most concrete thing you can do to attract students is do good research and build a good brand. By “build a good brand” ..., you should spread the word about your research, both your papers and your broader vision. Talk about what kind of
group culture you want, what you expect from students, and what you look for. Talk about the story behind the paper: the struggles, the different directions you explored before coming up with this, etc. Basically, talk about what life would be like in your research group.
- Hire students who have been admitted. There is a temptation to quickly hire anyone who will work with you: you have ideas, you have funding (thanks to your start-up package), what you lack is time to execute those ideas. But resist this temptation: students who aren’t a good match will suck up a lot of your time, and will be a net negative. If your first student is someone who doesn’t work well with others, other students will not want to work with you.
- Managing students. (1) Career (2) Research career (3) Well-being
- The basic setup. (1) one-on-one for about 30 minutes to an hour each week; (2) a group meeting that is used to communicate what everyone is working on to the rest of the group.
- Two key things helped me in managing my students: setting expectations, and communicating frequently.
- Back in the pre-pandemic days, I would usually start my day by going around their cubicles and
chatting with the students.
- This style of working doesn’t fit all students though: some students hate the constant interruption and meeting, so these students are not a good fit for my group.
- The best thing to do here is to involve yourself as much as you can in their project, and help them past the hurdle. One of my mentors always ensures a student is un-blocked before they exit their office; they work on the problem together with the student until then.
- Don’t get into “why”, it is rarely productive; politely but firmly explain that you are not a good match, and that you wish them well. If they are dropping out of the PhD and going into industry, help them with the job hunt.
- Serving on grant panels: Once you become a PI, you will get invited to serve on grant review committees. You can directly email program managers and say you are interested in reviewing, and they will see if they can recruit you for the next reviewing cycle.
- One potential failure mode for new profs is to focus on teaching to the neglect of their research: make sure you don’t do this.
