Group mentoring: Finding a great advisor/mentor

Hadas Kotek, Shomir Wilson, Vlad Niculae

ACL 2020

@HadasKotek, @ShomirWilson, @vnfrombucharest

Agenda

• Introductions
• What makes a good advisor?
• Some general advice
• Matters of taste
• Some things you can’t know
• Advisor vs mentor
• How to approach a potential advisor
• Questions to ask current students
• Europe / US / elsewhere

@HadasKotek, @ShomirWilson, @vnfrombucharest

Hadas Kotek (she/her)

NL Annotation Project Lead, Siri Understanding, Apple (Cupertino, CA)

• PhD in Linguistics from MIT
• Formerly faculty in linguistics at NYU and Yale
• Long-time moderator on thegradcafe

Research interests (still active): syntax, semantics, �experimental linguistics; the role of computation in �syntactic constraints and learning.

​

hkotek@alum.mit.edu --- http://hkotek.com

@HadasKotek, @ShomirWilson, @vnfrombucharest

Shomir Wilson (he/him)

Assistant Professor, Penn State University (USA)

Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Maryland, 2011�Previously postdoc at Carnegie Mellon University and University of Edinburgh

Research Areas: NLP for privacy; text classification; question answering; summarization

shomir@psu.edu - http://shomir.net�See the Advice for Students section of my website for more on finding a mentor and related topics in academia

@HadasKotek, @ShomirWilson, @vnfrombucharest

Vlad Niculae (he/him)

Postdoc, Instituto de Telecomunicacoes, Portugal�➡ Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam

Ph.D. in Computer Science, Cornell 2018

Research Areas: Structured prediction, latent structure models, ML and optimization for NLP.

https://vene.ro ~ vlad@vene.ro ~ @vnfrombucharest

@HadasKotek, @ShomirWilson, @vnfrombucharest

Some FAQs

1. What should I look for in a good advisor?
2. What’s more important…
1. Topic vs advisor
2. Advisor vs institution
3. Newer vs experienced (Tenure-Track or Tenured)
4. Big-name?
5. Group/department size: small or large
3. Advisor vs mentor: how to find a mentor
4. Practical advice:
• How to approach a potential advisor
• What questions should I ask a potential advisor
• What questions should I ask current students of a potential advisor

​

@HadasKotek, @ShomirWilson, @vnfrombucharest

What makes a good advisor?

• Personal fit: The secret sauce
• Talk to them: do you get along? Feel like you can carry a conversation?
• Trust your gut!
• Talk to graduate students (many of them!)
• They will spill all (but may not write it)
• More likely to talk to admitted students than anyone applying
• How responsive is this person after a student graduates?
• Success record
• How often do they publish? Do they publish with students?
• Placement record: what are their former students doing now? (how many drop out?)
• Read thesis acknowledgements, they can be very informative
• Does this person (a) take on, & (b) actually graduate, a diverse & inclusive range of students
• Check out their online presence, e.g. on Twitter
• (But be skeptical of performative tweets! Aggregate all info.)

@HadasKotek, @ShomirWilson, @vnfrombucharest

Matters of taste

• Hands-on vs hands-off
• (matter of degree! hands-on != micromanaging)
• Large or small group
• Hierarchical? If yes, how are the senior students / postdocs?
• Communication style and tools
• Lots of live Slack chat vs. slower-paced email?
• Task management software?
• Targeted topic or someone who works on lots of different things
• Lots of collaborations or more solo work
• History of external collaborations: relevant for growing your network.
• Does the group socialize outside of work?

@HadasKotek, @ShomirWilson, @vnfrombucharest

Some things you can’t know

Your interests may change; the relationship with the advisor may go bad.

A good work environment offers protections. Grad programs vary a lot!

• Can the advisor single-handedly fire you? �What recourse options would you have?
• Try to give yourself options:
• More than one potential advisor in the department
• Healthy history of switching
• Do you have to pick a person before you begin grad school or after?
• Does the funding come directly from the advisor or the institution?
• Your rights should not depend on your advisor’s “generosity”!

@HadasKotek, @ShomirWilson, @vnfrombucharest

Advisor vs mentor

A mentor is different from an advisor.

• Cultivate many
• at different career stages,
• not necessarily in your field or institution
• Don't have to be long-term; could be targeted �and short-term relationship
• You can be one too! to younger students & undergrads in your department
• Many people will be generous with their time, if you ask
• Less busy people are often better candidates: advanced students in your department, the professor who is not the hotshot. Emeritus professors know all the gossip �and have time.

@HadasKotek, @ShomirWilson, @vnfrombucharest

How to approach a potential advisor

• Read their website for instructions. Follow them.
• If none are given, write a short email, one screen at most.
• First goal: establish that they are accepting students, and you are a good fit
• Ask what information the person wants and in what format
• Depending on field, it may not be customary to write potential advisors before applying. Ask around.
• Rule of thumb: more likely in lab-based structure, and/or if funding comes directly from the advisor rather than the department

@HadasKotek, @ShomirWilson, @vnfrombucharest

Questions to ask current students

• Do you like your advisor? Would you recommend them to others?
• What’s the best thing about your advisor?
• Is there a “type” of student that does best with this advisor? How would you describe the typical student that thrives under this advisor?
• If you could change one thing about your advisor, what would it be?
• What happens if you disagree with your advisor on anything?
• Do you know of anyone who’s switched away from your advisor?
• How did that go over, why?
• What’s your advisor’s policy on time off/vacation?
• How accessible is your advisor?
• Do they travel a lot? Do you have to wait a long time to get a meeting?
• How quickly do they comment on drafts? (Do they read drafts?)
• How responsive are they to email?

@HadasKotek, @ShomirWilson, @vnfrombucharest

Europe / US / elsewhere?

• Surprisingly big differences, impacting student-advisor relationship.
• US system is more homogeneous.
• In Europe, things differ greatly between countries.
• Don’t assume, check! (funding, timeline, expectations, etc.)
• Labor rights & protections for graduate workers:
• nationally enforced?
• part of national culture, or controversial?
• Immigration; work post-PhD
• What kind of support from your advisor will be needed?
• A mentor with experience in work visas and immigration can be helpful.

​

@HadasKotek, @ShomirWilson, @vnfrombucharest