We interviewed Dr. Colleen McSweeney about her experiences during graduate school at Penn State. Here, she shares her opinions and advice on how to be successful during and after graduate school.
About Colleen McSweeney, PhD
Colleen McSweeney obtained a Ph.D. in Neuroscience here at Penn State in 2017. As a part of Dr. Yingwei Mao’s lab, she investigated the role of RBM8a in neurogenesis, neurodevelopment, and psychiatric disease. Dr. McSweeney is now a Senior Scientific Consultant at Noldus Information Technology, Inc., where she consults with scientists to provide them with solutions for their behavioral research needs. Thus, she serves as a liaison between company staff and clients to help create complete lab solutions.
What motivated you to choose your PhD program at Penn State?
A couple of reasons. First, Penn State has a very collaborative environment, and the program and students have the type of culture I was looking for. I also wanted to do research on neuropsychiatric disease, and Penn State had quite a few labs that worked in that area.
How did your PhD training prepare you for your current job position?
My PhD training taught me how to ask scientific questions, think critically, juggle multiple projects, and communicate science effectively. In my current job, I have to talk with scientists daily, communicate with them to understand their needs, and think critically to propose a solution that can help them better their science. These were skills I was able to hone in different ways at Penn State (lab, seminar groups, HGSAC, etc.)
What is something surprising that you learned about yourself during your graduate training?
I learned that I was very good managing collaborations and projects. I didn’t need to be the smartest or most experienced person in the room to be effective. Instead, I just needed to find the best way to be able to help scientists communicate with each other and determine what needed to be done.
Describe a setback you experienced during graduate school. How did you overcome the setback and what did you learn from it?
During my third year, my project got scooped by a lab at a different institution. It was gut-wrenching, and I didn’t know what to do. I was eventually able to pivot and take my research in a slightly different direction, and still utilize a lot of my data. There are several labs studying the same thing, and if you are on the right path, there is a good chance someone else is on it, too—which is good! You want your science to be replicable. Even if this results in someone beating you to publication, it isn’t the end of the world. Publish your data confirming their results, then add on some new data that expands the topic a bit further. There is so much unknown in science, and it is so important for labs to replicate data. Even being scooped can be a good thing!
What advice you think is the most valuable for someone who is:
Applying for graduate school: Your goal for graduate school is to acquire the tools that allow you to think critically as a scientist, as well as learn some new methods. You don’t actually need to be researching a topic you plan to research for your entire life. Focus on schools and labs that will give you the techniques to succeed, even if they are applied to a topic that you are less interested in. Once you graduate, if you stay in academia, you can research exactly what you want. Or maybe you can take the tools you learned on the way and apply it to something totally different!
Starting graduate school: Don’t get stressed by failure early on. I think the majority of my data in my thesis was generated in my last two years. For your first couple years, just focus on learning all you can, and making all the mistakes! Mistakes are how you learn and are essential to your development. You will be surprised how quickly you can generate data in your last two years.
Finishing graduate school: As you finish up your degree, look ahead and think about what career you want to pursue. It’s also okay to not know and to pursue multiple paths at the same time! I didn’t know exactly where I would end up until I accepted a job (in a type of role I didn’t really know even existed). Success after graduate school also requires so many skills other than the research methods you use. Take time to pursue extracurricular activities that can help develop your interpersonal skills, as they are crucial to success!
Interview by Janhavi Damani