Surviving a PhD is not all about benchwork and papers.After all everybody who join in do that..but what can you do to make a difference.Yes a graduate school does make the best attempt to train students in all facets of research and make them competent for the competitive world that they have to face,but is there something that's missing..is there some part you have to acquire without them being taught.Definitely that's a yes.I would not like take much more time..here's what i'm talking about.

Most scientists would agree that graduate school packs in an incredible amount of education. But do PhD programmes teach all the right things? Most PhDs would probably say that they learned a lot about science — from research methodology to literature reviews and experimentation. But there are many other, equally important, skills that often fall through the cracks. As science and technology continue to move on, this 'soft' skill set remains more or less constant.

Soft skills include learning how to pick mentors, write grant proposals, assemble interdisciplinary research collaborations and manage labs. Without mastery of them, meeting scientific goals and climbing the ladder towards tenure can be more difficult. Most young scientists scramble to pick these skills up on their own, when they realize they need them.

Sound's interesting then check out the editor's choice of the Nature Graduate journal.They've got an interesting line-up of articles like

Off-the-Bench Skills

• Time, project and team management
• Financial management and grant-writing
• Networking
• Picking a postdoctoral fellowship
• Finding full-time employment
• Presentations
• Mentoring
• Teaching
• Work-life balance

Have a productive Research life.