It’s been almost 6 months since we started the Macau-UK Biomedical Journal Club (MUBJC) in November 2024, and I’m really proud of how far we’ve come! I’ve always wanted to create a platform where we can come together to discuss ideas and support each other in his/her career journey!
Looking back to when I was an undergraduate or applying for PhD programs, I really struggled — there were many rejections, ups and downs, and no one to give me advice or help me practise for interviews etc. That experience was one of my main motivations for starting this journal club. Now, we have many UG/MRes students (many of whom are also applying for PhDs), and also a couple of PhD students. As PhD students, we’ve been able to offer useful advice, and the everyone in the club including the more junior members has the chance to practise scientific presentations, doing mock interviews etc. I’m truly proud of this!
Last week, on 2025-05-02, I was extremely proud to host a career talk by a very experienced friend of mine — Quang Le, who I met through badminton. He gave our first invited talk at the JC. It was incredibly inspiring and gave us so much to think about.
Quang spent 10 years in academia and has now worked in industry for almost another 10 years, so he has deep insights into both worlds. He’s had tremendous success in both — he has a Nature paper and over 15k citations, and he’s worked for major companies like Google, JP Morgan, and now Meta.
And yet, during the talk, he described his career as a “failure” — in the sense that early on, he didn’t have a clear direction. He shared many useful advices, such as encouraging us to develop clear career goals early in our undergraduate years (he said don’t be like him), and to ask ourselves: why do we want to do a Master’s or a PhD?
I’ll write down some key takeaways and quotes below:
He then discussed his academic journey from UG to PhD. He mentioned that in his culture (Vietnam), and in Chinese culture more broadly, becoming a professor is highly respected — which can make it tempting to follow the academic path by default. But he warned against blindly following that path. He explained that this was one of the main reasons he pursued a PhD without being sure of what he truly wanted — and that if he could go back in time, he wouldn’t have done the PhD. He left us with some self-discovery questions to consider:
He also talked about why he stayed in academia for nearly 10 years as a postdoc, even though it might not have aligned with his true interests.
But a key question he asked — for us and for his younger self — was:
He then talked about his first failed attempt to move into industry. Despite already being highly successful in academia, he had over 30 interviews and no offers. Some key lessons:
Then he shared his second attempt (3 years later). He was about to turn 40 and knew it might be his last realistic chance to pivot into industry — so he worked really hard. He studied over 2000 LeetCode problems, practised mock interviews, learned to “speak their language,” strategically aimed for entry-level roles to get a foot in the door, and actively sought advice from ex-academics working in tech. Eventually, his efforts paid off and he successfully transitioned into industry. Some key lessons from his experience:
He also shared a few examples of projects he’s worked on in industry (at Google and Facebook), and how these aligned better with his values compared to academia. I won’t go into details here, but it was very inspiring.
Due to time constraints, he skipped one slide, but I could more or less guess the message from what was shown. It was about why he enjoys work much more now. Some key points from that slide:
A key quote here:
Finally, in his conclusion slide, he reflected on what he would have done differently and shared some inspiring advice for us to think about:
That’s all from the career talk! It was incredibly inspiring for me — and hopefully for everyone else in the club as well. I’m also very proud of the MUBJC I co-founded, which gave me the opportunity to invite other experienced people to share their journeys with us. I’m really looking forward to hosting more invited talks in the future!
]]>I’ve now been in my PhD for almost half a year, I think — and if I were to describe it with just one word, that word would be Dramatic. These six months have been full of ups and downs, but overall, I think I’ve been growing steadily, both academically and personally.
In terms of day-to-day PhD life, it’s been much better than my last year in Warrington. I’ve made lots of friends this year (thanks to the large Chinese community here at the University of Southampton!). I remember mentioning in a blog post a while back that one of my biggest wishes was to experience the “lost” uni life again (thanks to COVID), and I really feel like that wish has finally been fulfilled. I’m quite happy here (most of the time). My supervisor is extremely nice and laid-back, and I can go to the office whenever I want, as long as I’ve done some work before each meeting. He’s also just a really kind person — kind of like a father figure. I really admire how calm he stays in tough situations. I guess being a former head of department, he’s seen everything that can possibly go wrong, and he’s learned that everything eventually turns out fine.
I also play badminton (almost) every day! It’s been great getting back into it. The last time I really played was back in primary school, when I was on the school team and played two or three times a week after class. It’s fantastic — I love badminton!!! Not to mention, I’ve made loads of friends through it — from undergrads to PhDs, to a guy from Vietnam who works at META, and people from all sorts of nationalities (some of which I honestly can’t even name the countries!).
Academically, things have been going pretty well. My productivity is okay-ish good, though it could definitely be better. I’ve had some ups and downs. My computer broke a couple of times, and I’ve done a few crazy things with it (don’t ask). But again, I think I’m becoming more calm about everything. I always remember the lyrics from the song Everyday Normal Guy 2 — “Shit happens all the time and you learn to deal with it.”
As for more academic updates, I think I’ll save those for another blog post — maybe the next one!
See you soon — and I promise I’ll write another blog post either today or tomorrow!
]]>I will update the text again soon!
]]>I remember when I first started I was extremely anxious on loads of things, most of which are quite reasonable. E.g. I need to find something that I am good at, I need to prove myself etc. I remember we have this bi-weekly update meeting and there was one time I just told my supervisor that I would just skip the meeting that week because I didn’t have any result updates etc (bc of conference/ PhD app I think), which show just how anxious I was when I first started.
Now that I have find a place in the world and also I have better mentality/ more mature in thinking etc - I am more confident and less anxious in general. It’s not the typical confidence that I can now be confident bc I know sth (aka cocky) - it’s more like I want to focus the energy on the curiosity bit instead. E.g. I don’t want to feel anxious worrying that I am stupid bc I don’t know anything - but instead I want to focus on OK I don’t know this but it’s interesting and let’s try to learn sth useful from other people etc.
I am reading this book called Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish recently and it is really really good. I am at a point where I need to make lots of important decisions (mostly MPhil plan/ PhD plan). Ie Where I want to go (Industry or academia?). Which field I want to go (AI? Drug discovery? MD? GPCR? AMR?). What are the gaps in my skills? I also think I have to be strategic about this because I am not very smart (which is true) so is it worth going to a field that is very competitive (e.g. ML/AI), or maybe we should do some strategic planning and pick a less competitive field that I can become very good at and can still make a impact. Or am I just self-limiting myself?
I would say I don’t have all the answer to this atm which is OK. Decision making is HARD - Good decision can lead to bad outcome sometimes, and vice versa. There is also gap in the information. And predicting the future trend is extremely hard anyway. There are always conflicting advices as well etc (which might be the case that both are quite valid).
For now I think I need to identify the information that I need (and sometimes it’s only possible to get the information in the future), so I think being comfortable with Not making a decision now is a core skill that I need to have (otherwise I usually just burn all the attention to try to figure out which choice is better, when a more decent decision/ much easier decision can be made in a few weeks’ time when there’s new information available etc). It’s similar idea to risk tolerance, where I think I need to learn to be comfortable with uncertainty/ not knowing the answer rn etc.
It’s also very important not to be trapped in black and white thinking. Try to be creative and don’t get stuck by needing to make a binary choice etc. Final thing is it is OK if things don’t go according to plan. It is OK if you disappoint people along the way etc bc a better option come up etc.
I would still make the same choices, good or bad. I recently read a very powerful quote which resonate with me very well - it goes sth like this (my own words from translation from chinese) “Don’t go very hard on yourself. If you can go back in time relive the moment again, given your maturity (心智) at that moment you would likely to make the exact same choice/ do the exact same thing etc.” and then maybe let’s merge with this quote (again from my own words) “Don’t be sad because it’s gone, smile because it happened”.
Let’s not be sad about things in the past, and let’s not get tortured from embarrassed things in the past (still got PTSD from the BSG talk sometimes). All are good experiences/ stepping stones and let’s regret anything cause I would make the same choice anyway give my maturity (心智) at that moment.
Let’s get excited about future possibility instead!
]]>Funny I remember back in high school I used to be obsessed about myself (I guess everyone is the same) - I care a lot about my IG stories/ profile etc and how people think of me. And now I just dont care - I AM a small potato. My opinion means nothing. I don’t look cool today and that’s okay etc (Not being pessimistic here - it’s just you know .. it don’t matter - I don’t matter). That’s when I realised I am growing up low-key.
I also accepted that I SUCK/ not a smart boy. But that is not an excuse for not spending effort (you see the difference here?). I was thinking lately about whether to submit an abstract again for a conference. Should I put myself out there and be exposed AGAIN? Yeah fk it who cares - you can think of my as badge. Judge me all you want. It might be bad this time but it will get better next time. I am just gonna get some practice in the meantime. Being badge is not an excuse for not trying.
Ego is the enemy. I don’t want to admit it but it did feel good to think you know more than someone else etc/ or you have more experience. WAKE UP, I don’t matter. I am nothing. (Not being pessimistic here although it does sound like it). Just think other people are 2x smarter than you and try to learn from them you moron. Stop pretending you know shit and start asking Q/ looking up Q when you don’t understand sth fully. Moron.
I think I am getting more mature over the last few weeks; Adulting yay (oops I think I watched too many setsuko lately)
Working hard is just underrated these days. Back in the days people who work hard are the cool guys. Now they just look lame. Yeah no fk you I am the cool guys. I work hard everyday and I am working towards something bigger. You are lame I am not.
Sorry :) I am having a mini nicotine withdrawal last/this week (vaping did feeeel good). It is actually quite funny to look in hindsight (the emotion turmoil over the last week). I remember yesterday and the day before I was quite philosophical - like what’s the point of anything. And I was quite judgemental about myself and was scared what other people think of me/ whether they will judge me etc. Today I think I grew up. Adulting means I need to have my own set of believes and try hard everyday (nice definition). I can’t just sitting here and be worried about everything everyday that I might make a mistake/ fk up/ say sth wrong again. It is okay. Be easy on yourself and focus on where you want to go. Just fix them on-the-fly if you fk up again. It is Okay. I repeat it is Okay. Don’t worry. Focus.
]]>The talks on Day 1 were super interesting (and mostly understandable which is good). But at the end of the day I actually got super EMO for various reasons. One is prob that I am getting too tired at the end of the day after focusing for too long. Second is that I saw the amazing and cutting-edge research others do and how smart other people are etc, which reminded me that I need to fking work harder. Third is that I am just amazed to see how good of scientists others are (from their discussions etc., also apply to other PhD students), which makes me wonder if I will ever be able to catch up with them etc. There are also other things like networking but in general I am just not good enough and don’t know enough about GPCRs. There’s also other personal reason which I won’t go into but I need to become better :<
I didn’t sleep very well on Day 1 (prob drank too much coffee during coffee breaks etc). But surprisingly Dau 2 went pretty well! E.g. I found a chance to speak to Maria after her talk (who is my MPhil supervisor at Cambridge next year) and it went quite well! I also had the chance to speak to/ catch up with various members of Alejandra’s lab about the projects etc, and that also went quite well! But that was the peak of Day 2; I was half-dead from only sleeping 3 hours, and I left the meeting early because my brain couldn’t take in any new information anymore. I slept for 12 hours straight the next day.
Science is hard (and quite competitive), you could feel overwhelmed and not-good-enough all the time etc. I think it’s very important that you go easy on yourself and pick yourself up quickly/ don’t beat yourself up etc. I definitely was very harsh at myself but the good thing is I always pick myself up quickly after. “Anything you are not better at, you could get better” - a prob wrong quote from Hope Jehren from a podcast called People Behind the Sciences.
]]>When you were young, decision-making was easy in the sense that you knew what the right or good decision to make was. For example, when there’s an exam tomorrow, it’s a good idea to study – even though we might make the bad decision (deciding to go gaming instead), but we know the choice was bad we just prefer gaming over studying this time etc. However, in adulting, things aren’t that black and white. There are loads of uncertainties. It’s often very hard to tell what the right choice is here and now, especially during the time when we are exploring ourselves etc. Another thing is one might not necessarily know if any particular thing is worth doing, because the reward might only come months or years later. This applies to a range of things from job to life in general.
Adulting means you get to decide how you wanna live (and what you wanna become). I went to clubbing a few months ago and it was just sooo much fun all at the same time, and from time to time I have a really strong desire to go again etc. But I know if I decided to go again it’s gonna slowly change my personality and values (and prob health as well) etc forever, for good or for bad. The tricky part is I don’t even know if it’s a right thing to do.
The pursuit of happiness is prob one of the meanings of life. I had an epiphany today after struggling for quite some time about whether to go clubbing again - which is it can’t be my source of happiness. I need a better and healthier form of happiness etc. I think I will try reading instead. OK maybe deep down I am still a good boy even though I tried to pretend I am a bad boy from time to time (good job mum for the upbringing)
OK only casual kids go clubbing. We professionals boy do reading/ grinding/ lectures etc instead. It’s my new believes and now I feel better XD
Who do you want to become in 10 years? Adulting means making (many) daily decisions, and we must have a set of guiding principles to navigate through each day. E.g. if we don’t believe in the work we do every day, we will quickly become lost. Therefore, it’s crucial to have a set of strong beliefs or goals. For me, I have always been a fan of intellectual pursuits; they are what drive me to work hard every day. What are your guiding principles?
]]>Incredible luck to have received the offer to join AstraZeneca (AZ) for a summer internship in computational chemistry in Cambridge this summer! It will be my first gateway to learn some comp chem in a drug discovery/ industrial setting, and to finally do some computational chemistry (rather than computational structural biology). Massive opportunity. Not to mention the AZ Cambridge site is soooo cool (link)! I am so excited already (The intern is two months away, what?)
Multi-disciplinary means loads of interest! I am switching field again from Medicinal Chemistry to Structural Biology to now Pharmacology!
New place, new subject, new people, and college life! It will be a good year I am already excited!
It’s actually a very good opportunity! Both academically and in general. The project is really interesting and the techniques used are complementary to my current skill-sets in MD. The lab also seems very nice! The 1-year MPhil will also be a good opportunity for me to explore college life/ uni life, which I didn’t get to experience in my Yr1/2 due to covid and other reasons. I promise I will make the most out of it during the MPhil - It will be a fantastic year I can already tell !! (I am actually sooo excited!!)
I am feeling young again! Nice
]]>When I said “New place, new subject, new people, and college life” in the last post there’s actually some emotional elements behind my longing for a new start (I only realised later). It kinda triggered me into reflecting my placement year
Lots of ups and downs … I think I grew a lot during this year, but still trying to find my place in this world. Some believes and values are changed, I started questioning about what I really want recently, and come to the conclusion that change is imminent (for good or for bad) - I might become a different person next year when I look back..
Life moves on.
New start !
]]>Do you know I did 5 A-levels and got many A* and A in Maths and Sciences? Do you also know I am the only one in the F6 class who doesn’t have a ranking back in high school? Cause I failed the Chinese subject (Needing to retake final exam and still failed lol). I was reading more into ADHD lately and this is definitely a typical symptom of ADHD, which might explain why I was so extreme from the views of others (e.g. have the abilities to do well academically but refuse to spend any effort in Chinese exam).
Or maybe I am just bold/ high-risk tolerance - who knows.
We used to have this popular phrase called “rubbish teenage” back in the old days (if you know you know), and I was definitely one of them lol for a period. I mean, when I was addicted to gaming NO ONE can stop me and I can’t do any work at all in those period, like not even a tiny bit. I always don’t understand how people can switch between working and playing modes easily - for me it’s always either I am in full productive mode with 0 gaming at all, or I am in full gaming mode with full addition and can literally do zero work for days. And I learnt this is also quite a typical symptom for ADHD …
I must have known that at heart subconsciously was I adopted the nicotine approach I described in the early post. Otherwise I already know I would become a full time heavy smoker which is too bad for health.
There’s also another bizarre thing for me which might be explained by ADHD … Once in a month maybe my brain just needed some stimulus, like MORE stimulus, like I need loads of them right here right now. It usually happens in the evening. I would just NEED to scroll the various social media like crazy, switching youtube and twitch and other thing etc incessantly.
Now you might call that a social media addiction, but I think my phone usage is actually below average and I put my phone in my bedroom and don’t check at all when I work (which is most of the day). But onces in a while my brain just NEEDS some stimulus fix, like LOADS of them NEEDED. Is this normal lol?
From all-or-nothing gaming/productive mode, no-middle-ground smoking policy that I set for myself, to once-in-a-while stimulus fixing day. I think I already have devised a method and successfully kept my productivity high most of the days in the month. I think I deliberately I adopted a no-middle-ground kind of life style in many aspects, which helped me keeping me focused for most of the time and be fully immersed in distractions/stimulus in a cheat day when I need the fix.
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