In terms of scientific research projects, Yimeng Huang has completed the writing of project books three times, with a serious attitude, high work efficiency, and constant self-breakthrough. In terms of ideology and understanding, she can breathe and share fate with the laboratory and constantly improve herself. She said frankly that she did not have much confidence in her work before, she did not develop the work habits and methods of planning first and then executing, and her work feedback was not timely enough. However, in the process of completing the writing of the project book, Huang Yimeng experienced a test of action and thinking from the first time she was apprehensive and skeptical when she received the task, to the final successful completion. Now, she has a clear understanding of her work and a clear positioning. In order to understand the transformation of her journey in the process of writing the project letter, we sent an interview invitation to her. Thanks very much to Yimeng Huang for accepting our interview. The following is the content of our interview.
Lijie Liu: When doing other work before, how long was the task cycle? What kind of mentality did you complete it?
Yimeng Huang: Last semester, I was mainly responsible for inline related work, and the task cycle was relatively long, usually more than two weeks. Although I was psychologically willing to do work before, there are still many problems: first of all, in terms of ideological understanding, the job positioning is not accurate, and the importance of work is not well understood. It did, but it didn't work. Then, in terms of personal mentality, sometimes I am not sure that I can do a job well, so I have no motivation to polish my work, and I need to rely on the teacher's supervision to move forward, which leads to fear when carrying out work. In addition, in terms of work thinking, I have not formed the habit of making decisions and then acting. In most cases, I choose to do it directly, resulting in unclear thinking and unclear goals, and I need to make constant adjustments in the later stage. Finally, in terms of working methods, the feedback on the staged results of the work is not timely, and the teacher cannot grasp the work situation, and there is no way to give suggestions to advance the work, which leads to work delays and seriously affects efficiency.
Lijie Liu: When you received the job of writing a project proposal, you learned that the working time limit was only three days. How did you feel?
Yimeng Huang: On the afternoon of January 22, I received a notice that I needed to write a project proposal, and asked to submit the first draft on January 24 and the final version on January 26. At the beginning, I was flustered and my mind went blank, because I had never been exposed to the work of writing a project book before. And because the time is very tight, I don't have much confidence that I can complete this matter, and I can't predict how far I will be able to achieve it in the end. However, when the teacher gave examples and reference materials, and the senior sister also said that she could provide help, I felt a lot more at ease, and I had a certain degree of confidence to do my job well. Moreover, I also told myself that although the time is tight, I still have to take it seriously, not to be perfunctory, and to do my best to complete the work with high quality.
Lijie Liu: When you first started writing the project proposal, what did you think and how did you do it?
Yimeng Huang: Because I don't know anything about the work of writing project proposals, I think I should start with learning. I spent a lot of time researching the content of the project book and the idea of writing, and researched a lot of materials related to the topic online, consulted literature, websites, etc. All materials, including those provided by teacher and senior sister, had been read. It took about a day and a half to read, sort out, organize and shape repeatedly, and I had been concentrating on this one thing.
Lijie Liu: When the deadline for submitting the first draft of the project proposal was still a few hours away, how was your work completed? How did you feel at that moment?
Yimeng Huang: Through a lot of research and study, I had formed a relatively clear thinking, and the available materials are substantial, so I didn't spend too much time writing. When it was only a few hours before the deadline, I had finished writing the main content, but I still didn’t have much confidence, so I repeatedly pondered whether the structure of the article was reasonable and what could be improved, and I adjusted and optimized the content . At the moment of submission, I thought back to the hard work of the past two days, and I still felt very happy that the work has achieved phased results.
Lijie Liu: After submitting the project proposal on time, the teacher gave a good evaluation. At that time, when you recalled the process of writing the project proposal, what kind of insights did you have?
Yimeng Huang: When submitting the first draft to the teacher, my psychological expectations were very low. Because I had no experience, and hadn't polished it too carefully due to limited time, I was ready to make a lot of revisions before discussing with the teacher. After the meeting with the teacher, the teacher said that there is no major problem in the project book, but the key points of the writing need to be revised. I was very surprised, but also very happy, and at the same time it gave me a lot of confidence. Things that seemed particularly difficult at first can be done well as long as you put your heart into it. This also made me more calm and confident when writing the project book.
Lijie Liu: We know that you have completed the writing of the project book three times recently, and the completion quality is high. What is your mental journey like? Has your mentality changed a lot compared to your previous self?
Yimeng Huang: Because of the previous experience, when I write other project papers later, I tell myself that this matter could be done well. Once you have confidence, you will not be disturbed by too many other factors, you can devote all your attention to the work itself, and you will be more efficient when doing work. Through the writing of several recent project books, I have also deeply realized that we and the laboratory are a whole, and the work we do is to make the laboratory develop better. As a member of the laboratory, we all have such responsibilities and obligations to do a good job in the work at hand. The work is not done for others to see. It is meaningful only if it is really done well. When doing work now, first of all, I will tell myself that it can be done and build up confidence. Before starting, I will first determine the direction and policy with the teacher, and then conceive and implement the plan. When there are problems in the thinking process, I will ask the teacher, and start the work after confirming that it is correct. During the work process, the teacher will give feedback on the work progress in time, which greatly improves the work efficiency.
(Interview time: April 8, 2022, by Huang Yimeng and Liu Lijie)