It depends a lot on who you&#x27;re working for. You might think that every professor with interesting publications at a high-ranking institution is smart, interested in their work, and invested in the success of their students. Or at least, this is what I thought when I was an undergraduate, when I did some research with some really great people. Since then, I&#x27;ve realized that some people of these professors are not particularly interested in science, but have big egos and are particularly skilled at promoting themselves. They&#x27;re at top institutions and they are thus able to attract lots of money and smart, hard-working students, but their intellectual contribution to their lab&#x27;s work is relatively small and the environment they produce within their labs (and institutions) is pretty toxic.