[brutus1213]

I am a PhD as well. Solid advice picking the right supervisor. That is one of the most critical factors to your success (be it publishing, having a career as an academic or getting into grad school in your situation). Don't ask me how to pick the right advisor because I think it is partly fortune, and partly the fit for you. Key thing is to find something you are excited about (and so is the advisor).

Btw .. three pieces of random advice:

- Go to the best grad school possible. Below a certain threshold, it is pointless.

- Learn to write well, and learn to read research papers in your field of interest.

- Get good taste in your problem to solve. When I was starting out my post-PhD life, a very senior Director/VP-level scientist at IBM Research asked me if I had a good taste in picking problems. I gave a BS answer since this was during my job search/interview loop. But I have thought back to that question a lot as I hit mid-career. I suggest you watch the first keynote at MobiSys 2020 (free on youtube). I think you need to pick problems that are within your capability and then build on the skills you have picked up to work on the next better problem, and so on ... all perhaps in sight of a worthy problem at the very end or on the road. I wish I gave this deep thought early in my career .. maybe I'd be more satisfied in my career (but hey .. I still have time .. maybe I'll figure it out one day!).