There is a dearth of excited, committed, welltrained clinical investigators in psychiatry. This is despite a rapid growth in the scientific foundations of the field over the past 20–30 years. It is also despite substantial improvements in research methods and funding. All areas of psychiatric clinical investigation are in need of researchers, areas including, but not limited to, methods development, population epidemiology, clinical epidemiology, clinical genetics, brain imaging, clinical psychopharmacology, clinical trials, and outcomes research. Barriers to the recruitment of clinical investigators have been discussed by many publications, roundtables, and meetings; these barriers include the complexities of psychiatry as a field, difficulties in quantifying and studying psychiatric disorders, intricate human-subjects issues, negative perceptions from other branches of medicine, and others. Yet, a message that seems to come across over and over again is that the most opportune time to cultivate a future psychiatric clinical investigator is during residency. It is during this time that the psychiatrist-trainee is immersed in learning about psychiatry, taking care of patients, reading the literature, and attending teaching conferences, all the while interacting with senior psychiatrists and other teachers. This immersion is occurring in a variety of environments, but, more often than not, in an academic environment where research is happening alongside clinical care. The purpose of this essay is to reflect upon my own experience in psychiatric residency and on how it influenced my development as a clinical investigator. It is also to reflect upon the key elements that need to be in place during psychiatric residency in order to entice residents into clinical investigation. Background