• Question: if you had a second chance would you work as any thing else

    Asked by willsmithy to Christine, Edd, Jess, Nicolas, Zara on 12 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      I’d quite like to be an Indiana Jones type explorer but there aren’t many jobs like that!

      If you are creative and curious about the world and would like to work on something that could make a genuine difference to the world then you can’t beat being a scientist! 🙂

    • Photo: Zara Gladman

      Zara Gladman answered on 11 Jun 2011:

      I’m very happy with what I’m doing right now, so I don’t think I would change anything! If I wasn’t doing science, I’d probably be doing something more arty or creative – but I can do arty things in my spare time and still enjoy being a scientist 8)

    • Photo: Jessica Chu

      Jessica Chu answered on 11 Jun 2011:

      I would still choose to be a scientist but say if I can’t- then I might want to be a celebrity chef and have my own little restaurant or something like that!! 🙂
      Instead of mixing chemicals… I will be mixing some veg and pasta!!

    • Photo: Christine Switzer

      Christine Switzer answered on 12 Jun 2011:

      Every decision I have made so far has been because it sounded like fun at the time. There are no decisions I regret, though there are plenty more things I would love to try. As an undergraduate, I took a number of History of Science classes that were fascinating. Now, my work relates to Britain’s industrial legacy so I can continue pursuing that area. I also love languages and would love to work in another country where I can learn another language. I studied French, Spanish and Russian but never enough to be fluent. I would love to spend more time with any of those languages or something new.

    • Photo: Nicolas Biber

      Nicolas Biber answered on 12 Jun 2011:

      First of all: You never get a second chance … it’s tough, but that’s how life rolls 😉 I have accepted that fact, and therefore I never even give it a thought. Still, even if I could go back in time, I would not work as anything else than as a scientist, i guess once you have started doing science you can just not turn back. I t would be like removing a part of your body … There is so much in science too, it’s impossible to finish experiencing it, and if you get tired of one thing you can do something different and still do science, how cool is that 🙂

Comments

  • Photo: Edd

    Edd commented on :

    @ Zara & Jess – do you hope to stay in science when you have finished your PhDs? Any plans to become lecturers? 😉

  • Photo: Zara

    Zara commented on :

    @ Edd I’m still undecided as to what I’ll do next! I really enjoy science communication/teaching to I might try and go down that route. But I’m not sure! One thing I’ll definitely be doing post-thesis is going travelling though, I’m desperate to see South America! Maybe I could combine the trip with something zoological 🙂

  • Photo: Jess

    Jess commented on :

    @ Edd and Zara

    Sorry i am a bit slow to this because I only realised the comments bit 😛

    I want a job that involves half labs and half doing other things (like public communication etc.).
    I got a feeling if I want to go down the academic route then it is very much focused on how many papers you need to publish and writing loads of grant applications etc. – do you think this is the case?
    So I am still undecided!!!

    I might want to find a post-doc post in somewhere sunny like Australia and California for a year or two!!! So it will be half work and half travel before really settling into a long-term job 🙂

    • Photo: Edd

      Edd commented on :

      You’re right that to do well as a lecturer you’ll need to write papers and get grants if you want to be seen as a good ‘researcher’.

      Traditionally, as a lecturer you had to do 3 things: teaching, admin and research, where the research is usually the most important (you could still get a job as a ‘teaching fellow’ where you don’t do research but these are becoming less common now). For example, to get promoted you would have to show you are doing well at research.

      However, more recently the universities have added a fourth category that you can be judged on: ‘knowledge transfer’. Hence, universities are putting more emphasis on this (quite rightly) and doing IAS will certainly help if you go down this route.

      There are also ‘Knowkedge exchange fellows’ that most of the research councils support, for example
      http://www.nerc.ac.uk/using/schemes/kefellows.asp

      @ Zara – you could also use your art in your day job if you wanted to: http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/funding/AIR/AIR.cfm

      • Photo: Jess

        Jess commented on :

        Yay.. brilliant!! Thanks Edd for the fourth option I will be looking into this one 🙂
        I do like lab work but I don’t want it 24/7 and I enjoy chatting to people so wanted a job that will give me the best of both (haha like the Hovis bread)