• Question: was your journey to becoming a scientist easy?

    Asked by wave440buy on 29 Sep 2021.
    • Photo: Paul Adams

      Paul Adams answered on 29 Sep 2021:

      It involves a lot of hard work, and you must be prepared to face setbacks and frustrating points. Nothing is easy but if you are persistent and know what you want it becomes natural for you to push yourself to reach your goals.

    • Photo: Ferran Brosa Planella

      Ferran Brosa Planella answered on 29 Sep 2021:

      There were good moments and bad moments, but overall I have enjoyed every step. But I believe this can be said of many other career paths.

    • Photo: Robert Astbury

      Robert Astbury answered on 29 Sep 2021:

      It started with lots of baby steps, each time moving forward, from college to university, and then finding a related employment.

      find what you love to do, and work towards it in small manageable pieces.

    • Photo: Natasha Marchant

      Natasha Marchant answered on 29 Sep 2021:

      It wasn’t easy as science degrees have lots of tricky bits to learn! But it also wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Lots of hard work is the key!

    • Photo: Michael Hills

      Michael Hills answered on 29 Sep 2021:

      Just like the other Scientists have said, there is lots of hard work to be done to make sure you end up in a job you really want!
      I am dreadful at exams so struggled somewhat at University and after failing a few key exams had to work EVEN harder to make up for it.
      I am a big believer of “everything will work out in the end” so work hard to make sure you get exactly the outcome you want.

    • Photo: Sophia Constantinou

      Sophia Constantinou answered on 29 Sep 2021:

      I had to work really hard to get my chemistry degree, I’m not very good at exams so I had to revise a lot. There were lots of fun parts of my degree though! I loved the experiments, especially when my friends were in the lab so we could chat while we did the experiments.

      My career is in science communication so I had to do some extra work outside of my degree to learn communication skills, for example organising events for the chemistry department. That was challenging because it took up a lot of time but I really enjoyed it!

    • Photo: Chris Muir

      Chris Muir answered on 29 Sep 2021:

      In short no – but nothing in life worth doing is easy!

      Key struggles I had were: studying for A levels, particularly maths, developing self motivation at university for study, grappling with advanced topics, fast learning new areas at work, finding people who could help / teach me, working out what I needed to learn in the first place!

      Having said all that, I look back at what I have achieved and that is a particular source of pride. I’m glad I pushed through all those harder times, because the results are worth it. I’m in a great job, working with colleagues I would choose to spend my time with, working on worthwhile projects, doing things other teams/people wouldn’t be able to do.

    • Photo: Beatrice Browning

      Beatrice Browning answered on 29 Sep 2021:

      It wasn’t easy by any means, as you have to put in work to get out good results. It really did help that I enjoyed studying science though. If you enjoy anything then you can find motivation to put the work in. It’s also NEVER too late to change your mind if you realise you don’t enjoy something like you used to!

    • Photo: Gabriel Pérez

      Gabriel Pérez answered on 29 Sep 2021:

      Nothing worth doing is easy. In my case becoming a scientist required a combination of hard work, determination, and being in the right place at the right time. One thing that I was very glad to find out is that you can achieve a lot if you put your heart into it.

    • Photo: Rohin Titmarsh

      Rohin Titmarsh answered on 29 Sep 2021:

      My journey isn’t finished yet, so yes and no.
      There are some things where I’ve been asked to get involved because I’m the person with the knowledge to solve that problem. But on the flipside there have been other times where I don’t know the answer for ages and have had to do long hours of reading and planning then carrying out experiments. It often depends on the challenge in front of you, which of one of the joys about what we do because there’s always a chance to learn, and always a chance to use what you’ve learned to solve a problem someone else is struggling with.

    • Photo: Yige Sun

      Yige Sun answered on 29 Sep 2021:

      I don’t know. Yes and No I think.
      Nothing outside is stopping me from being a scientist, I meant I don’t need to fight against something to make it happen.
      But inside of me, how I learn, how I involve and then contribute, I need to work hard to try new areas, learn new knowledge, be peaceful with challenges and failure, always learn and explore, then to make it happen.

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