• Question: what are the benefits of being a scientist ad would you advice me or anyone for a fact to be one?

    Asked by sipho to Andrew, Daniel, Hayley, Natalia, Peta on 16 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Natalia Parzyk

      Natalia Parzyk answered on 15 Nov 2011:

      Doing science is pretty good fun. I’d rather not saying about benefits but more like about privilege (but maybe you can say that about any job which you really like?). It’s interesting to investigate the world how it’s. Actually, small part of the world in deep, but I find it pretty amazing when I’m getting to know more about superconductors, when I discover even small piece of new information, I know it matter because it’s like adding small puzzles and they’ll eventually create big picture. There are of course moments when you need to repeat calculations or experiments several time and that can be slightly boring but if you keep in mind that maybe on the end there is sth really big.. that keeps you going:) That’s probably also answer for second part of your question: if science is fascinating for you, if you feel like you want to know more and more.. – go for it:)

    • Photo: Peta Foster

      Peta Foster answered on 15 Nov 2011:

      The benefits… well you get to do a job that is really fun and very interesting. It is difficult to get bored because everything is always changing (ok i guess that’s only a benefit if you like things changing a lot 🙂 )

      The people you work will are also mainly made of of people with great enthusiasm and with a passion for science and a curiosity for everything that means you’ll always have interesting conversations at lunchtime.

      You can pretty much wear what you want, working hours are quite flexible for me (when not on experiment) and you also get to travel. I have been sent to San Diego in the states to work on a robot… that was a lot of fun! I have been to San Francisco to see the big lasers they have there and bring back ideas of how to improve ours. You have the opportunity to do exciting things like this and share your passion with people 😀

      The best thing for me is every single day i have worked in science i have learnt something new and I think that is just wonderful 😀

    • Photo: Daniel Scully

      Daniel Scully answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      If you want to work in science I’d try and decide which science you’re interested in most. Although all sciences follow the same principles of how you go about things, Biology, Chemistry and Physics are all very different subjects.

      The most important thing is to be studying something you find interesting and exciting… that way it’s not as much like work, you’ll be able to apply that enthusiasm and energy to be a better scientist and you’ll enjoy what you do!

    • Photo: Hayley Smith

      Hayley Smith answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      To me, there are many benefits of working in science, I think my top three would be:
      1) The work is fun
      2) People care about the work you do (OK, not everyone cares, but there are large fractions of the science community that care about the work you do)
      3) Hopefully the work you do will help people in someway, be that practially, or by furthing knowledge

      From my experiences, I’d say yes, having a science job is pretty cool!

      My advice?
      Figure out which areas of science you’re really keen on – some aspects of science are common between different subjects, but some are different. If there’s something that takes your fancy then go with it! There are also many routes into scientific jobs… there’s PhD’s, there’s jobs from University with science degrees, there’s apprenticeships, there’s science technicians, there’s allsorts! If you are able to, I’d recommend trying to get some work experience of different things, if you’re really not sure – try Universities for research experiences, or companies you think that would have some kind of scientific involvement, mayve electrical companies, chemical companies, or food labs etc – if you find a few work placements at least you may know at the end of each one whether “yeh that was awesome”, or “nope, that’s not for me”, or maybe somewhere in between and that may help you decide!

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