Question: how much money do you earn?

Keywords: , ,

  1. Substantially less than people working in comparable jobs (requiring university degrees) with businesses/companies!

    But I’m not complaining, because 1. Nobody with a university degree, and who has found a job, is actually poor; and 2. Like teachers, university scientists, and a few other groups, most people who work for government have chosen their jobs not for the money but because they like the work (for whatever reason).

    People who have studied science CAN choose jobs that pay (a lot) more — I can give you some examples if you’re really interested — but more often than not if they’d wanted a more highly paid job they would have studied something else at university, such as finance, law, or medicine.

    0

  2. What you earn as a scientist depends a lot on what type of scientist you are, and also how hard you want to work.
    That’s one of the great things about science – there are SO many options and types of jobs you really can find one to suit your lifestyle.

    0

  3. Hi Jawani,

    We do earn a reasonable amount of money, and it’s nice to get paid to do work that you find really interesting. i’d hate to be in a job that I thought was boring!

    Another thing that a lot of scientists get to do is travel to conferences. I’ve been to many really nice places around the world because of my job. Just last month I was in the Rocky Mountains in Canada. It was really beautiful!

    0

  4. Like Kate said, what you earn really depends where you work and what you do. If you are working for a company (like a large multi-national mining or food company), then you can earn incredibly well.

    As a reseacher at a University, the money isn’t quite as good – but it’s still not bad and certainly enough to be able to buy a house, have a good car, go on holiday and generally have a pretty good life! I also get to travel a lot as part of my job, which is pretty cool – and you get to see some pretty amazing places and meet some pretty amazing people! I also have friends all over the world now, which is another great part of being a scientist.

    0

Comments

  1. You could look at it this way… I don’t know anyone who got into science for the money. Most people do science because they get satisfaction from the work in other ways.

    1

    • Ah, but have you heard about how much one can earn working as a biostatistician for a pharmaceutical company in the USA?

      0