Question: what do you like about being a scientist and your job.
Asked by bulls23 to Nathan, Bev, Posty, Edward, Kate on 15 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by mohamed14, nalizade, oliviak, chiler35, dinosaur, moonta, remon2011, dforsythe17, dreamonn, remon2011, unkown, dylanparsons, kirk112, dreamonn, unkown, lucychap11, lucychap11, tbkm96, jackok, candiceleejeanconnor, candiceleejeanconnor, dragon1, keely1616, humpie, nina, jess, leishy, awesomekid.
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I like that science is like being a detective. Its all about problem solving. You do tests which gives ‘evidence’ or results. Its your job then to try to work out what that evidence means. I like that you get to discover new things that nobody has ever done or even thought of. Then, what’s even better is that these new things can actually make a huge difference to the lives of people, the environment, the planet, out future etc!
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Hi Bulls23,
The great thing about being a scientist is that we are always finding new problems to solve, and there are always new challenges every day. In my lab we work on some of the big issues facing Australia related to water and climate change, so that is always challenging.
Also, if your job involves field work (as mine used to when I was in Townsville), it’s nice to get outside and set up instruments to measure things like rainfall and streamflow.
Finally, I get to go to a lot of overseas conferences, which is great if you like to travel as much as I do!
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There are a lot of things that I really like about my job. I love being my own boss, planning my own experiments and working with fantastic people. I am very lucky to work in a great team, where everyone helps each other out with their experiments, and there are lots of other people to bounce ideas off. I like working closely with students, and watching them grow as they develop into independent scientists with their own ideas and own enthusiasm. I like travelling to conferences and visiting other laboratories in Australia and overseas, meeting other scientists and sharing new ideas. Most of all, though, I like the fact that no two days are the same, which is perfect for me because I know I’d get really bored if every day was the same! I’ve tried 9-5 jobs, where I was doing the same thing over and over – and it really didn’t work for me…, but science always keeps me interested!
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I’ve had two different science-related jobs, first as a researcher and now working on government science programmes.
In my first, the things I like are pretty much what the other Food Zone scientists like (except I like problem solving without having to do experiments, because my experience is that lab equipment breaks down when it senses my presence :-p).
In my current job with the government, I enjoy helping scientists and government people understand each other better: the worlds of science and government are very different!
And in both jobs, one of the most important things to me has been the people I have worked or studied with. It makes a big difference if you get on with the people you see at work/university/school each day!
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