• Question: is your job difficult?

    Asked by kiplingcakes to Barbara, Matt, Ravinder, Sophie, Tristan on 9 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by Amirah.
    • Photo: Sophie Robinson

      Sophie Robinson answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      Yes it can be. It depends what you mean by difficult. As I have spent the last 21 years of my life learning about biology, understanding it is no longer difficult. However, when it comes to running experiments and getting things right, sometimes this can be difficult. We have to be careful not to make mistakes as this can ruin weeks worth of work. Also we have to defend our work to other scientists which can be tough as they all have different opinions. Also, as well as doing experiments we have to give presentations at conferences as well as writing up our work. This side of things can be quite stressful. Overall though it is more enjoyable than not.

    • Photo: Ravinder Kanda

      Ravinder Kanda answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      I’ve done a lot of different jobs. Every job has is challenges/is difficult. But you spend a minimum of 8 hours a day at your job; so I think its important to find a job that you enjoy. Yes, my job is difficult. But then again, every job has its difficulties – its up to you to decide what difficulties, job-wise, you are willing to accept.

    • Photo: Matthew Moore

      Matthew Moore answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      It is and it isn’t! It’s great as I get to do what I enjoy and found new stuff out 🙂 but can also be long hours etc! It’s really a question of interest, I don’t need to be in long hours but I really want to find out the answers!

    • Photo: Barbara Shih

      Barbara Shih answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      I feel like biologists are well-paid manual labour, for the most part (the lab months). There is a lot of repetitive work that is fairly straightforward. The most difficult part is usually the interpretation (the most fun bit!), the reading and writing, which isn’t the biggest portion of the work (and not all scientists have to do them. For example, technicians only really need to carry out what other people tell them to). A lot of the knowledge comes down to how long you’ve been working in one field. I would say the average biologists would be a lot worse at math than the average A-level math student! The hardest part that I’m aware of for a lot of people working in science isn’t so much the work, it’s the job insecurity.

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