• Question: can you name some negative and positive points for being a scientist.

    Asked by to Aimee, Chris, Dave, Greig, Laurence on 19 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Greig Cowan

      Greig Cowan answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      Hi 12parkl ! Here are a few points, mostly positive! I hope this convinces you to become a scientist 🙂

      Positive
      1. You get to investigate properties of the Universe that no one else has ever studied before.
      2. You get to work with clever people who have good ideas. Everyone is trying to do the best science they can, so it leads to a very positive work environment.
      3. You have many opportunities to travel all over the World to discuss your research with other scientists. You might even get the chance to live in another country for a while (like I did). This gives you the chance to meet lots of new and interesting people.
      4. If you have good ideas (and are willing to work hard) then people will listen to you, even if you are not the most senior person in the room.

      Negative
      1. Science jobs are often only for a short term (2-3 years) and you often have to do a few of these positions before you become permanent.
      2. There is not a huge amount of investment in science, so if you have a new idea for a new experiment you need to fight really hard to convince other people to give you money to build it. This is not always successful, which is tough to deal with if you have spent a lot of time planning the new experiment.

    • Photo: Laurence Perreault Levasseur

      Laurence Perreault Levasseur answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      Great question!
      Here are some positive points (in no particular order):
      – I travel a lot (for conferences, schools, and giving seminars) and visit a lot of countries around the world, I meet people from everywhere, with different cultural backgrounds, learn a lot about them, and make loads of new friends!
      – I am constantly learning lots of new things, so my job certainly is never boring!
      – The work environment is very cooperative and supportive, so it’s really great to collaborate and interact with other scientists! Most people are very open minded and try to understand each other’s ideas, and find ways to improve them.
      – I get to teach and try to inspire people, which I absolutely love!
      – I get inspired by learning from world experts, for example, I actually get to see Stephen Hawking almost every day 😀
      – I can work on anything I like and find interesting, from where ever I like (as long as I have pen and paper, and I can Skype with my supervisor and collaborators!!) and, most of all, I can work on whatever schedule I want. That means I don’t have to wake up early in the morning if I don’t want to (and often I don’t want to!)
      – I’m sure there are many more!

      Negative point:
      I can work on whatever schedule I want, on the questions I find interesting. This is also a negative point, because it means I never stop working!!! It’s because I find what I do so fascinating that I just can’t stop thinking about it! And it’s hard to stop and do something else, so often I forget to eat, or sleep!! (like I start looking at a problem on Friday afternoon, and suddenly it’s Saturday lunchtime!! and I didn’t eat anything or slept!! – I’m not proud of it, but that actually has happened to me…)
      More generally, a lot of scientists find it hard to find a work-life balance, so I think it’s fair to put it in the negative points.

    • Photo: Aimee Hopper

      Aimee Hopper answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      +ve points
      You get to travel a lot
      You are DIRECTLY benefiting the wealth of knowledge for the human race – you may be the only person for hundreds of years that studies what you are looking at (Copernicus for example)
      You learn about the world, how it works and how to predict what is going to happen

      -ve points
      you have to work hard to truely understand a system
      you can spend your whole life working on a theory for someone to 1)complete it before you do 2)prove you wrong (i.e. the ether)

    • Photo: Dave Jones

      Dave Jones answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      Best points:
      -You get to work with people from all over the World. Learning about their cultures and their countries.
      -You get to work with some really clever and funny people.
      -You get to work on something that no one else has ever done before, when you find a solution or whatever YOU are the first!
      -Everything is about proof. So it doesn’t matter whether you have been a scientist for 50 years or if you are just a student, everybody has the same chance.
      -You have a lot of freedom. To research what you like, work when you like (but you have to work otherwise you’ll get fired!).

      Bad points:
      -Some travelling is good, but in order to stay a scientist you often have to move to different countries (because there aren’t that many jobs and you have to go where the jobs are). That means you have to leave behind your family and your friends.
      -To make that even worse, most of the contracts we have a very short (from 1-3 years), so that you just have enough time to settle into a new city, or even country, before you have to move again. It’s also pretty scary to think that when you are on these short contracts, if you don’t find something else in just a few months you won’t have a job!
      -We don’t get paid very much, really. Most people who graduate from University with a good degree (like most of us did) can find jobs in the city or whatever that pay almost twice what we earn! (But I’m sure they don’t enjoy their jobs as much as we do 😉 )

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