• Question: What is it like to be a sientist do you spend all your life answering questions on the computer? does your job get boring? do you never get out?

    Asked by sebisepic to Jen, Jill, Mel, Phil, Stef on 14 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by jacksharp.
    • Photo: Jennifer Paxton

      Jennifer Paxton answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      haha! Well, this week I’ve been answering a lot of questions on the computer yes, but this is a special case.

      My job isn’t boring at all! Some tasks we do can be repetitive but there are always lots of other things to do too.

      Yes, of course I get out 😉 Most scientists I work with have a good work-life balance. It is very important to take some time away from the lab. As scientists we also get to travel the world going to conferences to talk to other people about our work and exciting results so we dont spend allllllll day in the lab 🙂

    • Photo: Melissa Brereton

      Melissa Brereton answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      The type of science that I do is rarely performed on a computer. I mainly use a computer to go on a database called “pubmed” which is where other scientists write reports on their research for everyone else to read and get ideas from. My job doesn’t get boring- like any job, it can get quite repetitive particularly when experiments don’t work and you have to keep repeating it and changing little things. All the scientists I work with have a motto of “work hard, play hard” and because I work in quite a big team, we have a lot of fun in the lab playing tricks on each other 🙂

    • Photo: Stefan Piatek

      Stefan Piatek answered on 16 Mar 2013:

      Haha, I think this week has been the most questions I’ve answered, like more than in a year!

      Most of the time you’re in the lab or working out what your results mean.

      I’m going to be as honest with you, I really love it, there are days where you might not feel great and you can get bored but compared to any other job I’ve done or thought about, it’s the least boring!

      I’m very happy to say that I do go out! It really depends on what kind of person you are, some people really do devote all their lives to their work but most people want to have a life outside of work too!

Comments