• Question: Is being a scientist a reasonable career choice? If so, why?

    Asked by woooody to Darren, Katherine on 23 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Katherine Haxton

      Katherine Haxton answered on 23 Mar 2012:

      I think its a good career choice. There are lots of different types of scientist so you can find something that really interests you. There are lots of different jobs you can do as a scientist – from laboratory technician to someone who leads a research group. Some specific careers within science are harder than others because you need lots of qualifications or because there aren’t many jobs at the end of all the qualifications, but in general I think you can expect a lot of job satisfaction and decent pay and hopefully working on stuff that you find really interesting if you are a scientist.

    • Photo: Darren Logan

      Darren Logan answered on 23 Mar 2012:

      Good question. As Katherine says, there a lots of different avenues open to scientists, not just academic research like we do. Scientific training teachers you strong analytical skills, which are very “transferable” (meaning you can apply them to lots of different things).

      I have friends who trained a scientists and then moved into patent law (in that job you need to be able to analyze patents very scientifically) and market research (data analysis is very important in that job).

      Academic research does have problems in its career structure, but it is extremely rewarding – intellectually if not financially!

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