Question: what is the best part of your job

Asked by kirsty to Mat, Bridget, Kieran, Aimee, Mags on 22 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by ashley, walkies, tgebby, megs, z123.

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  1. Photo: Matthew ToddMatthew Todd
    answered on 15 Jun 2011:

    The freedom to work on things that I find interesting. That’s awesome. You look around you at the world and see something that’s interesting to you and you can go and look into it and understand it. It doesn’t get much better than that, seriously.

    It turns out that often, because you’re doing something new, what you find out can also help people overcome problems in the world. And because I work with students every day, the research trains them in how to do research too. AND our research spills over into what we teach uni students about. But the driving force right at the top is that freedom to research stuff you think is cool. A lot of jobs don’t have a lot of freedom like that.

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  2. Photo: Bridget MurphyBridget Murphy
    answered on 16 Jun 2011:

    I agree with Mat. What’s cool about our jobs is that we have a lot of freedom to study the things we like and that we find interesting.

    I also really love that I get to do different things all the time. I’m not just sitting at my desk – sometimes I’ll be in the lab, sometimes I’ll be outside catching lizards and sometimes I’ll be teaching students and doing experiments with them. I don’t get bored very often in my job!

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  3. Photo: Aimee ParkerAimee Parker
    answered on 22 Jun 2011:

    I like being able to work on things in my own time, and decide what I want to do. I can choose when I want to be at work (within reason!) and what I do each day.

    It also feels good to know that I am working on something which will give us a better understanding of our bodies and hopefully allow another scientist one day to improve the way we fight infections.

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Comments

  1. Photo: MagsMags
    commented on 22 Jun 2011:

    I also love the freedom to explore the things I want to explore. It’s very different from school where you are given something to do by a teacher. The first few years of university are like that but when you move into research you get to decide what you want to do and how to do with help from a supervisor. It’s exciting but at the same time it can be overwhelming.

    I also get to meet so many people in my job as a science writer who I normally wouldn’t meet just to report on science news and learn about areas of science I’ve only ever dreamed about like marine biology, atomic clocks and how to train surgeons.

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