• Question: Does your job ever get boring (honestly) - and what is the worst part. how long did you have to go to university for?

    Asked by Danielle to Kylie, Matt, Bex, RobB, Sam on 14 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Kylie Belchamber

      Kylie Belchamber answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      Hi Danielle,
      Yes it gets boring sometimes. We have to repeat experiments a lot, with different samples, to make sure that what we see the first time is the same every time. When you are doing something for the 30th time, it gets boring! Some experiments are also a lot of pipetting, which hurts your hand too. It is worth it when you get the results though, and the good stuff outweighs the bad stuff!

      I went to university for 7 years overall. 3 years of undergraduate, and 4 years of PhD. It was long, but you get paid to do the PhD so it’s like having a job!

    • Photo: Rebecca Thompson

      Rebecca Thompson answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      There are some bits that get boring, there are some very repetitive tasks you have to do, sometimes in the lab like repeating experiments (many many times), sometimes data processing can be a bit boring too. But the results at the end make the boring bits worth it!

      I did my 3 year undergraduate degree, then a 4 year PhD, so 7 years in total. You get paid for the PhD bit though so it feels more like a job 🙂

    • Photo: Rob Brass

      Rob Brass answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      Yep, it gets boring sometimes! Mostly when I’ve done the fun work and have to write up a huge report!

      I did a 3 year BSc and then a 3 year MSc while I worked (I think it normally would have taken about 18 months including the project) so 6 years … ish

    • Photo: Matt Dunn

      Matt Dunn answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      Some days can be boring, especially if I’m doing the same experiments over and over again! The worst parts are when long experiments (I mean ones that have been going for months) suddenly go wrong for no reason, and you can’t figure out why! There are often a lot of unanswered questions 😀

      I was at University for my BSc (3 years), MSc (1 year) and now my PhD (3 and a half years), but I want to work in a university so I might be in one for life 😀

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