• Question: How old were you when you started your science carrer

    Asked by Rose_B to Sam, RobB, Matt, Kylie, Bex on 12 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by Lucia_S, Anonymous, Honey :), Natasha F, alexandra.
    • Photo: Sam Briggs

      Sam Briggs answered on 12 Jun 2016:

      Hi Ross,

      What an intersting questions, one that I have not reflected on before! I guess my career began with my PhD, however I’d say that my interest and work in science started as a child. I’ve always loved the why of things and the how. Books and back garden experiments were the order of the day and my GCSE’s and A-Levels reflected at that.

      My degree was in Chemical Physics and I got to work for a company that did science for a year and I developed a product from a bench top experiment up to 150000 L being produced in a plant by the end of my time there,

      And it still continues – once I’ve done my PhD I’d really like to go on and work in other research groups and keep making new discosveries!

      Hope that helps?

    • Photo: Kylie Belchamber

      Kylie Belchamber answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      I agree with Sam, I think my career began when I started my Phd. I finished university at 21, and the same year started my PhD studying asthma and smoking. This took 4 years, so I was 25 when I finished! Then I started my first real research job after that. I’m in the same job 3.5 years later and still love it 🙂

      I hope that answers your question Ross!

    • Photo: Rob Brass

      Rob Brass answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      Hi Ross,

      As the other guys have said, it sort of depends what you define as the start of your career!

      I’d probably say when I started the training scheme for my current job, which was straight after uni at 21!

      If I’m honest, as a kid I was always good at maths and science but it wasn’t really a passion of mine! Even right up until my first year at uni I think I was just doing physics because I was good at it! It was only when I found out about medical physics that I saw the real life applications and got really motivated. I switched from straight ‘physics’ to ‘physics with medical physics’ at the end of my first year at uni, then applied for my training scheme towards the end of my 3rd year. The training scheme includes a masters degree as well as 3 years of training so it was pretty intense!

      In the future I would like to do a PhD, probably part time while I work though! 🙂

    • Photo: Matt Dunn

      Matt Dunn answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      Hi Rose and Lucia,

      Officially I guess my career started when I started my degree at University, which was when I was 18! Now I’m 25 and I’m considered an ‘Early Career Researcher’, which means there is still a long way to go yet!

    • Photo: Rebecca Thompson

      Rebecca Thompson answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      I would say you’re never too young to start your science career, if you want to 🙂 My mum would probably say I started my science career when I was 5, and used my new light microscope I got for christmas to inspect peoples hair and tell them how dirty it was… I was just interested in looking at things and fining out how things worked, and its this that stayed with me throughout my life so far.

      Although I think I started young with science, you’re never too old to start a career in science either! One of my friends worked for a bank until he was 40, and has now changed to science and started doing a science PhD, and is loving it!

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