Question: IS IT HARD STUDYING EARTHQUAKES

Tim Craig answered on 11 Jun 2018:

Well, it isn’t for everyone – some people like it, some people don’t. And you need to have the right skills for what you’re trying to do. Some of the people I work with do large amount of fieldwork, which means being in remote places for long periods of time, which takes a certain mindset, and a level of physical skill. Others have to be seriously good at maths. Some work in labs, and need extreme concentration and attention to detail. Everyone has a skillset, and its just about finding the best way to use and apply what you are good at.

But perhaps the hardest thing is motivation – to do research science, you really have to care about the questions you’re trying to answer, and the problems you’re trying to solve. No one really checks what you’re doing day-to-day, so its up to you to self-regulate your work. Sometimes that can be hard – if you’ve run into a dead end, and realised that something you’ve been working on for a month isn’t going to work, it can be difficult finding the drive to come into work the next day, and get started on something else. If your own curiosity isn’t going to give you the motivation to do that, then research becomes very difficult.