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Asked by anon-254237 on 12 May 2020. This question was also asked by anon-255472.
Question: how did you get into science
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Laura Devlin answered on 12 May 2020:
Hi Grace,
Thanks for the question! I have always enjoyed science lessons at secondary school, particularly when learning about human biology and how the body works. I therefore continued to pursue this interest when I went to college, and then university where I did a BSc Biological Sciences. It was when I was at university, when I was allowed to do a lot more lab practicals, that I found out how fun it was to work in a laboratory setting, and decided that this is what I wanted to do. I particularly liked the genetics practicals, it amazed me how I could mutate DNA (plant DNA at the time), as well as sequence it. Genetics often feels like a big logic puzzle to me, which I also find really fun! It is important to note that when I was at school I had no idea what I wanted to ‘be’, I still don’t know what career path I will take after my PhD, I just try to do what I enjoy and find interesting.
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Ellie Dunstone answered on 22 May 2020:
Hi Grace,
I enjoyed science at school, particularly human biology, so went to do a biology degree at university, and am now doing a research-based degree (PhD). However, there are lots of different routes into working in science – lots of people do degrees in maths or engineering, or become medical doctors, before going into scientific research, and not all jobs in science need a PhD. It’s probably best to just follow what you enjoy!
Ellie
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Alena Pance answered on 27 May 2020:
Hi Grace, I always liked biology. It started with a love for animals really when I was little, but quickly developed into a need to understand how nature works. I was fascinated by the processes that make cells do their job and organisms thrive. Againd this evolved into aiming to understand how diseases come about, what causes them and how. This fundamental knowledge is what makes it possible to find ways to cure disease or even better, avoid it from happeing all together.
Comments
Judith commented on :
Kind of by accident. I was sort of OK at most subjects at school and chose sciences partly because my older sister hadn’t! I left school to go to college to study ‘A’ levels when I was 15 and it was really my biology teacher there who convinced me I could have a future in science. He was certain I would end up doing a PhD even though I was applying to medical schools at the time (I didn’t get in, which was for the best in retrospect!). Then I worked in a pensions office for a while while I re-applied for university (this time a variety of life science subjects). That was fun socially, but the work was pretty dull, so I wouldn’t have wanted to do it for long. Once I was at university, I spent one summer working for a research company and did a long research project in my final year. I really felt at home in the lab, so a PhD was the obvious next step. The rest just followed on from there. The only key decision I remember making was to do a PhD and, to be honest, there was so much encouragement to do that from my lecturers and tutors (and the memory of my ‘A’ level biology teacher’s suggestion) that I’m not sure even that was entirely my own decision!
I think it’s good to put some effort into deciding what you want to do, and I’m sure careers advice in school is better than it was in my day (erm…there wasn’t any back then!). Things worked out OK for me, but I often wonder what other paths I might have taken if I’d put some thought into it!
Ellie commented on :
I’d always liked science at school – I was in the astronomy club from age 11 – 15 (we had a very enthusiastic physics teacher who ran it!) and then I did triple science at GCSE and then did biology, chemistry and physics (and maths) at A-level. I chose them mostly because I thought they were interesting and I was thinking I’d like to do more science at university but I wasn’t sure what sort of science yet so I thought I’d hedge my bets. By the end of A-level I knew biochemistry combined the bits I liked best from the subjects I studied so applied to uni for those.
When I was an A-level student I did a 4 week project in a lab in London as part of the Nuffield bursary scheme and I credit this with giving me a love of practical lab work. I got to do lots of hands on experiments and I loved it! I did more summer projects in the same lab and in other labs throughout my undergraduate degree which just cemented my love of labwork. This meant that at the end of my degree I was keen to do a PhD because I knew I would enjoy the practical side of research that a PhD offered. I ended up doing my PhD in the same lab that I did my first placement in when I was 17, so that initial summer job led to very good things!
Hugo commented on :
Hi Grace,
My science career got started a bit later than straight from school. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do when I left college, but I liked science and I liked talking to people and wanted to help so I trained as a doctor. Be warned: That is a long career path if you’re not certain and a lot of hard work!
It took me about a decade to recognise that medicine wasn’t for me and so I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do and what I enjoyed doing. I remembered my love for science and maths back at school, so decided to train in a field that would put both to the test while also using the knowledge I’d gained working as a Doctor. I went back to university to study Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (using computers to understand the vast amount of biological data we have) and am now working for a PhD in public health. I absolutely love it!
tldr:
1) Science careers don’t necessarily start immediately out of college
2) Not knowing what you want to do is Ok!