• Question: How hard was it to get to your job now?

    Asked by siobhan to Duncan, Kiran, Paul, Sarah, Sharon on 16 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      I found it quite easy to get a job, infact, there were 3 jobs that I had been interviewed for when I got this one and I managed to get them all so I had to choose which one I liked the best. There are plenty science jobs out there, sometimes you need to be flexible about moving around a bit in order to get the one you want. The good thing about science is that it’s reall flexible so with my degree and PhD, I was actually qualified to to lots of different things, rather than just one.

    • Photo: Paul Stevenson

      Paul Stevenson answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      Hi Siobhan,

      I’m a University Lecturer, which means that I get to do a combination of research and teaching (and things like taking part in this competition). They are pretty hard jobs to get, because lots of people want to do them, and there are only a limited number, so I count myself pretty lucky to get it. Still – there are lots of other cool science jobs that are not at Universities, and our students who graduate with Physics degrees from my Uni (Surrey) go on to do all sorts of cool stuff – including becoming science teachers at school!

    • Photo: Kiran Meekings

      Kiran Meekings answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      It was quite a lot of work for me! 3 years of university, 4 years of PhD, relevant summer work experience and then two sets of interviews… But it was well worth it!

      Also – there’s quite a few people in my company without PhDs who come straight from university – it’s important to realise there’s lots of interesting science jobs where you don’t have to spend 7 years of your life studying (if it’s not for you) before getting a job…

    • Photo: Duncan Murdock

      Duncan Murdock answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      I had to got through a few interviews to get my PhD place and compete against lots of other candidates. But if you work hard, you can get one.

    • Photo: Sarah Mount

      Sarah Mount answered on 18 Mar 2010:

      Well, it’s reasonably hard, you need a degree and some research experience. Usually to get a job like mine you have to sit through an interview with a panel of people from the University and talk about your work, including both your research and teaching. Also you have to give an example lecture to some teachers so they can check that you will be good at teaching and sometimes you have to give a talk on your research. Usually academic jobs are quite competitive, I think we had over 50 applications for the last job we had advertised here, but don’t let that put you off because if you are good at science and enthusiastic you always stand a good chance. And of course there are many other sorts of scientific jobs available, apart from being a lecturer!

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