how old were you when you first started working as a scientist

Question: how old were you when you first started working as a scientist
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Asked by anon-285890 on 4 Mar 2021. This question was also asked by anon-287520, anon-287478.
- Chris Thomson answered on 4 Mar 2021:
  
  I was 22 when I started my first full time job, but I’d been working in an analytical lab in the holidays since I was 20.
- Miriam O'Duill answered on 4 Mar 2021:
  
  I started working full-time in a chemistry lab during my 4th year project at university (when I was 23).
- Phil Thorne answered on 4 Mar 2021:
  
  I was 21, it was an industrial placement year as part of my degree program. It was doing medicinal chemistry, same job I am still doing 30 years later!
- Michael Walford answered on 4 Mar 2021:
  
  22. I finished University after a three year degree, was originally doing a four year course, but cut it short due to health problems
  I then spent 6 months getting myself better, and started looking for a job around January 2012. I was lucky enough to get an interview and the job around June the same year
- Jesko Koehnke answered on 4 Mar 2021:
  
  I started with my chemistry set at 5. But if we define job as something you get paid for, then when I started my PhD at 24.
- Martin McCoustra answered on 4 Mar 2021: last edited 4 Mar 2021 12:29 pm
  
  If you mean being paid to do science rather than just studying to become a scientist, my first job as a research assistant was in 1986 at the age of 24 after my degree and PhD.
- Amy Sanders answered on 4 Mar 2021:
  
  I did a years work placement in a research lab in Finland when I was 20/21, and I started working in the laboratory I work in now when I was 24
- Matt Foulkes answered on 4 Mar 2021:
  
  I was very lucky in managing to do one week of work experience at a local chemical company when I was in Year 10 – so I was age 14 then. I worked for one year at a big drug development company called GSK (just north of London) during my university Masters degree, at the age of 20/21. My first full time job in science was after my PhD, so I was age 26.
- Nikita King answered on 5 Mar 2021:
  
  I was about 21 and started with an apprenticeship, I’d worked with software before that but much prefer science!
- Andrew Parrott answered on 5 Mar 2021:
  
  I think around 20 as I did jobs in the summer breaks between years at Uni.
- Ane Valera answered on 5 Mar 2021:
  
  Professional science, when I was at University, at 18, when I took some practical lab work with really cool experiments. And I have been working in science ever since.
  
  Unprofessional science, since I was a kid, loved to do home made experiments with stuff I could find in my kitchen, bathroom…

Question: how old were you when you first started working as a scientist

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