• Question: Does your job change from day to day?

    Asked by worrow to Aime, Akshat, Diana, Gemma, Judith on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Gemma Sharp

      Gemma Sharp answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Yes, that’s one of the best things about it 🙂
      Some days I can be in the lab, other days at my desk, some days I’m at conferences or work shops or on courses.

      When I’m in the lab I’m rarely doing the same thing as I was doing the day before, so there’s lots of variation 🙂

    • Photo: Aimé Fournier

      Aimé Fournier answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Yes and no. Many problems take years to solve, and many days it’s hard to see progress. Some days are regressive. But quite a few days are very exciting, and even days that don’t advance the “main agenda” may plant seeds for future work.

    • Photo: Judith McCann

      Judith McCann answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Yes and it’s great!

      There’s a lot of lab work, I get to use all kinds of equipment. Things that measure the strength or elasticity, the size of particles and other properties. I’ve found that most things lead on to something else, and you’re always finding out something new, so leads to new areas to look into.

      I think this is the reason I really enjoy my work, people I know with 9-5 jobs tend to be doing the same thing day-in and day-out!!

    • Photo: Diana Samuel

      Diana Samuel answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Yeah, definately! There are a number of aims for this project, so I constantly have more than one ‘iron in the fire’ – one day I could be focussing on getting force data, the next it could be microscopy, and after that pure data analysis. The variation certainly keeps you on your toes (especially when its mixed in with courses, field work, and conferences), but its also what makes the work so exciting 🙂

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