• Question: when you first became a scientist did you know what you wanted to do or did you try lots of things

    Asked by agomez100 to Alan, Caspar, Diana, Murray, Sarah on 21 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Caspar Addyman

      Caspar Addyman answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      Before i became a scientist I have worked in a hospice, as a chef, in a hotel, as a financial trader and as a computer programmer and financial analyst in a bank. lots of those jobs were fun but never felt exactly right for me.

      When i discovered psychology, i was lucky in finding my favourite area straight away (development and infancy) so i’ve been doing that ever since. But i know a lot of scientists who try lots of things before they find they speciality.

    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      After I did my degree in chemistry I went to work for a company called Almac Sciences. It was really interesting work and I really loved working there but all I did was make different drugs every day. We were supplying to drug to other companies for testing. I liked the lab work but there were different orders coming in every day and it only took about a week to make the drug and then you were on to making the next one. While I was working there, they asked me to do a small research project. It took about 3 months and I did it alongside the other work but I discovered that I enjoyed it more than the other work and I think it was because I was working on the same project for 3 months and I really got my teeth into it and it felt like more of an acheivement when I finished it successfully after it took me so long.

      After that I decided that research was for me! I applied for a PhD and just went for it!

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