• Question: How hard is it to be a scientist?

    Asked by anon-205625 to Kathryn on 4 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Kathryn Boast

      Kathryn Boast answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      It takes quite a long time and quite a lot of dedication – but that’s true of most careers! And everyone finds their job has ups and downs. If you are working on a bit of science that you find really fascinating (and most scientists are!) then that will help you to keep working on it when it gets hard.

      I think the main thing you need though is really wanting to do it. If you have that, the rest is pretty easy 😉 And never listen to people who tell you that you can’t do it or you aren’t good enough. You don’t have to be Einstein to be a really great scientist. You just have to want to find answers to interesting questions.

Comments

  • Photo: Russell

    Russell commented on :

    It can be tricky depending on what area you want to go into! Some areas (like marine conservation) have so many people wanting to study it, there’s not enough jobs as scientists for them all!
    I was really lucky because I didn’t think I wanted to be a scientist (i wanted to be an artist or a rockstar!) but have been able to change my mind and become one! But it wasn’t easy and there’s still loads of things I don’t know (which I really should)!