• Question: How old where you when you decided you wanted to be a scientist?

    Asked by 13hdav to Anzy, Aoife, Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 19 Nov 2013. This question was also asked by jemski2001, meatonhall2002, cookiejayden, bullowayo10, codeemiskin, benlolplaster13, luiswalker.
    • Photo: Aoife O'Shaughnessy-Kirwan

      Aoife O'Shaughnessy-Kirwan answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      Hi 13hdav,
      I really liked science even when I was a kid but I didn’t really know it was definitely what I wanted to do until I was maybe 16/17. I think it can be difficult to figure out what you really want to do and I would say I like to keep an open mind about changing the direction of my career!

    • Photo: David Christensen

      David Christensen answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      I don’t ever remember deciding that I wanted to be a scientist! :/

      At school, when I was 16/17/18 I decided I wanted to do science A-levels and then a science degree at uni, but I thought I’d get a job as an accountant or a banker or something afterwards. Then I really enjoyed working in a lab on a research project at uni, so I decided I wanted to carry on doing research and am still working in a lab 3 years later. I still don’t know whether I want to be a scientist for the rest of my life though. I think it’s normal to never be sure what you want to do, so don’t think you have to decide what you want to be while you’re at school!

    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      I enjoyed science when I was at school so I decided to study it at college and university. When I was at uni I did a lab placement at the University of East Anglia in Norwich which was my first experience of working in a lab. After that I think I’d decided I wanted to work in research, so I was 20 when I decided.

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