• Question: What is it like to be working in a lab? Is it fun?

    Asked by allama to Dave, Matt on 22 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: David Christensen

      David Christensen answered on 22 Nov 2013:

      I enjoy working in a lab. I find the things I’m researching interesting, so reading about it and thinking about it is fun – particularly as I get paid to think about things I find interesting. A lot of lab work is trying to work out what went wrong; it’s a lot of problem-solving. Experiments don’t work quite often and I have to try to find out why they haven’t worked, so I try to change what I’m doing slightly and try again. I find that kind of problem-solving quite satisfying, like a sudoku or something! Maybe I’m a bit of a nerd.

      Also, most of the time when I’m in the lab I have earphones in and I’m listening to music or to podcasts. If the work I’m doing is something that I’ve done many times before and don’t need to think about, then just sitting and listening to music while I work is great, because I love music. People think I’m a bit weird when they come in the lab and find me singing, dancing or laughing with my music or comedy podcasts, but I don’t mind.

      Actually another thing that is important for any job is that you get on with the people you work with. I like the other people who work in my lab or work in other labs on my floor of my building, so I enjoy having a joke with them or chatting about stuff while we do our lab work.

    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 22 Nov 2013:

      Like Dave I enjoy working in the lab as well. The reason I work in science is to find out things I am interested in and the lab is the place to that. Sometimes the things we see have never been seen before by anybody and it’s a great feeling to find out something new, it’s also great when an experiment you’ve been working on for a while works and you get the last result you need to finish a piece of work (this happened to me yesterday, so I can send my research to be published soon, hopefully!).

      It can be stressful, like most things, for example experiments will sometimes go wrong for no good reason and that can be annoying, or cells can get infected with fungi which can destroy weeks of work. That is pretty heartbreaking. But the ups definitely outweigh the downs, and we are so lucky to be paid to do what we do, which really is like someone paying you to do a hobby.

      Also as Dave says we get to work with interesting people and most of the time we are in the lab with other people, so you get to have a chat with them about things.

      So yeah, the lab is fun, it has its downsides, but I can’t think of anywhere I’d prefer to work.

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