• Question: Would you ever change your job?

    Asked by 13hdav to Aoife, Dave on 19 Nov 2013. This question was also asked by nicholasforbes11.
    • Photo: David Christensen

      David Christensen answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      I still feel like I don’t know what I want to do for the rest of my life (I’m only 26!), so I might change my job. I’m actually in the last year of my PhD at the moment (in case you don’t know a PhD is the degree that means that I can start calling myself Dr Dave), so I need to start thinking about what job I want to do next and then start applying for jobs. Mostly I’ve been thinking about applying to labs at other universities to get a Postdoc position (basically carry on doing research in a lab), but I’m also thinking about other science-related non-lab jobs. I’ve thought a bit about becoming a teacher or maybe working for a charity to tell people about the research that has been done with funding from that charity. At the moment I really don’t know what I’ll do next, but there’s a chance I might change my job.

    • Photo: Aoife O'Shaughnessy-Kirwan

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

      Hi 13hdav,
      Sometimes I do think about changing my job as some days in the lab can be a little challenging! I could never think about leaving science completely though, I do love it. I am currently at a point actually where I need to think about what to do next and I am thinking about training to be something called a genetic counsellor. Have you heard about this job? It’ s where you work in a hospital and people who have an inherited disease in their family might come to you for advice and hopefully in the future, to hear about new treatments. This area has always been of interest to me because my degree at uni was in Human Genetics. I would say, if you’re interested in science 13hdav, there are lots and lots of paths you can take! : )

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