• Question: What is the best thing about your job?

    Asked by anon-373296 on 30 Jan 2024. This question was also asked by murr1apt, OllieB.
    • Photo: Eleftheria Stavridou

      Eleftheria Stavridou answered on 30 Jan 2024:


      I love being a plant scientist because it allows me to satisfy my curiosity every day. There’s always something new to discover, from the way plants adapt to their environments to the tiny details of their biology. Getting my hands dirty in the soil or working with plants in the lab is something I cherish. It’s a unique experience to be so close to nature, and observe how plants respond to different conditions and treatments.

    • Photo: David Bremner

      David Bremner answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      The best thing about my job is the variety of tasks that i perform. One day i might be in the lab, the next day i am in a primary school doing activities or the next day i have to take a machine apart to repair it. Literally no two days are the same.

    • Photo: Steve Markham

      Steve Markham answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      As engineers, the thing we do most is solve problems. We don’t often work alone to do this – we work in teams, or groups of people to solve the problem.

      So for me, the best thing about my job is working with other people – not just engineers, but scientists, chemists, technicians and many other roles – to solve a particular problem.

    • Photo: Tom Kitching

      Tom Kitching answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      I get to work on renewable energy projects, which are helping the world move away from fossil fuels, so I get to be part of the solution to global warming rather than the problem.

    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      There are several things I like about my job. The first is that I get to discover new stuff… find out things that no-one else knows or has possibly even thought about. Then, I get the chance to tell other people about it… spreading knowledge amongst other scientists. This sometimes involves travelling to conferences all over world. But finally, and perhaps the most fun thing about my job, is the chance I get to train the next generation of scientists. This is perhaps the best thing about my job.

    • Photo: Will Breeze

      Will Breeze answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      I like the travel, meeting new people, learning new things, but my favourite aspect is the problem solving. Me being the sort of person who enjoys puzzles, I find having to fix things the most rewarding aspect of my work.

    • Photo: Andrew McDowall

      Andrew McDowall answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      The best thing about my job is never knowing what problem or challenge I will given each day. It’s a joy to know that, even after 50 years of my company making the same types of products and the work of so many good friends and colleagues, that there’s still things we don’t know and don’t understand, that there are still things to be discovered and still ways I can help my collegues. There is nothing more satisfying in my work than finding something new or making sense of something that made no sense in the past and then seeing all the wonders that can follow from that. To borrow from another field –
      “Can you see anything?”
      “Yes, wonderful things!”

    • Photo: Natasha Pushkin

      Natasha Pushkin answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      I think the best thing about my job is even though I work on software I can see the hardware on a daily basis. We have special cleanrooms that are used to manufacture the satellites. These have big windows so that people walking passed can see what is going on inside. Sometimes I even get to go into the cleanrooms to see the hardware close up.

    • Photo: SJ Paines

      SJ Paines answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      The best thing about my job is the variety of technology I get to read about. I can go from oil drilling equipment to car battery systems to microchips to mobile phones in a single day and it means I don’t get bored.

    • Photo: Mark Eyles

      Mark Eyles answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      The best thing is that I am still learning new things every day. Learning new things is something I really enjoy and is a key part of being an effective engineer.

    • Photo: Erin Pallott

      Erin Pallott answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      My favourite thing about being a PhD student is that I am free to spend some of my time on side projects. I run a science blog, and take part in programmes like this one!

    • Photo: Eva Antonopoulou

      Eva Antonopoulou answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      I am very lucky to have lots of groups around me that do experiments and they have knowledge in biology, chemistry and chemical engineering. I can ask them question and sometimes just observe them while they do these experiments! I find very helpful and useful for to see the process, have people that can explain it to me and ask them all my questions. This is key to any mathematical work: you need to understand the steps of the process before you start modelling it or making any assumptions. Similarly, members in my team have skills in coding and maths so it’s always easy to just drop them a message or roll my chair over the desk to ask them a more technical question in my field. Highly recommend multi-disciplinary environments πŸ™‚

    • Photo: Megan Quartley

      Megan Quartley answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      I love my job as I get to research new things everyday which help us to make better knee replacements for people that need them. These knee replacements help give people their life back without feeling pain or not being able to walk. I am a naturally curious person so getting to learn everyday and be creative with how I share what I learn with other people is really fun!

    • Photo: Alexander De Bruin

      Alexander De Bruin answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      I get to invent (or lead the team that invents) technologies that will help solve climate change. I get to push the boundaries of science and what’s possible within the emerging Hydrogen market.

    • Photo: Andrew Gore

      Andrew Gore answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      It was different and I was able to gain a lot of new engineering and scientific facts which apply to different industries (Glass making, Food Industry, Petro-Chemical, Oil & Gas and Ship Building)

    • Photo: Viviene Dela Cruz

      Viviene Dela Cruz answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      I get to build things with my hands, check it with the computer, and what I build usually can do very interesting things with lasers and light!

    • Photo: Alberto Granero

      Alberto Granero answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      I get to help new snacks being made. It feels great when you see on the shelves food from the production line you designed and installed.

    • Photo: Kirsty Ross

      Kirsty Ross answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      Finding out new things is my favourite thing. Or coming up with ideas that I can then test out. And all the lovely collaborators I work with.

    • Photo: Michael Schubert

      Michael Schubert answered on 31 Jan 2024:


      I love getting to learn new things about every kind of science there is! One day it might be dinosaurs; the next, it’s medicine, so the variety always keeps me interested.

      Often, I’m one of the first people to hear about new discoveries because I help the people who make them figure out how to write or talk about them so that everyone understands why the discovery matters. It’s always fun to know new things that not many people on the planet know yet!

    • Photo: Kirsty Lindsay

      Kirsty Lindsay answered on 1 Feb 2024:


      The moment when all your data is sorted and you draw a graph with it for the first time and…boom… it did what you hoped it would do!

      or talking to interesting people

      or watching my students develop their skills and become confident physios

      or… gosh… it’s really hard to choose!

    • Photo: Rachel Edwards

      Rachel Edwards answered on 2 Feb 2024:


      That I do a different thing every day – and sometimes different things on a single day! I’m an academic, so I spend some of my time teaching people about physics. On other days I’ll be doing my own experiments or looking after my research group, and making sure everyone’s work is going well, then writing papers about the results or applying for more money to do more experiments. And on other days I’ll go out to a school and be overenthusiastic about science, or I’ll be working hard on trying to persuade other academics and students to go out and talk to people about what they’re doing and how they could work together.

    • Photo: Sharron Kenny

      Sharron Kenny answered on 5 Feb 2024:


      the people that i work with

    • Photo: Festus Ejikemeuwa

      Festus Ejikemeuwa answered on 5 Feb 2024:


      For me the favourite part is engaging with my team and working collaboratively

    • Photo: Stephen Miller

      Stephen Miller answered on 5 Feb 2024:


      I get to blow things up!

      I’m an explosives engineer, designing new explosives systems, testing them and solving problems that they present, to make them safer and more reliable.

    • Photo: Hannah Fawcett

      Hannah Fawcett answered on 6 Feb 2024:


      Finding out new information and helping others. It can be really rewarding!

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