• Question: how long does it take to bcome a pro scientist, and what are your favourite aspects of the job?

    Asked by anon-182261 on 18 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Camille Parsons

      Camille Parsons answered on 18 Jun 2018:


      I love this question, as love the thought of being referred to a pro scientist 🙂 You can train to do my job in as little as 3 years, however the higher the qualification you get the better a job and salary you get. So I did a 4 years math degrees (you can do a 3 year degree however I did a year placement during my degree), I then did a 1 year master’s degree and I have recently completed a PhD which I studies for part-time alongside my job. My favourite aspect of my job is that although I am office/desk based no two days are the same as I have lots of different projects and meetings.

    • Photo: Laura Hemming

      Laura Hemming answered on 24 Jun 2018:


      How long is a piece of string? Haha. I would say similar to Camille – the minimum you need is an undergraduate degree in something sciencey which can take 3-4 years to complete. After this, you could follow the traditional route as Camille has done, or there are lots of opportunities to get involved in third sector research charities, or even corporate research. As Camille says though, the higher your qualification, the better job you will get as a scientist 🙂

    • Photo: Lauren Burns

      Lauren Burns answered on 26 Jun 2018:


      As with many things in life – it depends! But, to be a scientist, an undergraduate degree in something science related is most likely a definite. I have done a 3 year BSc (Bachelor’s of Science), a 2 year MSc (Masters of Science) and now doing a 3 year PhD! My favourite part of the job is talking with people, like yourselves, about science! I love going to conferences, seeing different people’s work and chatting to them about research.

    • Photo: Claire Donald

      Claire Donald answered on 28 Jun 2018:


      I did an undergraduate degree for 4 years (in Scotland so it takes a bit longer), a masters for 1 year and a PhD for 4 years. But as the other scientists have said, it doesn’t need to take that long. I work with people now that just did an undergraduate degree, got a job as a research assistant or technician in the lab and are now using that work to get a PhD. So you have options depending on what it is you want to do.

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