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.
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 🙂
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.
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.
Comments