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Careers / Life Scientists, All Other |
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| Reviews |
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| There are 5 reviews of this career. |
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| Write an online review and share your thoughts about this career with others! |
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| Write an online review and share your thoughts about this career with others! |
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| Write an online review and share your thoughts about this career with others! |
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| Write an online review and share your thoughts about this career with others! |
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| Write an online review and share your thoughts about this career with others! |
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Author: |
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Anonymous |
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Date: |
December 16, 2006 |
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I am a researcher in the field of immunology. My advice is PASSION. It is vital that you have the passion for research, otherwise you will burn out pretty soon. The hours are long, the pay's not that great, but if you have the passion, it will press you on and the sense of satisfaction you get when you've succeeded is enormous.
This career is not for those seeking to make a quick buck. I would only recommend to those who have the passion and most importantly the perseverance. I believe that if you lack either qualities, perhaps you should consider other job prospects. Independent thinking is also a great plus. Research is not about following what others have done before you, but trying to out-think, out-wit fellow scientists to be the first to publish. Of course, in the field of research, all it really takes is a big discovery in your early career for you to create a name for yourself in the field and live off that reputation for the rest of the career, since it'll be easier to get research grants, collaborators etc.
If I had to do it over again, I would still choose this field. I have yet to make any new discoveries whatsoever that can win me a Nobel prize, but the stimuli of being able to encounter different problems and having to tackle them on your own keeps you on the balls of your feet. I dislike routine, though many a times, you find yourself doing the same thing over and over again. But though the procedure is the same, the samples you are dealing with are different, hence you may get different results and you have to formulate hypotheses to explain the variations.
Pros of the job are mainly intangible things, such as satisfaction, pride in your work. Only if you are the lucky few who discovers some new drug etc, will you get fame and fortune. But I think most researchers labor in obscurity, unbeknownst to the general public, and most of their peers. Cons include the long hours. Also, the relationship between the amount of effort you put in and the work / results you get are indeterminate. It all boils down to luck, as Louis Pasteur once said "Chance favors the prepared mind" (or something like that.
Research is not like what you see on TV in CSI or House, where you get results in like half a day or so. More often than not, you'll have to repeat your experiments because the first one failed, or to prove that what results you got the first time round was not a fluke, hence the term RE-search. There are times when you've headed down an alley, following a clue for months, only to find at the end of it all, that all your work was for naught, that it was a dead end. Then you have to start over again. There have been times when I've felt like I was banging my head on a wall, but perseverance (and a break from the work) helps a lot. And when things start going smoothly, you feel like you've walked through the rain, into the sun, with a pretty rainbow on the horizon. |
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| Displaying reviews 1 - 5 of 5 |
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| Interesting Fact |
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| Two-thirds of all present-day college students intend to become entrepreneurs at some point in their careers. |
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| Did you know... |
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| The Portfolio Manager allows you to save your favorite careers, colleges and majors for easy access and comparison! |
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