• Question: When you were younger, did you think that you would be doing the job your doing now?

    Asked by popcorn32 to Clare, Jess, Divya on 17 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Jess Smith

      Jess Smith answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      No I didn’t! I didn’t decide to do a PhD until my last year of undergraduate. Before then I had only mentioned the idea once when I was about 15 (after I really enjoyed a piece of coursework in science I said I would like to do research), my teacher told me that I wouldn’t be able to because I wasn’t calm/quiet/patient enough and that I should think about going into the media in some way. She was wrong, turns out having a lot of energy and ideas are useful in science (although I did have to learn how to be more organised!).

    • Photo: Clare Nevin

      Clare Nevin answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      Hi, I am the same as Jess – I didn’t decide to do it until I was almost finished my degree and stupidly I didn’t think I was capable, clever enough. Now looking back on it I wish I had aimed even higher and tried to get a PhD in other Universities. Don’t worry if you don’t know what you want to do with your life yet, there is plenty of time for you to decide – just do what you enjoy!

    • Photo: Divya Venkatesh

      Divya Venkatesh answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      Yeah I had no idea I was going to do a PhD when I was in school or undergrad. It was just not in my universe of options — I guess I never thought of what I was going to next, I just did what I was interseted in. I found out while doing my master’s, how science worked and how a PhD would be useful if I wanted to continue doing it and aim higher. And here I am!

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