• Question: Does your job ever get boring?

    Asked by megrogers to Laura, Nicola, Norman, Sandra, Thanasis on 11 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Laura Soul

      Laura Soul answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      Very occasionally yes, but probably not as often as some other peoples jobs. Sometimes I need to collect lots of data from experiments that people have done before me, so that I can know how to make my experiment better, or I can test their data. Most of the time this isn’t boring but sometimes it takes a really long time and I do get a bit bored, but it’s worth it because when I’ve collected it all I can do lots of really interesting tests to answer all the questions I have, then I’ve found out something new that no one else has found before and that’s very exciting.

    • Photo: Sandra Phinbow

      Sandra Phinbow answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      Not usually no, only when I do paper work, but luckily isn’t very often. So most of the time I enjoy my work, I have a laugh with my friends who I work with, we go out alot to eat, or to party.

    • Photo: Thanasis Georgiou

      Thanasis Georgiou answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      Nop, being in the laboratory is like being in a play ground. There are so many different things you can try, I would never get bored!

    • Photo: Nicola Wardrop

      Nicola Wardrop answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      Sometimes it does – sometimes if I am learning a new method or bit of software, it doesn’t work. So I have to keep changing things and re-trying it to get it to work…this can take quite a while and can be pretty dull! Also, once the method is working, because I am using lots of data and quite difficult statistical methods (which the computer does for me!), it can take a long time to run a single analysis. A few years ago, I was running some analysis – I had to use a supercomputer (basically a giant, really powerful computer), and even then it still took a week to run! Obviously I can do other things while that is going on though…!

      Normally though I have a lot of different types of things that I need to do – getting data sets prepared, making maps, making graphs, carrying out basic statistical analysis and then the more complex analysis. Plus writing, preparing for presentations, meetings, reading, learning, teaching, tutoring. Can’t be bored for too long with all those options!

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