Question: if a person wanted to enter your field what qualities does that person need to display????......is dedication one of them?

Nathan Langford answered on 27 Jun 2012:

Dear zmzmzmzmzmzm, (sorry – got a bit carried away)

I think the most important quality to display if you want to be a scientist is that you’ve got to love your work. That’s true for a lot of jobs, but it’s especially true for being a research scientist, I think.

If you become a scientist, you can certainly make a reasonable living, but you probably won’t be earning the big bucks and it can be quite a lot of work. It’s also a job where you have to be highly self-motivated and self-directed – you don’t normally have a boss who tells you what to do every day – you have to work it out for yourself. Also, you may have to move around a bit and live in other places to do your research, at least for a few years once you’ve finished your studies (or maybe a PhD).

Now, all of those things can also be really good things. In fact, I love the fact that I’m in a job where I can pursue my own ideas and plan my own projects, and it’s also great to have the opportunity to live in other places and experience other cultures too. But if you don’t love what you do every day, then these things could very quickly become tiresome too.

You’re right that dedication is really important. However, if you’re dedicated to your work, but you don’t love what you do, then you might find yourself getting quite down about it all after a few years.

But I’m not trying to sound negative here. The great thing about science is that there is soooo much to love and be enthusiastic about. There is an endless supply of unsolved questions to work on and it’s really satisfying to discover new ideas and new things. And there are so many ways in which science can make a difference and really help people in this world, so it can be really rewarding too.

There really is something for everyone and, if you love what you do, then you’re 90% of the way there at being good at it too.

Here are some other qualities which are really important for being a scientist too:
* strong curiosity
* ability to think independently
* ability to think critically – analyse what people have done and decide whether it’s the best way to go
* ability to identify a problem, break it down into its key elements, pose a solution or explanation and determine a way of measuring and testing whether you’re right – this (roughly written) is often called the “scientific method”
* ability to work in a team
* willingness to communicate about your work, both in writing and speaking

But if this all sounds a bit scary and too hard, don’t worry – we don’t expect people to have all of these qualities when they begin as a scientist… these are the skills that you learn as you go. This is why you start out working with other more experienced people who teach you how to do these things. So at the end of the day, it again comes back to whether you enjoy it and find it fun. If you do and you’re willing to learn, then you will learn all the other skills you need.

Just to finish off, there are actually a lot of other jobs you can do if you study science too. You don’t only have to be a research scientist. For example, people who study physics can end up working as scientists in industry, they can end up working as consultants, working in the stock market, working for banks, working in government – all over the place. And many businesses are very keen to take on physics graduates as new employees, because of the analytical and problem-solving skills they have learnt during their degrees.