Scientist: the most versatile job ever?
By: Malte Borggrewe
Tags: Academia, Careers, Scientist, Science, Researcher

Featured image from pxhere.com — mohamed hassan

Perhaps you’re tired of being stuck in your micro cubicle-like office space all day, doing the same tasks over and over again. You might think it’s time for a change, and your brain is crying for more variation in your daily routine. There are many versatile jobs, but here’s why science is likely up there, right at the top.

Scientist job advertisements should probably look like this: teacher, project and financial manager, writer, and editor wanted, who can also do science. And please be prepared to travel, move, and change your daily tasks every couple of months/years.

Project management

Scientists are project managers including planning, budgeting, resources, and personnel management. As other projects, scientific studies need to be planned. Besides the actual scientific knowledge that goes into planning research, money is a big factor. Money may be available, or has to be applied for. Nevertheless, budgeting and keeping track of where the money is spend is an important part of a scientist. Personnel has to be hired and supervised, which is mostly also done by the researchers themselves. Briefly: scientist are project managers.

Teaching

This is a more obvious one, and it takes up a big chunk of the time depending on the position. Teaching includes lecturing, but also supervising students during internships. There is quite some work attached, since exams have to be prepared and marked, and reports to be corrected. Expect to do this 5–50% of your time.

Reviewing

We fortunately live in a world, in which scientists have to validate each others work. Peer-reviewing is a process initiated by scientific journals. After submitting an article, the editor will make a pre-selection. If the editor likes the article, (s)he will send it to at least two independent scientists of the same field of research. These scientists will look for flaws in study design, results, technical errors, or inaccuracies.

Whether reviewing the work of competitors is an objective and unbiased (= supposedly scientific) process is an entirely different story. Let’s just say it’s not uncommon that articles are torn apart.

Reading

You like reading? Oh great, if you want you don’t have to stop reading. Every week there are thousands of scientific articles published. Perhaps ‘only’ hundreds in your field of research. A printed article becomes your fellow passenger wherever you go. It’s also a fantastic tool to recognise scientist colleagues in public spaces. What I’m trying to say is that scientists have to read a lot. New articles related to your field of research are piling up weekly. To be on top of your scientific game, you should read many of them.

Writing

If you like reading, chances are that you enjoy writing just as much. But even if not, you’re not alone: there are many scientists that hate writing. Grant proposals, scientific articles, reports, you name it. There will be times that you spent weeks only writing because there’s another deadline approaching, or two, or three. Be able to juggle several different tasks may also be a useful skill. But that’s what you get for wanting a versatile job.

Science

Without going into too much detail, of course you also have to do science. Labwork, data analysis, interpretation, experimental design, planning, operating machines worth more than twice your yearly income, discussing results, making sense of it, being frustrated about negative data. The higher your position, the least amount of practical scientific work you’re doing. You will ‘move up’ to a science supervising person. Regardless, science will naturally always be a part of your job description.

Other tasks

No, we’re not quite done yet. There are plenty of tasks that just didn’t deserve an own paragraph, but are worth mentioning.

As a scientist you will travel. Be it conferences, seminars, visits to other labs, or presentations, you will have to move around. If you’re lucky, you chose conferences at great places (“There is this really interesting conference in Hawaii that I just cannot miss.”); obviously on universities budget. If you’re doing it right, you’ll never have to pay travel expenses for your personal holidays ever again.

You will also have to step up your presentation game because you will be giving loads of these. At least once every 2 weeks at department meetings, conferences, or other labs. So if you’re suffering from stage fright, being a scientist will be a great exposure therapy.

Perhaps, yes

There are plenty of aspects in science that I dislike. But one of the biggest advantages is an immense versatility. Is it the most versatile job ever? Perhaps, yes.

There are rarely two days alike, and the focus switches almost monthly. Some weeks you spend writing, and some you’re running around doing experiments. You even have some freedom to tailor your own job description.

So if you’re on a hunt for little routine and much variety, you should give science a serious consideration.