What is the most challenging part of your job?

Question: What is the most challenging part of your job?
- Keywords:
  challenge,
  job
Asked by anon-289205 on 16 Mar 2021.
- Lizzie Pendlington answered on 16 Mar 2021:
  
  Probably understanding complex science concepts so I can communicate them in the right way! I have more of a Biology background but the science I tell people about on my placement is more Chemistry/Physics so it can be tricky to understand! I have learnt there are a lot of particles out there that physicists use to carry out really cool experiments – like looking for dark matter 🧐
- Nicola Morrice answered on 16 Mar 2021:
  
  Sometimes if can be really hard to work out the correct way to do an experiment, so it can take a long time to design and run the experiment properly, as there are lots of things that can go wrong. Often, when an experiment doesn’t work the way you thought it would it can be difficult to work out whether you made a mistake or if the result really is different from what you expected.
- Felicity Hunter answered on 16 Mar 2021:
  
  Hi Sean, excellent question! Sometimes my job as a research scientist can feel very frustrating when my experiments don’t go the way I panned and I don’t get the results I expected. It can sometimes feel like I’m putting in lots of hard work but have nothing to show for it! In times like this it is important for me to realise that failure is a totally normal and necessary part of science. Experiments failing can often give us just as much useful information as those that work! After all, science is all about trial and error! If you try something and it fails, you can then change how you did it and try again until it does eventually work! Being able to try and try again until you get something right is an important skill in science jobs referred to as ‘resilience’ which is something that doesn’t come naturally to many people and so must be practiced. When times are challenging and frustrating it’s important to take a break and come back to your work when you have a clear mind 🙂
- Katie Endersby answered on 16 Mar 2021:
  
  For me, the most challenging part is when an experiment isn’t quite working as I thought it was going to, and I have to try and figure out what went wrong!!! It can often take a little while, and can be very frustrating, but is very rewarding when I finally figure it out!
- Claire Price answered on 16 Mar 2021:
  
  Experiments don’t always work. Although it can be fun trying to find out why, but it is so frustrating when an experiment doesn’t work when it should!
- Karen Burstow answered on 16 Mar 2021:
  
  I find the most challenging thing is when an experiment just won’t work or you can’t work out what a sample is! It can be quite frustrating (and tiring, when you put a lot of work in!) but colleagues are always happy to help and offer moral support! We have a few senior team members who have lots of experience and knowledge, so are really helpful with these tricky projects.

Question: What is the most challenging part of your job?

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