I’ve been a scientist as my job for about 5 years now, but I studied science for a long time before that and I’ve like sciencey stuff since I was really little.
I suppose it depends on when you stop being a student and start being a scientists. Its been about 4 years since my first peer-reviewed scientific publication.
I have started studied science 14 years ago, but I have been doing research for 10 years! I have actually celebrated my 10 years anniversary 2 weeks ago…I still remember how I was dressed and how nervous I was that I was going to do a disaster in the lab. Wow, it’s quite scary to see how the time has gone quickly since then!
I have been working as a paid scientist for nearly 3 years.
But I like to think of being a scientist that anyone can do – because it is always possible to think scientifically about the world around you, whatever your job is.
Being a scientist means being sceptical, open minded, curious and able to make decisions based on logic, reason and evidence. If you happen to get paid for it, then that’s great – but you can behave in this way whatever you do and, in my opinion, still call yourself a scientist (except on application forms – let’s not take this to some kind of crazy extreme… It’s a nice thought, though, isn’t it?).
I suppose it depends what you count as being a scientist. I’d probably count it from when I started my PhD, which was 12 years ago. That makes me feel really old!
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