What is the most interesting aspect of your job?

Craig Anderson answered on 11 Nov 2021:

Great question- the most interesting thing about my job is that I get to talk to loads of different people, each with different points of view and expertise. I really enjoy learning from them and understanding their insights into a problem that we can solve together.

In terms of the science, I find how populations adapt to their environment fascinating. Whether it’s in cancer, flies or earthworms- all use genetic variation to gain a competitive advantage. To be able to find evidence for the different ways this can happen and to be able to say when, where in the DNA
and where in the body/world the key changes have taken place is incredible.

Isabelle Boothman answered on 11 Nov 2021:

I love this question, I work with a lot of Doctors and nurses and I find the hospital meetings with the doctors so interesting and seeing all the work they do.

My PhD looks at why some people get a bad reaction when they take medication and I am trying to find genes that cause these reactions so that in the future, we can test a patient before giving them medication if they the gene, to prevent the reactions. So I find this topic really interesting.

Joaquin de Navascues answered on 11 Nov 2021: last edited 11 Nov 2021 9:34 am

I appreciate mostly two things: you get to understand the world better, and things change all the time, you keep learning different techniques, or know about different scientific problems, all your life. And you get to decide, to a large extent, what to pursue. You never get bored!
Also, as you get old, you keep meeting young people who are clever, hard working and incredibly motivated, and that is very energising.

Magdalena Sutcliffe answered on 11 Nov 2021:

Great question and really made me stop and think about it! I feel like the most interesting aspect of my job is learning something that nobody yet knows, discovering new things.

Chris Pyatt answered on 11 Nov 2021:

I’m always learning new things. I had never worked in human genetics or in a clinical environment before my current job and learning how the system works for patients is really interesting to me.

Emma Hall answered on 11 Nov 2021:

Oh this job is so much fun! You get to choose what you study (mostly) and you get a lot of freedom to decide what you do each day. I love having the flexibility to fit my work around my two boys. But I mainly love the asking questions NO ONE knows the answer to – I am the FIRST PERSON IN THE WORLD to know some things – they may be very small things, not so interesting to many people, but to me it’s amazing that I’m the only one (or one of a very few people) that knows them.
The other thing is the diversity of people you meet, from around the world – science is very international and before covid I had been many exciting places for meetings – China, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Niagara Falls, Skiing in California. ALL for WORK!
On the flip side, in my experience there isn’t much job security – so you have short term contracts which can make planning life long term more challenging, but for me at the minute the pros massively outweigh the cons.

Becky Cohen answered on 11 Nov 2021:

Genetics is such an interesting field to work in because there are so many new technologies coming through that make large-scale genetic testing much more accessible than it used to be. Because of this, it’s a rapidly changing and developing area to work in which makes the job more varied and exciting. I also love that there’s a human side to the work I do which directly benefits patients.

Ana Letycia Basso Garcia answered on 11 Nov 2021:

The more interesting thing is trying to discovery how things are like they are and how we could change it (and if we should change). For example, why I have a disease, how does it happens and how we could work to avoid future generations to have the same problem. I work with plant genetics, so for me it is nice to understand, for example, why plant can survive in a very drought environment and other plant of the same species cannot.

Clara Cieza-Borrella answered on 11 Nov 2021:

Learning new things everyday, working in a team, transferring my knowledge to other people and see how they learn new things, knowing that your job is making an important impact on others’ quality of life

Frankie Macrae answered on 11 Nov 2021:

The most interesting part of my job is if we find a genetic diagnosis in a patient- meaning we’ve found a specific change in their DNA which is definitely the cause of their symptoms. It’s not often as straight forward as that, but when it is it feels incredibly satisfying.

Dapeng Wang answered on 11 Nov 2021:

The most interesting part of my job is to translate the research results into the real world application and benefit the healthcare of patients. Working with the data generated through the cutting-edge multi-omics technologies makes this possible.

Mukta Deobagkar answered on 12 Nov 2021:

I enjoy that I get to learn something new every single day! I get to have the fun of thinking about and discovering things for myself but also the fun of hearing and reading about other people’s fascinating discoveries. I like the newness, variety, flexibility and enthusiasm that this job requires. There are hardly ever any boring days!!

Yasmin Dickinson answered on 12 Nov 2021:

Ooooo I love this question! I’d say one of the most interesting parts of being a scientist is learning new laboratory techniques or using new technology. For example, back during my undergraduate and masters degree I didn’t really have the chance to do much histology work – histology is where you stain sections of tissue and observe it under the microscope. But now I am finally learning how to do it in my PhD and its so fun! Microscopy work is great because you get to see our cells in so much detail and it makes you realise just how beautifully complicated the human body is!

Using really cool and high-tech machines is also fun. I like using this machine called a Echocardiogram vevo3100 – this machine lets you do an ultrasound scan of the heart (so you can see the heart pumping in real time) and lets you measure blood pressure!!

Henry Jenkins answered on 12 Nov 2021:

As a trainee clinical scientist in cancer genomics, I am finding all aspects of my new career really interesting! So far though I would say the most interesting thing has been investigating what genes (or what is wrong with a particular gene) are responsible for causing a patients disease! Better still, the research and information we provide to the clinician can also influence the treatment and management for that patient!

Jessica Yang answered on 17 Nov 2021:

SO many things – I get to learn something new all the time, study lots of different things and follow where the research takes me. It is a lot of independent work which I love and I also love coding, which I get to do a lot of. Recently, I have been talking to lots of different people about my research – people who have had illnesses I am interested in and professionals who work with these people too. This has been so fascinated and really important in shaping my research in the future!

Question: What is the most interesting aspect of your job?

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