• Question: How long does it take you to become trained as a professional scientist?

    Asked by Resh@science to Chris, Hayley, Jimi, Omur on 16 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Jimi Wills

      Jimi Wills answered on 16 Mar 2016:

      It depends which career route you take… but the standard route is:

      Get the necessary grades at school/college to go to university… age 18 normally
      Do a degree … 3 or 4 years usually – at this stage you can work in the lab, but not usually with your own projects
      Do a PhD … 3 or 4 years usually – so now you’re about 25 years old, and you’ve finished your PhD and can get a job as a post-doctoral researcher… in the UK you’re no longer a student, but internationally you’re still seen as a trainee.
      Do your postdoc(s) and apply for a fellowship – can take another 3-9 years, but if it take longer than this, it’s probably never going to happen. Now you have your independance and can study what you want. You’re about 28-35 normally when this happens.
      After this, you probably start applying for money to employ people to work on the things you’re interested in… and you spend less time in the lab your self… this is the bit I wanted to avoid, so I never applied for a fellowship.

    • Photo: Hayley Moulding

      Hayley Moulding answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      I am still training! I am currently still doing a degree. I did my first degree at University in Bristol and now I am becoming a doctor of medicine! To be able to get to University I had to do well in my GCSE’s and my A Levels and then keep working really really hard!!!

      My PhD will take me 4 years so I am here for another 2 and a half years to finish my PhD. I still wont be properly trained though! I will have to do more training! I think I will never stop learning and training though which is really cool.

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