• Question: why did you pick this job and and who or what inspived you to do it .

    Asked by anon-234851 on 20 Sep 2019. This question was also asked by anon-234840, anon-234841, anon-234834, anon-234832, anon-234855.
    • Photo: Aileen Baird

      Aileen Baird answered on 20 Sep 2019:

      I’m studying for a PhD, which is a strange type of job. It means I;m working on a 3-4 year long project where I research one specific topic, trying to find out something nobody knows yet! I picked this job because I wanted to build up my scientific skills, and I also really love the subject I’m doing my PhD on (I study fungi in forests, and how they could be affected by climate change).. I don’t really have an inspiration for this job, it sounded like a job that would interest me, and fortunately a university agreed and decided to take me on!

    • Photo: Robert Dempsey

      Robert Dempsey answered on 20 Sep 2019:

      I got more interested in research when I studied for my Psychology degree at university, before then I knew I was interested in Psychology and Mental Health but wasn’t 100% sure what I wanted to do. I thought I wanted to become a Clinical Psychologist (i.e. someone working in the NHS, delivering therapies, involved in people’s healthcare) but I realised that actually I was more interested in researching and understanding people’s experiences of mental health related issues and using that knowledge to inform therapies. I had some really inspiring lecturers and professors who taught me during my degree and I found their research really interesting.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 20 Sep 2019:

      tl;dr: it started with video games, and I just kept following my dreams 🙂

      My career progressed from interest in video games, so I was initially interested when I was 4 years old 😀 Video games were fun, and computers were new and magical to me.

      Then I was generally interested in sciences, so that’s what I picked in school. My parents bought me a lot of encyclopedias, so I was always surrounded by ideas in technology and sciences.

      When I had to choose a subject to study at university, I picked maths (even though I didn’t do that well at it at school). Maths was what connected all the sciences, and I coulnd’t decide which science to pick.

      Then I worked for a year at IBM, and they were launching artificial intelligence things (maybe you’ve heard of Watson computer which outplayed champions in Jeopardy!). I connected that to how good or bad AI was in video games, and started reading books about artificial intelligence.

      I liked the science fiction idea of people talking to robots, but there wasn’t anything like that in real life apart from Siri at the time, so I applied for a PhD in computer science to study talking robots and the like.

      Now I have skills in computer programming, artificial intelligence, and human-robot interaction design. I am using those to teach computers to guess things, for example, guessing the author of the book from the text of that book.

    • Photo: Hayley Pincott

      Hayley Pincott answered on 20 Sep 2019:

      My grandad was friends with a lab manager and arranged for me to have a look around and I loved it. It was strange as I hated science in school and always got the worst grades so I was shocked that I really enjoyed my tour of a haematology lab. A few months later I started to work voluntary as a lab assistant in the histology lab at the same hospital.

      So to answer you question I accidently ended up in my job, I never would have thought about this a possible job while I was at school but I’m so happy and feel so lucky that I have found a job that I absolutely love doing.

    • Photo: Steve Williams

      Steve Williams answered on 20 Sep 2019:

      You could say I got lucky. I am a software engineer who happened to have the relevant skills for a position my company was looking to fill at the time I applied. Given that the job was in the space industry it wasn’t a job I was going to turn down. Sometimes things just happen by fortunate timing and I am happy to take any good luck that comes my way. Although its worth remembering that fortune favours the prepared and I was prepared because I had acquired the training, skills and experience the company was looking for. In my case its worth considering that I was just 14 years old when I watched the first moon landing – There was little in the way of a British space industry at that time or for many years to come. I might have dreamt at the time of working on spacecrafts but it seemed and impossible dream back then.

    • Photo: Nina Rzechorzek

      Nina Rzechorzek answered on 22 Sep 2019:

      My first inspiration was my Biology teacher at school – he was amazing and really made all of my class passionate about biology and understanding how living things work!

    • Photo: Rebecca Dewey

      Rebecca Dewey answered on 25 Sep 2019:

      I was inspired by wathing people present the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on television and thought that the job looked really exciting. I am really nosey and want to be the first person to find out new cool stuff!

    • Photo: Cheryl Williams

      Cheryl Williams answered on 25 Sep 2019:

      I picked this job after sitting in the uni careers library for hours on end! I knew I wanted to work in healthcare doing science but I didn’t want to work directly with patients. For this reason, this is my ideal job.
      I don’t think anyone in particular inspired me to do it. My family have always been supportive and just wanted me to be happy in whatever I chose.
      I suppose my science teacher inspired me at school to do triple science rather than dual award. He pushed me to believe in myself and aim high.

    • Photo: Katie Sparks

      Katie Sparks answered on 22 Oct 2019:

      I used to work on spacecraft – I got there because I really loved all the science that can be done in space, but didn’t want to be doing the science myself. My job made it possible for the science to happen.

    • Photo: Shruti Turner

      Shruti Turner answered on 4 Nov 2019:

      I’m doing a PhD researching how to improve prosthetics for amputees who lost their legs when they were in the military I picked the job because I wanted to use my engineering skills to help people and improve quality of life. I did a module in prosthetics whilst I was doing my Masters degree and I really enjoyed it. I then found this PhD where I have the opportunity to work on the project for 3-4 years and develop my own skills, keep learning and help people!

    • Photo: Katie Benson

      Katie Benson answered on 4 Nov 2019:

      I chose this job when I attended a talk at my local university open day. I knew I wanted to work in Biology because I loved my biology classes and my teacher was really inspiring.

    • Photo: Debbie Crockard

      Debbie Crockard answered on 4 Nov 2019:

      I work in conservation so David Attenborough was a big influence, but if I am really honest I loved the film Free Willy when i was little and decided I wanted to help save the whales.

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