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Asked by nucleardisciple to Clare, Mariana, Pedro, Robert, Susanne on 12 Nov 2012.
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Mariana Campos answered on 12 Nov 2012:
What a good question! and this one is easy to answer 😉 I would tell myself not to be scared to say “I don’t know” and ask people that might know. I have to say that sometimes I feel stupid to go and ask some question that I know that has an easy answer. But I should do it 🙂 because would make me work faster and do less mistakes 😉
Do you a time travel machine that I can use? 😉
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Clare Taylor answered on 12 Nov 2012:
Hmmm, that’s a tricky question! I mean if I went back and did things differently, who knows where I would be now! Things could be better or things could be worse, but I suppose I’ll never know! I think maybe I would tell my future self to be a bit braver and talk to more people and ask more questions. Making connections with other scientists is really important and I was always a bit shy about speaking to Professors when I was a PhD student, but really no-one should be scared about talking to anyone! Now I encourage all of my students to ask questions and speak to lots of people, especially at scientific conferences because you can often get some really great advice from people who see things from a different point of view!
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Robert Insall answered on 12 Nov 2012:
I think this is a good question too. But my answer is a bit different.
I think the secret of success in careers (and in the rest of life, actually) is to do something you’re passionate about. Something you do really well.
There are two secrets to that. The first is, pick something you are really interested in. For me, that’s microscopes. For you, probably something different. If you don’t like things you won’t be very good at them, even if you make an effort; it’s much easier to try hard at something if you want to do it.
But you have to go and pick something. No use sitting back and waiting for something cool to come and find you.
The second piece of advice is, if you’re lucky enough to find something you really want to do, then give it everything. Don’t be frightened to be keen, and don’t be scared to spend all your time trying to be excellent if you want to. When I was doing my PhD I worked all the time – weekends, evenings, whatever. But that was because I really enjoyed being in the lab, and I was happy there, and I wanted to succeed at all costs. Some of my friends and my parents thought I was a bit weird working so many hours, but I felt freer than I had ever done before, because it was up to ME whether I did it.
Of course, if there was a party, I went to it. But I sometimes went back to the lab afterwards.
So – do what you want to. But make sure you do it really, really well.
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Susanne Muekusch answered on 13 Nov 2012:
Hi nucleardisciple,
So far, I don’t regret anything and I don’t think I went terribly wrong somewhere. On the other hand, I am not very advanced in my career. Right now, I would be really interested in what my future self would advice me for my next career steps!
Nice chatting with you, keep asking…
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