• Question: Are you nervous at working

    Asked by 653anta39 to Rob, Matt on 21 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Robert Hampson

      Robert Hampson answered on 21 Nov 2014:

      Do you mean am I nervous when I am working at the moment?

      or

      Am I nervous about finding work in future?

      I do occasionally get nervous with my current work. I often deal with highly toxic or reactive chemicals. Some of them are very dangerous and the potential for having an accident can be quite high. However, remaining calm is very important as if you are shaking accidents are much more likely! After a while, you do kind of get used to working with the danger and you can get a bit blasé about it. I am also the lab safety monitor so I am often trying to get people to be more safe at work and fighting the blasé or lax attitude we sometimes adopt.

      I am also somewhat nervous about finding work at the end of my PhD. Currently pharmaceutical companies are struggling. Many experienced chemists were made redundant so the market is somewhat tough at the moment. Fortunately, I am young and adaptable and I have some niche skills. Hopefully these will help me out when my job search begins shortly!

    • Photo: Matt Bilton

      Matt Bilton answered on 21 Nov 2014:

      When I do experiments that cost a lot of money I get nervous! My most expensive single experiment cost £2,500. This was an experiment that took only one day!

      When I do experiments like this I get a bit nervous, because I know that some people have donated a lot of money to medical research for me to be able to do this research, so it is very important not to make a mistake.

Comments