Question: What is the hardest part about having a career in science?

Melissa U answered on 5 Jul 2025:

The hardest thing about working in science is finding a job where it’s possible to see the results of your work being translated into something that is useful/makes a positive difference. As a clinical vet, it was possible (although not always) to see your work improving the welfare of an individual animal and helping the animal’s owner too and this could make the long working hours and stresses of the job feel worthwhile. But other times as a vet you might offer a treatment or a plan of action which you feel is good for the animal’s welfare but, for a variety of reasons, the owner chooses not to follow your advice. In this situation it can feel frustrating to not be able to deliver that benefit for the animal and their owner. There are also sometimes situations as a clinical vet where you’re criticised for the cost of the treatment and you’re accused of being ‘in it for the money’ which feels very hurtful – if vets were only interested in money there are many other jobs they could do which require a lot less training (incurring big university related debts), pay a bigger salary and involve shorter working hours. It’s easy to forget that the charge for treatment doesn’t go straight to the vet, it needs to cover paying all the other costs of running a practice and making this service available 24/7 every day of the year. In the UK in particular, because we don’t receive a bill when we visit a GP or go to a hospital, most of us don’t have any way of appreciating how much medical and surgical services cost to deliver so a bill can seem ‘high’ without any way to assess this in an objective manner.