• Question: What is the most difficult aspect of your jobs

    Asked by RhysW on 10 Nov 2024. This question was also asked by care520duma, when519doum, page520muon, yays520putz, base492sup, made520pots, fete520burd, suns520rote, arms520haar, rush520rebs.
    • Photo: Caroline Roche

      Caroline Roche answered on 10 Nov 2024:

      The most difficult part of my job is dealing with discrepancies in the design of the project.
      When developing a control system, I am usually given the basic design which is then expanded during the project. By the time we get to testing the design should be set in stone with some small changes to the design required to make it easier to use.
      Sometimes, a major discrepancy with what a customer is expecting and what we have designed is found. There will be lots of meetings while a solution is found, which can be either changing the design or explaining to the customer why the design is how it is. Lots of research has to be made to gather information so the correct descison can be made.

    • Photo: Don Clark

      Don Clark answered on 11 Nov 2024:

      Problems can sometimes be complex to solve. There may be pieces of information to seem to contradict each other. The skill is in ensuring all of data and information is correct and then finding the correct link between them.

    • Photo: Sandra Robertson

      Sandra Robertson answered on 14 Nov 2024:

      One of the most difficult things can be the behaviours of your colleagues, bringing additional challenges to your working day. Not everyone likes change. They like what they are familiar with. They like how it has always been before. So when you try to put something new in place it can take time for people to change the way they feel. This can leave people feeling a little lost or left out and can make people feel defensive about how they do their job. It can be difficult to get everyone to see things as you see them, because you are excited about your new way of doing it, because you believe it is going to be better for everyone. Working with others can be a difficult aspect of any job role.

    • Photo: Diane Turner

      Diane Turner answered on 14 Nov 2024:

      The most difficult thing is trying to do everything that I want to do – always a lack of time, I really need to clone myself. It does mean making difficult decisions about what and whom to say no to, which I don’t like doing!

    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 4 Dec 2024:

      As an academic, you really have 3 jobs… Doing research and teaching which are generally a lot of fun. The third one is doing administration. I don’t know any scientist who enjoys doing that!

    • Photo: Michelle Hawkins

      Michelle Hawkins answered on 11 Mar 2025:

      Multi-tasking and not having enough time in the day to get everything done. I agree with Martin, you are always juggling research, teaching and admin (much less fun!). Another big challenge is getting the money needed to carry out experiments. We do this by writing grants; these are funding proposals explaining what experiments we want to do and why. It’s easy to spend more time writing grants than actually doing the research!

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