What was that got you to your positions; good grades, your own curiosity, or both?

Question: What was that got you to your positions; good grades, your own curiosity, or both?
- Keywords:
  career,
  curiosity,
  grades,
  personal,
  privilege
Asked by SabirahJ to Mei, lucyhoughton, James, Ifan, Henry D, Eva A on 24 Mar 2025.
- Mei-Li Holmberg answered on 24 Mar 2025:
  
  A bit of both, but mainly my own curiosity! My grades only really mattered to get into university. While I was at uni, I never experienced that my uni grades mattered. Instead, I asked professors within the topic I was interested in (i.e. particle physics) if they had bachelor/master degree projects for me, and that helped me more to get a PhD position within the field than good grades.

angharadsmith commented on 25 Mar 2025:

I was always asking lots of questions at school and home; I didn’t like it when no one knew the answer, so I guess being curious got me into science! I’m still asking questions every day, and now I can research the answers in the lab. Good grades aren’t everything; you can get into science doing an apprenticeship or other non-academic routes, too.

Question: What was that got you to your positions; good grades, your own curiosity, or both?