• Question: When your children are older do you wnat them to be scientists?

    Asked by near520muon on 19 Dec 2024.
    • Photo: Rachel Findlay-Robinson

      Rachel Findlay-Robinson answered on 19 Dec 2024:

      I don’t have any children at the moment, but I do think that being a scientist is a good thing to be, even if you don’t do it as a job. Being interested in the world around us and learning about it makes lots of things in everyday life much more fun 😁

    • Photo: Tina-Jaine Haigh

      Tina-Jaine Haigh answered on 24 Jan 2025:

      I have lots of nieces and nephews. I want them to have a career that makes them happy, makes them proud of what they do, and makes them feel fulfilled and valued. You spend a big part of your life at work, and it should mean something. Everyone deserves that, and everyone CAN find it, if they look in the right places. So if my nieces & nephews choose science or engineering, that’s great from my perspective and for the UK as a whole because we are short on people in those fields, but it’s more important that they are happy.
      I think the difficult part for young people is figuring out in advance whether they would like a particular type of job. Some young people might not realise that they could enjoy a job in science and engineering, because they don’t understand what those jobs are like, or they have picked up incorrect views about those jobs. And we can help with that here.

Comments

  • Photo: sandrarobertson

    sandrarobertson commented on :

    I don’t have any children of my own, but I do have nieces and a nephew. My nephew is currently thinking about what he would like to do after school for university and is interested in Marine Biology. This is quite a different type of ‘scientist’ role to what I do, but I definitely encourage him to do what he wants to do. There is such a wide range of different types of scientist roles available to choose from. I am also a STEM ambassador, and really enjoy promoting working in science to students at different events, because there is such a big range of different jobs you can do.

  • Photo: Rachel E

    Rachel E commented on :

    I have two children. I would love them to find a career that is exciting and interesting and that they enjoy. Science ticks the boxes for me, and I think they would enjoy it too – so I’d be happy if they became scientists. But I would also be happy with lots of other jobs, as long as they were happy and doing good.