• Question: Is your job what you expected it would be? If different, then how is it different?

    Asked by tree to Alex, Chris, Mohamed, Rik, Victoria on 6 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by Eema.
    • Photo: Chris Waters

      Chris Waters answered on 6 Mar 2015:

      I suppose I expected working on a PhD to be easier – I find if I get interrupted during the day I find it hard to get back to work unless I’m working on something very specific! I was surprised to see the breadth of work being done too, I thought people would all be working on very similar topics but it’s nothing like that.

    • Photo: Rik Allen

      Rik Allen answered on 8 Mar 2015:

      Hi.
      At the moment this job is close to what I thought in some ways, but I’ve been doing it long enough that I’ve learnt what to expect. What I have learnt to expect is that I can’t really guess what is coming next. I don’t know exactly what I’m doing next month, or even really tomorrow. But I know roughly the direction it will take, and that something interesting will come along. It make delight me, or shock me, but probably not bore me.

      In broader terms I can guess roughly what I’ll be doing next year – sitting at a computer thinking – but there are so many decisions to take between here and there I don’t know what I’ll be thinking about.

      Most of the jobs I’ve had did take unexpected turns –

    • Photo: Victoria Sharpe

      Victoria Sharpe answered on 15 Mar 2015:

      I never thought it would be so varied and how you suddenly become an expert in your own design so quickly – no one knows what you’ve designed or how it works as well as you.

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