Question: did you ever get stuck on what you wanted to work on?

Rebecca Pullon answered on 15 Jun 2016:

Hi Hardie,

Do you mean in terms of career work or day to day work? In terms of long term what I wanted to work on, yes I have been stuck. After I finished my engineering degree I had terrible trouble deciding what to do. Something that helped me was to read – know what’s going on in the world, what’s happening in research, what can I be a part of; and talking to people, finding out what they’re passionate about and how they got to where they are. I still don’t think I’m set on what I want to do long term but I know what I’m passionate about now (enabling access to good quality healthcare), and there may be many forms of work that will allow me to work towards that. I don’t think you need to know for certain what you want to do, but don’t give up learning and reading.

In terms of day-to-day work, I occasionally get stumped and don’t know how to proceed. Sometimes it would be nice to have someone just tell me what to do. But as I’m in research, that’s not the way. It requires reading around the subject, seeing what other people have done, talking to my labmates for ideas, then trying out a bunch of things until something works. Our attitudes make a difference when we’re stuck – I try to view it as a challenge to be conquered, rather than letting it get my down.

Sorry that was a rather long winded answer. I hope that somewhat answers your question!

Rebecca