• Question: What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your career up to now.

    Asked by ShravanG on 28 Mar 2021.
    • Photo: Sarah-Jane Potts

      Sarah-Jane Potts answered on 10 Mar 2021:

      My biggest challege so far has been my doctorate in Materials Engineering where I looked into improving the scientific understandig of screen printing and conductive inks. That took four years of dedication with lots of unforseen problems to solve at every stage. Writing up my work into a 250 page book was really challenging but so rewarding when I could finally hold it in the end and get several journal papers created from the work I did.

    • Photo: Callum Maloney

      Callum Maloney answered on 11 Mar 2021:

      For me it is an ongoing challenge of balancing working on different projects at the same time and managing my time well. I think this is something you start to see at school and university though so you can build up experience on this without really realising you are doing it. Planning ahead as much as possible helps and writing down tasks on a to-do list is a go-to for me!

    • Photo: Emma Robertson

      Emma Robertson answered on 11 Mar 2021:

      For me it is often managing time. I can be working on several different projects at the same time with different priorities, so trying to balance those can be a big challenge as everyone thinks their project is the most important one!

    • Photo: Adrian Marsland

      Adrian Marsland answered on 15 Mar 2021:

      Explaining to a customer why errors in our manufacturing processes and machines were causing excessive gaps in their wing assemblies, and what we were going to do about it, and in what time.

      Also working in 40 deg heat installing snack food machinery cooking equipment

    • Photo: Kiri Hatton

      Kiri Hatton answered on 15 Mar 2021:

      Time management is the most difficult for me. I have two children and balancing work with childcare can be tricky. However i work 4 days a week which helps and have the ability to work flexibly when needed.

    • Photo: Jasmine Bone

      Jasmine Bone answered on 16 Mar 2021:

      I found my doctorate most challenging as this was 4 years dedicated to one project and was a huge learning curve in terms of learning new science, learning how to conduct a research project, and learning how to be more professional, network and do presentations and reports. For me the last year of project work and writing up was interrupted by all the covid restrictions which added an extra layer of uncertainty and anxiety to getting it completed. It was tough but I’m definitely a stronger person now for getting it done!

    • Photo: Magdalena Grzybek

      Magdalena Grzybek answered on 26 Mar 2021:

      My biggest challenge so far is time management, balancing working on several different projects and at the same time studying for my MSc degree.

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