• Question: What barriers, excluding COVID19, have you encountered in your profession, and how did you overcome them (if you did!)?

    Asked by anon-258146 to Oliver on 9 Jul 2020.
    • Photo: Oliver Gordon

      Oliver Gordon answered on 9 Jul 2020:

      I like this question!

      I think I’ve largely had two types of barriers – personal and work related.

      The personal ones are your normal lot – “I’m nervous about giving this big talk”, “What if I’m wrong in what I’m saying” “What if people don’t take me seriously”, “what if I can’t think of anything new?” The answer to these ones is always the same – go, take a break, and surround myself in the amazing people you get to meet in science.

      The work ones can be complicated – “How do I make this code work”, “how do I implement this idea”, “will this idea work”, “we have this specific problem with our results/experiments”. The answer is again always the same – science isn’t about some lone genius going “EUREKA!” and saving the world, it’s about people working together, trying lots and lots of things, and learning a little bit more each time. So my solution is the same – go, take a break, surround myself with the amazing people and talk, and see what happens. And then just keep working and trying, because even if you don’t figure out your problem today, it will eventually!

Comments

  • Photo: Nigel

    Nigel commented on :

    I think for a good portion of my career I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, and this in effect created a barrier for me to progress (harder to get promotions, new roles). I’ve now found my niche (data/data visualisation) and I’m very happy with how my career is going.
    I think in hindsight I lacked a good understanding of all the career options out there, but equally you don’t always know until you try. Also the work I do now didn’t really exist (to the same extent) at the start of my career, so I think it’s fair to say careers keep changing and evolving!