• Question: does being a doctor or a scientist affect your personal life

    Asked by 362erbb43 to Hephzi, Imogen, Jen, Tom on 18 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Thomas Barrett

      Thomas Barrett answered on 18 Mar 2015:

      Doing any sort of job will affect you, but becoming a Dr./scientist can affect it more than most. I suppose it is down to how serious you take your work. If you can work 9 to 5 and go home at 5 and not worry about work then it will be like any other job. However most scientists can’t do that, they want to keep going, to finish that last thing before going home. I have several weeks where I have had 14 hour days every day including weekends! to get work done. I was shattered but it was totally worth it! I have been in the lab till 2:30 Am on several occasions but again, worth it!

      Despite this however I still do 3 martial arts, learn japanese, rock climb, play video games, have a girlfriend and see my family. So you can still manage to have a pretty good life 😀

    • Photo: Hephzi Tagoe

      Hephzi Tagoe answered on 18 Mar 2015:

      Good question. I actually looked into bot careers as I was torn between the two and did work experience in a GP, got a job in the hospital and did a research year in the lab whiles as uni so I’ll say Yes! It does to a large extent especially being a doctor.

      Although other jobs affect your personal as well some jobs tend to affect your personal life more than others.

      Generally, medical school takes longer than the standard degree so it’ll be a while before you start earning a decent living. Same applies to being a scientist if you continue to pursue a PhD. But it pays off in the end.
      Usually doctors work long hours and sometimes have to do shifts which can affect your personal life. If you’re with the NHS it can be really busy and you hardly get decent breaks. It can be really stressful I’ve seen doctors cry on shift because it’s so bad and you get abuse from patients as well when they wait for ages.
      Being a scientist is not as bad as you tend to work the usual 9-5 with a few exceptions. You do tend to stay in education longer as well and if like me you want to have a family as well then there’s a lot of juggling whiles studying or you choose to finish studying before thinking about settling down to have kids.

      All in all though you’ve got to enjoy the job and that’s what matters most. It’s not too bad when it’s what you actually want to do.

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