Question: what did you do to be a scientist ?

John Paterson answered on 16 Jun 2019:

After leaving school, where I did a lot of science subjects until Highers (Scottish A-levels) I chose to do a degree at university that was to do with science. Then after getting a degree I did a Masters. This is a kind of degree that universities offer if you’ve already completed your first degree. It only lasts a year and often involves you doing research, but you’ll do quite short research projects that last about 3-4 months. Then after that I applied for a PhD, which is a 3-4 year qualification where you do lots of research about the same topic (like I study plants and pollinators). You often get paid for this and this is when you’re becoming a professional scientist. After the PhD, I would hope to get a job as a researcher or lecturer at a university but there are other options.

That’s the way most people become a scientist, there are other ways to get into it but they’re not that common. But people do these qualifications at different times – I know some people who did a PhD straight after university but I didn’t come back to do a PhD until working in another job for 8 years.