Student Research at Duke

Probably the most important thing I have learned this summer in terms of career choices is that it’s very hard to predict what a certain career would be like. Even though working at a lab has largely turned out to be what I expected, what I felt about it has changed as summer progressed. Initially, I was quite skeptical about actually enjoying the work that I would be doing. I imagined lab to be like the lab classes that we had at school–following protocols mindlessly. And, in fact, most of work is exactly like that. What I didn’t see beforehand, however, is the importance of having an ultimate goal in mind. That goal is what makes me willingly want to spend more time after work, or go in on weekends to work. And the progress that is made from all this work toward this goal is a very exhilarating form of satisfaction, something that makes work ultimately enjoyable despite the reptitive nature of the process. That’s something that is common to almost all research. In conclusion, I think if I were to go into research, the topic I study doesn’t matter too much to me, as long as I am fairly knowledgeable of that topic (and knowledge is something that can be obtained over time). Overall, I think this experience has given me some insight into the lives of researchers.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 11:14 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.