PhD student over here aswell!! I always knew science was for me, but I wasn't directed towards research initially. After doing work experience, I realised that most jobs in science weren't for me because they were so repetitive, and I wanted a job where I could make every day different. between my second and third year of university I undertook a funded research project and I loved it! i has to apply for the funding (which I got) and plan the whole project alongisde a supervisor. This research project was actually in the research field I am now working in. After that I did two research projects in my final year, and now I am doing my PhD. My summer project definatley opened that up for me!!!

You pronounced it perfectly! :D And thank you thank youu!! The video was great! :)

I knew I wanted to be a scientist when I was really young, didn't know what kind of scientist but you know it was what I wanted to do. I guess the path there wasn't really that easy. I struggled in school, my teachers kept telling me I was smart because I was great in class but I examined really badly. I ended up failing all my Highers (Scottish versions of A Levels kinda) when I was 17 and I crashed and burned out of School. I gave up. I left school and ended up going to my local further education college, I decided I was going to resit them in another institute, I was there two weeks and my English lecturer noticed something in my essay I had written and send me for a dyslexia assessment. Turns out I was dyslexic, so my struggles in education despite being bright weren't just me not trying. I resat my Highers at college and got 6As. Normally you only sit 5 highers at a time but I did an extra one as a night class just because I kinda enjoyed Sociology even though it's not related to what I was wanting to do but I got my 6 (Maths, English, Chem, Bio, Physics and Sociology.) I decided to apply to university, I'd never really considered biology as something I would want to study I'd always preferred chemistry so I struck a balance and applied for biochemistry at university, I got into Edinburgh Uni and started my degree in the September that year. I actually think this was the hardest part. Picking myself up off the ground after failing and attempting again. Don't take failure hard, don't take failure and give up, you will fail on your research career, it's part of the process but you just have to go for it. I have no intention of doing a PhD when I started, I didn't really know what I wanted to do anymore, I wanted to be a scientist but I thought I would end up more i the clinical side on an NHS graduate program or something. as I got though the first two years of my degree I realised that I enjoyed Immunology more than Biochemistry and ended up switching my degree at the start of 3rd year and specialising in Immunology. Degrees are four years in Scotland, the final year includes a very large research project with a placement in a real lab and holy crap I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so much, by the time I realised that yes, this is what I was enjoying and also according to my supervisor I was really good at it I decided to do a PhD. The good thing about the Scottish Honours degrees they are kinda in between a bachelors and a masters, so you can do straight into a PhD. By this point it was too late to apply to the programs etc that were starting that year so I took a year out. Got a call center job for a year, considered my projects and universities I could go to and applied. A few interviews later, I finally got myself a fully funded scholarship for a project I really really wanted, I moved city, started my PhD and I loved it. The year out helped actually, not just to give me some space and recharge but also developing my communication and transferable skills and some of the feed back I got from my interviews said it counted in my favour because it showed I was coming back to academia because I wanted to, not because it was just the next step up the ladder. I'm not in my final year of my PhD, I'm starting to write my thesis. I've failed, I didn't get every PhD place I applied for (I got 2 interviews out of 13 applications, and 1 offer) and I've ended up somewhere that makes me happy and allows me to do my best. Again, if you're wanting to do this, you are going to fail at some point on the way there, it's part of academia, you will get set back, you will get rejections, take them, roll with them, get back up and keep going. It's not easy by any means, but it's the resilient people that do end up getting through it.

I’m just starting my “research life”, doing the summer research now. My beginning was literally disaster, i threw away the dye tube used for PCR which I thought was empty BUT ACTUALLY NOT! My supervisor didn’t show his anger but I can feel he was holding it lollll... and the other day I got the PCR setting wrong and crashed the samples I’ve been preparing:)))) ive been feeling guilty these days cuz i fell like I’m wasting so much stuff and starting doubting myself... but LUCKILY I saw this video today which let me know that not everyone’s research life going very smoothly and we need to challenge ourselves and improve ourselves THANKS!! I’m gonna back to the lab work tomorrow, good luck to myself!!!

thank you so much for putting up such good content mate. With your help, i ended up with an offer from Oxford earlier this week!

🙋🏻 Another PhD student here 🙋🏻 I knew I liked research at a really young age. My level one was when I worked on my science fair project "Does racism exists?" for the 8th grade. In the 10th grade I conducted a research project that explored microorganism in water supplies. At the end of my high school I shifted to a more engineering oriented project taking on the lead for building the school solar car. Afterwards as an undergrad I worked on several logistics research projects: facility location, buss scheduling, and inventory to name a few. For my masters I worked on the assignment of runners to corrals to improve the Worlds Best 10k. Now for my PhD I am working on Humanitarian Logistics. My path changed through the years as I explored different fields (e.g. social science, biology, engineering, logistics, etc...). All those research experiences helped me define my path as a PhD student.

I have a masters degree in getting F grades.

Master student, started analyzing with excel by watching many youtube videos . Moved to R studio forwards in my thesis. I started from 0 to 10 as well...At the end of the day, we all can do it too however we need more than efforts as in undergraduate. Your videos are kind of motivation by the way.... Thank you...

Your video always brighten my day. I am currently in University majoring in Media and Communication and Public Relations but it is not comparable to what you are taking. You have definitely inspired me to become a better student and person. Hope that you realise the postive impact you have on your audience. Have a great week ahead! 😊👍

Thanks for bringing up the notion of reading scientific literatures. After 3 yrs of PhD, I almost take it for granted now... Now thinking back, I actually did leveled up a lot in terms of reading!! A nice self-reminder of not being an imposter in the field of research! All the best in the remaining of your PhD!!!

Simon I'm very impressed with your videos.If you get a time can you produce a clip on essential skills/techniques that will help in the journey of PhD. For example how to manage your time , software to be used for writing citing papers,how do you organise your literature....etc. I'm aware of your PhD clip but I would like to see another version with the above mentioned areas.I really thought your organising of chapters very cool! great work. keep it up mate and best of luck!!!

I've only recently started watching your videos and i have to say not only am I enjoying them, but you are one of the most motivational and inspirational people I have come across and I'm glad I found this channel. I am currently in my second year of university studying for a masters in computer science and would love to follow that up with a PhD. Thank you for documenting your PhD and I wish all the best for the future

Hey, just found your channel. Didn't realise how nice it is to just listen to someone talk about doing a PhD, going through it and everything. Thanks for this!

Thank you Simon! This video helped me climb another step in my desire to become a researcher.

Thanks for doing this, Simon. This is exactly what I needed right now as a final year bachelors student with the inevitable crisis of academic future decision making.

I recently got accepted into a university and I find your content inspiring and fascinating as I prepare for the my first year. It's really opened up my eyes to uni-life from your vlogs and study-life as a student from your more informative content. Thank you for sharing your journey with us all!

Thank you for sharing your experience, Simon. I found it very useful.

Love watching your videos. I am not a Physics student but I love the academic content and would like to see more of them. Thank you for effort in making these videos and letting us know about different aspects of things which we could apply in our academic career and do well.

Simon you are my idol ! You have inspired me to study science, and watching your videos encourages me to persist in my studies .

I love these videos! They're very helpful. I'm a 2nd year uni student and doing a PhD is something that is in the back of my mind but it's also very far away in the future if I decide to do it. Before running into your channel by complete accident, I had pretty much no clue what doing a PhD would be like. So thank you, you really are very helpful!

Future PhD over here :) It is so nice to hear another person's journey towards academia. You definitely a journey that you had. It is lovely to hear someone else's story. I was completely against academia until my 3rd year in undergraduate, where I had proper experience with small but exciting research projects. I got so into it that I looked for the people that are already successful in research in my department to talk to them, to hear their story. Found a lovely professor who was more guiding than just making me do things for him and I we have been working for 3 years together now and three more to come during my PhD. I was lucky to find a person who saw that I am enthusiastic and actually pushed me forward, to work with people from other countries in collaborations and on various projects. Now at the end of my MSc I have gained way more experience than I would have expected. Please keep making videos. It is a joy to listen to someone else on the same journey as me and how they deal with it.

Thank you for this video Simon. Really helped me have a better perspective as a research assistant for roughly a year now. I still have so many questions about how to do things and this pandemic really had an effect on me not being able to be productive on the project that I belong to now. But this video showed me that no one is born qualified for the job, it takes years of dedication and being able to accept failures along the way. I was also told that this job is not for the faint-hearted (and sadly I am), but I'm really looking forward to how things will unfold in the coming months and years. Thank you again :)

LOVE this video Simon! Oxford Interview flashbacks when you mentioned the classic "Sorry, could you repeat that question?" were so real..

Hi Simon, Thanks so much for this video! It's exactly the kind of video I was hoping you would do soon :) As a second year undergraduate, I send an email to tutors asking if I could help any of them out, as I am considering PhD and academia in the future. I've just had a reply asking to be a conference assistant to my tutor over the summer, and I'm so excited! Thanks for all of your PhD-related content - it's so inspirational. Best, Celia

Thank you for these videos. Im in the 10th grade currently and i just found my love for math and science. I absolutely love your videos. Because of your videos i now know that i want to get my phd in astrophysics. You have helped me realize so much about me. Thank you

I'm over a year late, but damn I loved this video. I needed a motivator to help me get through all my tedious Spring Break assignments without crying blood. Thanks mate!

I love this, just the information I needed to hear - thank you!

So nice to see a relaxed PhD student! I will have my viva the 10th of Feb, and I'm kind of too nervous. I started in 2012, and I lost a couple of months for health reasons (thanks stress), and I began to work before finish my thesis (lovely postdoc without a doc). KEEP CALM and study more

Immensely helpful - I'm doing my IGCSEs at the moment, and knowing how research is something I'm awfully interested in going into, I know I've taken away a lot from this. Thanks man 👊

It's so lovely to watch your videos Simon. I feel really motivated to pursue research, though I'm still a second year Pharmacy student. I hope to do a Masters abroad and work on computer aided drug design. Yeah, I really appreciate what you do here on KZfaq...it encourages more people to get into STEM fields

Thanks for sharing this Simon! My own path to research hasn't been quite as linear as yours and I have come to academia relatively late. In sixth form I took the International Baccalaureate. This involved a small research project, similar to your EPQ, that I really enjoyed. However, I ended up going to medical school directly from Year 13 because I was convinced this was the area of science I wanted to ed up in. Through the first 3 years of university I realised that medicine, especially clinical medicine, isn't actually what I want to be doing. So, last year I took an "intercalated" (basically a sandwich course) BSc in Neuroscience and absolutely loved it. This involved my second big research project that I found fascinating and confirmed that my end goal is the be a researcher. I am now currently completing the last two years of my medical degree and completing more neuroscience research alongside it before I apply to Neuroscience PhDs and programmes. To anyone else reading this who wants to end up in research at some point in their life. The road into research isn't always a straight path, so don't worry if you aren't on that path yet (e.g. BSc -> MSc -> PhD). Enjoy yourself and keep working hard and you'll get there! I do also have a question for you Simon... When you applied to PhDs did you apply to programmes with a pre-PhD year as well as just established research projects? This might not happen as much in Physics as it does in Neuroscience though!

Really enjoyed this video :) I'm currently doing my master's in Marine Biology and am starting to look into possible PhD options. It's good to see the progression that people have made.

i really look forward to your video updates. They are very informative! You make graduate school look cool (although it is really hell lol)

Hey Simon , great video as always :D , can you make a video about choosing a thesis topic and your supervisor and how did you manage to narrow down to atmospheric physics out of all the possibilities that you had after your degree in physics , been loving your content recently keep up the good work ! : )

I am beginning a research internship next week, as an undergraduate. This put things in perspective for me, thanks! Excitement is kicking in.

Love the videos man, keep up the good work. :)

Thank you. I am now in my 1st semester of PhD at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. Your video is really inspiring. My fear is always how to be as good as my current supervisors because they are very superb. Listening to your advice make me less stress and motivated. Great video!

Literally every time i see one of your videos pop up I make myself finish an assignment for Uni, so that your video acts as a little reward, and motivation because you're so smart! Hahaha Love your channel!

so if you prestige you go back to primary school?

Thanks! As a student considering PhD, I have to say this video was very helpful :)

what an excellent video! I just started my PhD and even thoigh I did a bit of very heavily guided research beforehand, now I am struggling severely with organisation, time managment etc. I really hope I can improve on that in a decent amount of time so that there will be enough time for me to finish my thesis in vontract time

Great video, thanks for sharing your academic journey. Inspires me to make my own video on it.

It's great watching your videos and getting a feel for what it is like being a researcher. I'm currently studying for a masters in Neuroscience at the University of Southampton and deciding if I will continue my study after and your videos are very good for helping me decide :)

Love this channel

As someone waiting nervously for their first PhD interview next week, my fears about the PhD and not being ready for it have been somewhat soothed by this video. So thanks Simon! I think I am a little nervous as I haven't had many opportunities to try out research before; I didn't do an EPQ or any placements during my undergrad. However, I'm loving my Masters project and looking forward to the next quest in my research journey :)

Was that a WoW analogy? Loved it! I'm an undergrad with 1 year of guided research so far, hoping to go into way more research and grad school. Your videos are so inspiring. Thanks very much!

*uploaded 13 minutes ago* *has 410 views and 42 likes already* me: *claps*

Watching that as I'm applying for summer research! Being an undergraduate in physics this was very informative. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing Simon! You're so right that there is no one given way to become a researcher or go into academia and it's so refreshing to hear people talking about this. When I decided academia was for me no one could really tell me the way to get into it (including academics), it was like trying to find Mordor for a while! I would definitely echo your advice - if you're looking for some experience, just ask. The worst they're going to say is no. Student and undergrad researcher here and (hopefully!) future PhD kiddie. Always loved problem solving and research things but never really considered it until the last 18 months of which it's been a total whirlwind. Had to take a unit called experimental research in my penultimate year of undergraduate and really fell in love with the whole concept of autonomous and student driven work. In engineering at my uni you get what's called academic honours and have to do a 12 month self-driven research project and it was about 3 months into that I knew I genuinely just wanted to teach at a tertiary level/go into academia. Did what was the equivalent of 3 projects in 12 months because I loved it so much and have been working on various research bits and pieces since which has all been rather exciting. Recently got a scholarship to do research for a major institution for the next 2 months which will result in a presentation to major stakeholders (including the govt!). It's been a higgledy-pickelty ride but I should be able to start a PhD in June and if not, more research and publications until eventually they let me in!

Haven't seen you in a while! I have been busy but it's nice to see you again! This video is very interesting thanks for sharing your story, it's great to see what may lie ahead for me in the future even if it's not going to be scientific :)

Hi Simon, So glad to have come accross your video and listening to your inspiring journey! I am currently a post graduate student of psychology in India and I absolutely love the field of research! As you said, this is not a skill that anyone is born with and instead builds over incremental successes. During my undergraduate program, I prepared 2 research papers and presented it in conferences... Looking back at the quality of work, it's definitely not upto the mark. But it taught me immensely on what the field is like and AUTONOMY was my main attraction, as you also mentioned. I have now worked on another academic poster which I presented in an international conference and then only understood the actual rigour that goes into it. I'm so glad I had the past experience with research to first of all have the confidence to take up this project by myself and more to complete it successfully this July, learning more each day. I was seriously considering doing my PhD after that but I've decided to put that off for a few years to get more experience in the field of psychology. I am looking for research assistant/ program officer roles to help me work with academicians and psychology departments so that I get a clear idea about what I want to study for my PhD. It was lovely listening to your video at a personally confusing time that involves taking crucial decisions! All the best for your endeavours!

Thanks! Really useful to hear how you got into research!

A am so happy I found this channel, have to listen some of yours other clips because you know what you are talking about. 🙂 Although I am finishing my second masters and doing Phd this is really helping me clear my mind about what I realy want to do next... Tnx, you are awesome and fun to listen to! 😅

I'm only starting out on my four-year journey to get a bachelor's degree. I will be majoring in Astrophysics, and this is such an inspiration to all of us. Thanks, Simon!

Thank you for this!! I'm doing my Masters at the moment and applying for DPhils, and it feels like there's an unbelievably massive jump between being a PhD candidate and becoming a professor, becoming an authority or the authority on a subject... The idea of people coming to YOU for answers on a topic you have studied seemed absolutely crazy to me. But as my supervisor said to me, I've just read a few more books than you, that's all! :D

I love this video, I feel that I'm a bit stuck in my pursuit to become a researcher. One thing I took from this was offering your summer to get experience in research. I did something similar during the pandemic therefore was only data analysis and literature review. I'm going to try to do it again but hopefully get experience in the lab. Love the levelling references (ex WoW player)

As a future PhD student I found this video very useful. I will be starting university in September and I will be studying Microbiology, and then after my Bsc I will go on to do my Msc in Biology and hopefully my PhD. It's really good to see the process from A to Z.

Not a researcher but I also competed an EPQ in Alternative Methods of Spacecraft Propulsion and in my second year of aerospace engineering at uni (thinking of going into research). Love your videos and this one in particular was really motivating for me😊 thanks

Hey, Simon. Loved your video :) I did my Master's degree in Early Years Education at IOE UCL and loved it so much, similar reason as you do. I loved autonomy with just a bit of guidance. Although we love research so much, I find so interesting to see the difference between science and education research - at least the research that I did :) My research was focused on children with EAL (English as an Additional Language) and how these children's first languages are supported by parents and practitioners in nurseries in the UK. In order to research this topic, I used questionnaires and interviewed parents with children with EAL and practitioners who have children with EAL in nurseries. You can imagine how different it can be from the research that you normally do - I find it fascinating to learn different sort of research from different discipline :) Now, I am doing a PGCE primary course to be a trained teacher. I would love to pursue PhD but would love to be a teacher for a while to understand the education system as a teacher so that I can be a better researcher later on when I go back to uni and do PhD. I love children so much and also, I can earn some money before I become a student again! lol Anyway, thank you so much for your video. It has reminded me how much I loved reading research papers and doing my own research. Have a good weekend x

Thanks Simon! This is really handy as I'm thinking maybe the PhD route in English Lit and History is for me, even though I'm only second year undergrad (of three years). My research story is mainly through the History research projects that went for months at a time during senior History in High School. I did Queen Victoria, The Vietnam War and; Theatre in the Elizabethan Era :D Now I'm doing some summer research projects next year to help out my professors. Very Excited!

Hi Simon, I just started Maths, Physics and Chemistry and love your videos you're awesome

awesome video simon , you always give useful information for your viewers 🌟 💖i love your videos so much , i am a second year physics student and i already know that i want to do a phd and be involved in research field as a career 😁

Doing my MSc in Finance, also interesting in pursuing a PhD later on. Really enjoy your videos!

This was a really interesting video. Even though I'm only a second year Journalism student, I'm interested in doing my honours and possibly even masters in my second major, History. I don't fully understand your science side of things but I find what I do get fascinating ☺️

I just found your channel. Masters student in Microbiology here. I find your videos really motivating.

Never did a master nor a PhD, but now working at a nine to five (well ten to seven plus) office job is starting to make me feel depressed, that it reminds me of doing my dissertation wasn't too bad at all. I did a philosophy topic in my architecture and urban planning BA course lol. Breaking down a theory called refuge and prospect, then went on drawing pictures of places and asking students to rate how they feel about the drawings and so on. Come to think about it now it was kinda crazy and it still feels kinda great as it worked! Yes, like what Simon said, it's like my own baby. Never thought about researcher as a valid profession for myself before, but given I have always wanted to do my own research into some topics on the frontier and share them (while my constant fidgeting with concepts yet to be put into context with my mind either makes me want to go looking at articles and stuff for hours, or surrendering myself into a mindless draftsman drone at work as my mind isn't built for that), I hope that after my afk-ing or side questing, I could go on to level up in the way I like. Last but not least, hope u have a good day~

Thank you for sharing your story!

I became interested in research by doing an extended essay for the International Baccalaureate Diploma. This made me realize that I LOVED working at the lab even when that project was so bad hahaha. When I got into uni I got envolved in the iGem competition (Synthetic Biology). I was so lost in the beginning but I still LOVED it again. Finally I started working in a real lab in January and right now I'm working on 2 publications and 2 academic conference presentations as an undergraduate, something I am very proud of.

Had a disheartening day at the lab , made me question if i am even meant for research. This video made me realize why i got into the field in the first place. Thanks . Much appreciated

Although I'm working towards something in the Pharmacy field of Medicine, and I'm an American (cue Bald Eagle Screech and patriotic waving American Flag), it was immensely helpful hearing your story about becoming a researcher. I've always been fascinated with the medical field, and I'm currently split between working towards being a researcher, or something else in Pharmacy (Pharmacist, compounding, and so on). Hearing your story has given me a much needed perspective on what the path of a researcher might entail. Cheers, mate! (I hope I used that right.....)

Thanks for uploading! I'm currently applying for my first ever research internships and I'm sort of terrified that I won't like it or won't thrive in an environment of that kind of independence... I guess it's best to try to find out instead of never trying at all. I've done a few very small-scale independent investigations: one looking at food dye concentrations in candies and doing a preliminary look at LD50 (we didn't have enough time to get anywhere with that part), and one looking at various subconscious physiological responses in humans. My ability to read scientific papers is pretty good because my animal physiology professor had us read through and dissect research articles quite frequently. I'm also somewhat adept at writing research articles since I had to do that for the projects listed above, but my college also has us format lab reports as a journal article.

With your help, I got an offer fromOxford, St. Peter's college (your alma matter) earlier this week and I want to thank you for your help and for putting out these awesome videos

I'm a fifth year undergraduate (American university) working on my BA in Mathematics and a BA in Philosophy. In October 2015 I was approached by a professor in the philosophy department to work on a project with him. It was my first major introduction to real academic philosophy as well as my first project that I would be working on mostly independently answering some big questions in a field I was new to. We started off with a question that involved me reading literally dozens of published papers attempting to understand what it was they were all about. From there we had biweekly meetings to discuss the project and the work I was doing on my own, which was very intimidating because the professor knows far more about the field than I do, but he thought I was on the right track and that comforted me somewhat! The project was funded by the department (how wonderful that was), and I got to present our work at a conference in Phoenix, Arizona last May! We're still working on the project and trying to bring in another person to help us do a bit more statistical work, but there was a lot of interest in our work and we're trying to write a paper on it to get it published. Ironically enough, not in a journal we studied for the paper itself (ironic because of the work we're doing). It was probably the thing that most got me interested in pursuing PhD work in philosophy honestly. Even though it's a field I'd never worked in before and am not terribly invested in (I'm more a philosophy of maths guy myself), it showed me what philosophical work could look like. And I love it. Waiting to hear back from several universities right now to see if I got in; fingers crossed!

Hi Simon, watching this because I am quite frustrated in my own PhD research on occupational therapy here in Tokyo... :) Thanks for this, I hope I can share my own video about how we go through this rigorous process of scientific inquiry...

Masters student in Linguistics here - thank you so much for this video and all of your other videos. I am very drawn to research, yet hesitant because it's difficult to find a teaching position, but the way you explained it with game levels just made me braver in my desire to pursue a PhD after my Masters. It counteracted the imposter syndrome and the thought that I'll never be smart enough to 'figure it all out'; of course I am not smart enough yet, I have to just lvl up! Thank you so much. Cheers and all the best! Post scriptum: I second the suggestion from a comment below - I'd love a video on some skills/programs/methods to to manage time, cite papers, organize literature (read and to-be-read lit.), make notes of materials read, mnemonics (if you have them) for remembering where you read what, 'weird stuff or rituals' that helps you wind down or wind up, is a whiteboard essential, how do you organize your day (how many tasks and how do you evaluate how many tasks in a day you can do), do you have a bullet journal or do you use google calendar or equivalents, etc.

I'm currently conducting research into possible waste immobilisation techniques for spent nuclear fuel. I basically just followed a typical route, school, college, undergrad, postgrad. There are always options out there it just requires you to figure out where your interest lie. This can be very difficult as you will be doing this subject at a high level possibly for a very long time (and it can get REALLY boring). My undergrad thesis involved galaxy evolution with regards to redshift, whilst i enjoyed it a lot it ultimately wasn't what i wanted to be doing. The nuclear industry allows for a real contribution to tackling a global problem as well as creating something completely endemic to modern society. The most important thing, for me at least, whilst at university doing thesis work is a good supervisor. I have had friends who had fairly bad ones, even indifferent ones, and they became completely disillusioned with subject.

I'm a Master's student in Theoretical Astrophysics in Australia: My first 'research' project was in year 10 (the grade for 15 year olds). As part of our curriculum every student had to perform their own mini project and write up a report. For mine I determined which types of sponges were the most absorbent. Not super ground breaking stuff but my teacher liked it and suggested that I should consider doing science research rather than teaching (Since at the time I wanted to be a high school science teacher). Then I got into University and started my astrophysics degree. In first year I took an intro computer programming course (Processing if you are interested) where I realised how much I liked programming. So in my spare time I made a few like programs just cause. (Like finding Fibonacci numbers, checking for primes etc...). At my University there are a number of 6 week summer projects available for students that have completed their 2nd year. So at the end of my second year, I knew that I really liked theory and computer science, but I had no real experience with observational astronomy. So I took a summer project that involved reducing data (cleaning the data and making it suitable for science) collected by another PhD student and determined whether the Nebula he was looking at ere good choices for more observations (They weren't). This was the first time I was introduced to Linux (specifically Ubuntu) and using the command line. This project was great as it taught me lots of methods used in modern Astronomy. However I also discovered that I didn't particularly enjoy data reduction much. For my capstone subject (Kinda like a final project class) we have to do a research project. Myself and another student worked together at the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO) on a new type of project involving Outreach. We constructed posters to be displayed at the telescopes, we added information and content to their website and redesigned their public section. { www.aao.gov.au/public } You can check it out here. Next research project come at the end of my third year, where I did another summer project partly at my University partly at the AAO. This project was to basically take brand new data that my supervisor took with a new telescope and work out how the process of data reduction works with this instrument. Although this project again involved data reduction it involved much more programming and writing scripts. I also learn how to use a supercomputer and and write custom python scripts to help with the process. The project ended up okay, we had some complications at the end, but this project really solidified for me that I'd rather be doing theory than observational Astronomy. Now 1 year later, I finished my first year of my Masters (the course work year) and I have now started my masters project in computational astrophysics. Enjoying it so far, and I plan to go onto a PhD.

This just gave me a dose of encouragement... Thx

Just before my November exams last year, I had failed the last 3 tests, after stumbling across one of Simon's vids, I started to get inspired and work hard, practicing as many past papers as possible, I did not have enough time, but I still managed to pass my exams with just higher than average which really surprised me since the head of the maths department at my school told me to drop to lower grade maths and said that I would not be able to write the exams. I could not believe that I did the impossible, I then decided that with I would buy a gr 12 maths book and work through as much as possible during the Christmas holidays, I start school tomorrow and I have already finished half of this giant textbook that I thought would take me decades to finish :) I am going to try get a 70% or 80% this year, I have never done it before, but I guess if you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done, like finish the entire syllabus by March :)

That EPQ thing sounds really cool, wish they had something similar where i was from. My first research experience was 2nd and 3rd yr uni, within my course i had 2 opportunities to do a research internship that was credited as a subject. Prior to that i hadn't particularly enjoyed prac lab classes, so this was my first insight that i would enjoy research (they both involved investigating antibiotic resistance in natural water sources). I then did an honours project (masters equiv. in Aus) in immunolgy/microbiology, specifically whooping cough diagnostic development. Starting my Phd however, was a mega learning curve...i was a little low level for the map i think :P But...almost 2 yrs in now and am feeling pretty good and like i actually kinda know what I'm doing...mayb not quite a level 80, but well on my way :) ( nb my current work is in innate immunity, specifically host pathogen interactions, specifically investigating novel zinc mediated antimicrobial mechanisms...so yeah :) )

Love it! I'm considering the same... Hence I am rather enjoying your 'week in the life'

This was a really interesting video. It is great to learn more about the steps on the way to become a researcher. To be honest I'm thrilled and afraid on the same time of the autonomy that belongs to academia. Maybe your leveling process will help :)

Hey Simon, great video!! 👍 Could you possibly do a future video on how much work is needed to be done in all of the undergraduate years and how different is it from A-levels??

I'm not a researcher, but I'm trying to become one and I'm self-centred enough to give my story so far! So I'm specifically looking to become an academic in pure maths. When I was at school I didn't actually care about maths, but I was good enough at it and had great teachers in the subject since I was five so I applied for a joint degree in maths and music at Leeds. My logic at the time was that the music half would be the creative and enjoyable half and that the maths half would make me look smart to future employers. Like any Brit with an unoriginal sense of adventure, I took a gap year before going but for reasons I still am yet to understand I started to teach myself further maths and to my surprise found it very compelling. The exact moment I knew I wanted to drop the music half of my impending degree was when I read my first proof, that being the proof of e^ipi=-1 using Taylor expansions. I was blown away by its conciseness and the imagination and insight it displayed. The problem I had was that I didn't have the grades for the maths degree. I did have the right grade in maths and I had taught myself further maths over the year, so I had them going for me, but I felt like I needed a little more to impress the department into letting me in. At this time I had just learnt about hyperbolic functions and was really interested in how much they had in common with trigonometric functions, but I hadn't seen any equations directly linking them together. I figured that if I could find that link on my own then Leeds would have to let me onto the course. Fortunately enough I found the link which to my joy used e^itheta as the main tool in the derivation. A snowball effect happened from that where I ended up proving a whole bunch of other things and constructing my own family of functions and their identities. Sure enough I was accepted onto the course. For the first three years of my degree life was great, I had loads of friends and was getting 1sts every year. Then... then fourth year happened. Details omitted, I had financial and health problems in fourth year that led to mental health issues that ate into my grades and my motivation. My fourth year grades were a mix of meh and straight up crap and it brought down my overall grades to a 2:1. I've spent 2 years out of academia now and have somewhat pulled myself together. I make my money as a maths tutor and even get to tutor undergrad courses. I haven't stopped studying either and have learnt a lot of postgraduate maths over these two years and I am finally applying to different unis. Being accepted will be the best moment of my life so far but I'm terrified of being rejected as I simply don't know what I'll do if I am. I'm fucked if that happens. So yeah, wish me luck! Cheers for reading if you did.

My undergrad research was in space plasma. Now I am working in medical physics. You never know where you're going to end up. The most important thing is to find a field that is right for you.

Well I haven't done any research but by dad did along time ago. He researched how the bending of metals affect the industry when he was studying mechanical engineering. If you bend a paperclip to 90 degrees it will always bend back to about 87 degrees. This when operating machines in factories and bending metals for manufacturing was what he researched and got an honors mention for his thesis.

Find this piece of info so helpful thank u so much and waiting for more

Also PhD student :) I came to research in a much more disorganised way haha. After both of my first two years of undergrad I did internships in different areas of engineering (civil and then software), while I enjoyed the work in both I felt like they weren't exactly what I wanted to do. My first experience of research was a group project in my third year which was a collaboration with CERN, resulting in us going to Geneva to present to some of the scientists there. I absolutely loved the experience but didn't think much more of it. That summer I did a structured internship with a huge aerospace company and basically hated everything about working in a big company. I'd picked my masters project just based on the supervisor (whose lecture series I had enjoyed) but in the first term something just clicked, and I realised that research was so much better suited for me than working in a company. I stopped applying for jobs and started frantically applying for last minute PhDs. Several rejections later I hit ridiculously lucky; one of my tutors had had a student drop out mid way through so had a funded project with no candidate, and offered it to me. I gladly accepted. I wish I'd done an EPQ or a more research based internship so that I'd had a less chaotic fourth year haha

Could you please upload these every other week. So vlog one week and have another week off. Also, could you for some of the days in a vlog, could you commentate over what happens in your day whilst you have filmed it previously, like your original day in the life of an Oxford physics student? Also, keep it up. You have grown alot recently and I believed your support is well deserved!

Really appreciate your humble sharing. It is really inspirational and fruitful. Currently, I am an individual who is not knowing what path best suits my career. I graduated in mechanical engineering and possess 14 months of work experience and yet doubtful about the journey I came so far. During the time I was working as a maintenance executive, I came to a realization that I lack the competencies and interest that one needs to be successful in the corporate sector. And most importantly, from my inside, there was always a need for joining a research career. I resigned. Now I am also searching for information about researchers.

I'm hopefully going to do Psychology and behavioural sciences at Cambridge! or if that doesn't work I'm extremely interested by the PPLE course at the University of Amsterdam! you have definitely helped me decide that this is the way forward for me! could you also do a video on your EPQ specifically as that is something I wish to do next year and it would really help! loving the videos ❤

Very inspiring story. I was a computer science student (Manchester 1982-1985), then relocated to LA, USA became a computer programmer/analyst, then CGI technical director. This year, I took early retirement - I’m now 57. My passion is PPE for extreme sports (let’s say motorcycling, electric unicycling, paragliding). My area of interest for research is materials for PPE, impact/abrasion, cut, tear, seams. My hero is Dr Roderick Woods who developed CE/EN tests while at Cambridge. I’m not really interested in formal university education but I’d like my research to be scientifically valid. So, I’m not in the academic sphere. I’m honestly not sure how to categorize what I’m doing. It’s easier to tell you why and what I’m doing: Question: how well do material or material combinations during drop-testing on real-world road surfaces? Hypothesis: multiple layers are better than any single layer. Test method: drop-test samples onto a road surface from a moving platform. Drop height (10mm, 50mm and 1000mm) at platform speed 30km/h. Results: inspect test samples visually and for damage (abrasion, cuts, tears) and by weight (material loss). There’s a lot more to it. But that’s enough to go on for now.

I found this video really interesting and helpful. I'm studying to get a degree in Physics in Spain and I would love to become a researcher. I'm a bit concerned about grades, because I don't have bad grades but they certainly could be much better. However, I'm more confident about the hard work (time and effort part) because I don't have any problem with that, since I love what I'm studying. I hope I'll be able to do it despite not having extraordinary marks at uni.

Hey Simon! I loved your video. I wish you best of luck in your future research projects and I am glad you discovered what you wanted to do. I just recently started as an undergraduate at my university, and I would like to know, what are your sources of inspiration or motivation? I see you are a very self-driven person and it keeps me wondering how do you manage to avoid "mental stall" times, procrastination and/or desmotivation during the process of making a research.

I'll have an interview for the position of researcher two days later. This video is so useful to me.

I am so happy to find some one like you doing youtube videos on your daily routines as a Phd student. You are motivational! I am from the states, graduated from university on December and thinking about going for my Phd in the near future. I worked in computational biology lab for quite sometime but I become more interested in bench research and the fact I don't have experience with bench research got me to consider post- bacc program( it is 1 -2 years program designed for undergrads in preparing toward getting into Phd) which I am going to attend in a few months. Is there a program similar to post-bacc in the UK?

Soon-to-be PhD student here. I went about things a bit backwards to what most folks do, I suppose. Got my undergraduate degree and did internships in the film business (visual effects). Had some other careers after that, including the military and travel writing, before landing in Ireland and getting my MA. Will be embarking on a PhD in media studies, with a focus on building diversity into the production pipeline. I want to circle back around to the film (and TV, gaming, and VR/AR) industry helping to create policies that support inclusion and representation. Working as freelancer and contractor in various capacities over the years has definitely influenced my preference not to be a 9-5 worker. Autonomy is a big factor, as is my interest in media creation and equality. Several family members have PhDs in maths and sciences, but it wasn't a lifestyle I was at all familiar with. Definitely a learning curve, this academia stuff, not to mention the cultural differences between universities here and the US. Enjoying your videos, Simon. Helping to ease me into the academic mindset a bit. Would love it if you'd borrow a friend from some humanities discipline to talk about their PhD experiences. Cheers!

Very great channel.. love your success story.. very motivating.

I got here from the ReligionForBreakfast channel and glad to have found a fellow researcher on KZfaq! Sooner or later, I'll make a video on my academic journey on my channel as well. Thanks for sharing your interesting journey.