Job Satisfaction – answers to the exercise

Answers

Answers by numbers:

1 field – e line of work
2 deluding – n kidding (informal)
3 all sorts of – c so many
4 proves correct – l turns out right
5 understood / grasped – h got
6 too hard for them to understand g beyond them
7 more satisfying occupation – f better job
8 finance – b fund
9 courses of action or thinking which lead nowhere – k blind alleys
10 often – j frequently
11 work things out systematically – d think things through
12 my own decision – i up to me
13 investigating – a exploring
14 demanding – o challenging
15 complete – m total

Answers by letters:

a 13 exploring
b 8 fund
c 3 so many
d 11 think things through
e 1 line of work
f 7 better job
g 6 beyond them
h 5 got
i 12 up to me
j 10 frequently
k 9 blind alleys
l 4 turns out right
m 15 total
n 2 kidding informal
o 14 challenging

Full text:

Mandy Munroe is a biochemist.
"In my line of work ¹, which is scientific research, it’s never predictable. If you think you know where you are going to be in 6 months time you are doing dull science! If you can say ‘I think I’ll still be working in this area’, or if you can sit down and plan a schedule for the next 6 months, you’re kidding ² yourself. If you think you can plan the next 4 weeks, you’re kidding yourself! The idea of the unpredictable is quite addictive."

 

Philip Blake, engineer
"There are so many ³ different ‘best things’! It’s great when you have an idea of how something works, and you make a prediction that turns out right ⁴. It’s great when you do a popular talk, and people understand something that they’ve never got ⁵ before – that’s a lovely feeling. Also it’s great when you’re sitting in an audience at a conference, or just thinking to yourself, and you get one of those elated moments as you hear something brand new."

 

Jennifer Attwood graduated in 2002 and now works as a bio-informatician.
"I enjoy both teaching and research. I teach students who are typically in their final year. They have amassed a lot of information, a lot of knowledge. They come to my mathematical subjects anxious and find it very difficult initially. But one of the most enjoyable things is seeing them succeed, having learnt something that they thought was beyond them ⁶. Research is different from teaching because it is continually challenging and evolving. The sense of achievement exists as it does with teaching but it is different. It’s your chance to have some intellectual fun!"

 

Julie Morrison, employed as an Events Organiser.
"I enjoy the whole thing. I wake up on a Monday morning and I think, ‘Great! It’s Monday’. I just go into work and start the day solving practical problems, as opposed to other people telling me what to work on. This is very nice. I can’t think of a better job ⁷ to be honest."

 

Mike McPherson works as a marine biologist.
"Every day there’s a challenge – some reason to come in and make a bit more progress on something you’re interested in doing. Also there’s a sufficient number of other people who feel it’s important, who will fund ⁸ you to do it. I try not to disappear down blind alleys ⁹ that no-one’s interested in."

 

Afsaneh Nazeer – employed as a medical epidemiologist.
"I think it’s the fact that you have the freedom to work on what you want to work on. I don’t know many people who get excited about going in to work. Admittedly it doesn’t happen every day, but it happens quite frequently ¹⁰. You get excited about having an idea, and having the time and freedom to think things through ¹¹. I’m doing what I’m interested in, rather than having to do specific tasks. So many jobs are repetitive, and so this freedom is quite a rare thing."

 

Jon Fallon, biochemist
"The best thing probably is that it’s up to me ¹² what I’m going to do that day. I’m my own boss in terms of my research and so I let it go in directions I’m interested in exploring ¹³. Sometimes you’ve got to do boring jobs in order to get to the interesting work, but it’s nice that I determine the direction my research goes in."

 

James Cooke – teacher, recently appointed Head of Sciences at a school in Darlington
"I’m lucky, I never go home dreading going back the next day. Teaching is fun, challenging ¹⁴, exciting. I like the whole teaching environment! You need to have a passion, and to be something of a people person. And you need to trust your colleagues, to have a good team."

 

Pauline Wood lives and works in Birmingham.
"The intellectual freedom – I can think about anything I want. I can write articles about the research we do, about educational projects we lead, about the philosophical thinking behind the science we do (which can highlight both good and bad!) – I have total ¹⁵ freedom."