• Question: do you work on your own or as a team?

    Asked by superstar to Pete, Natalie, Keith, Abbey, Aaron on 10 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Aaron Boardley

      Aaron Boardley answered on 10 Nov 2015:

      I work in a team – we all come up with ideas together and then share the workload.

      I write alone, but then get another team member to check and edit my work . Similarly, I will check and edit other people’s work. It’s useful to help each other out and share ideas.

      I think I’ve always preferred working alone on individual bits of work, just getting my head down and getting on with it. But it’s nice to be in an office with so many people to motivate and encourage you. It’s good to have team meetings to brainstorm ideas and to make sure we’re all working towards the same goal.

      Do you prefer teamwork or working alone? Or does it depend on what the task is?

    • Photo: Peter Burgess

      Peter Burgess answered on 10 Nov 2015:

      I do both.
      Most of the analysis I prepare is just me working in it, but the reason I make these charts and tables and so on is so I can find out what needs looking at on our solar farms. My boss needs to know how everything is getting on, and I need to tell the folks who actually go on to the sites what I want them to take a look at.

    • Photo: Natalie Garrett

      Natalie Garrett answered on 11 Nov 2015:

      A bit of both. My current project involves me spending a lot of time by myself in the laboratory, making samples to investigate under the microscope, and then analysing the data. This work is all independent. But after that’s done, I have to present the data in a way that is understandable to people who do other things for the same project (for instance, pharmacists from other universities who make the nanoparticles that I track in the samples). We all discuss the work together and come up with new ideas in our meetings.

      In addition to working with people at other universities, I also work with other people from Exeter. My work is a small part of the whole research that’s being done by other Biomedical Physicists, and we all meet once a week to talk about our various projects and help each other when we get stuck on a problem (and that happens quite often!)

      I also help to train people when they join the research group, so that they know how to use the various pieces of equipment, and learn what the procedures are in the lab.

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