All too often the choice of a scientific career or the decision to take a higher research degree is based on default. Perhaps you have a good Bachelor's or Master's degree, and you found the degree course reasonably enjoyable. After much deliberation, you still have no clear idea of the career you should pursue. Your friends are planning a Ph.D., you have the qualifications and your mentor may be quite persuasive (particularly if the department has to fill its quota award of studentships), so a Ph.D. seems like a reasonable option. The prospects of poor pay, a few horror stories of long hours and the possibility of many months with no results may dampen your enthusiasm, but in the absence of a suitable alternative, a higher degree seems a reasonable, or even an attractive option.

This is clearly not the best way to enter research, which is at best demanding, but rewarding, and at worst demoralising and unrewarding. Nevertheless, some who take this step with little commitment are still ‘caught by the bug’ and go on to be very successful scientists. Even the many who complete their Ph.D., but decide that research is not the career for them, should have benefited from the breadth and depth of training they receive and skills they acquire – even though they may not recognise it at the time.