"Those personality types are pretty accurate, on a normal day I need the three type of skills to go forward. Being an innovator is an essential skill to get stuff moving and pushing forward my research agenda. I need to be a campaigner when lecturing, understanding what my students need and convincing to expand knowledge in the contents of my lectures. And I need to be a developer to push forward projects, basically we are all a blend of different personality types that complement each other. Some people do not realise that although I appear a natural when speaking in public and dealing with large and small groups, I am really shy, but I enjoy getting jobs done and convincing others. So no matter what your barriers are, they are mostly in your mind, with training and passion we always can improve who we are. Science is for everyone! "

"I work in a research intensive university and my passion is doing research in chemistry. I like to blend theory models and experimental data to explain how chemical reactions happen. Planning experiments, writing grant projects and papers, preparing presentations, are my daily job. I also give lectures to large audiences and mentor students in small groups, the most rewarding part is mentoring one-to-one research students. Being a witness of how someone without previous research knowledge becomes an expert and is entusiastic with their project is amazing! The other wow moment is as a part of a team when we discover something new, or we validate an hypothesis, it is a great feeling. Although this job has high levels of rejection a stress, its plus side totally overcompensates the negatives. The starting salary at this role is 40k-45k, but later on as the career progresses it goes up to 60k-90k at a Prof level. "

"Well my trick was to keep my options open for as long as I could! During my studies I worked in multiple summer jobs to cover my expenses, from being a factory line worker to baby-sitting kids, etc. All this experiences blended my personality and helped me to realise what I wanted. I started studying chemistry at the University but without having a clear goal of ending up in an academic career. All I knew is that liked to do research. So I tried to make the most of the opportunities that I got over the years. I did an Erasmus in The Netherlands doing biochemistry research, later on I started my PhD in computational chemistry. After finishing the PhD I came to Glasgow to work in a mostly experimental group and I never left! Basically I tried to make the most of the opportunities I had keeping in mind that my main goal was doing research. It has not been a smooth ride, there have been ups and downs like any other career path. Over the years I have been really lucky to share time with extremely talented colleagues that inspire me every day. I am a privileged to be able to make the difference and impact so many people.I was lucky to have great role models within my family, my three elder cousins did choose careers in STEM subjects (biology, geology and pharmacy) and were a great inspiration when I was younger. My mother and my sister also inspire me, in particular my full -time working mother of three bad-ass mum that I am lucky to have! And my sister who is the 'real-doctor' in my family. Of course my engineer brother and dad had an influence on who I am. Over my career I have meet excellent professionals, male and female, that mentored me and helped to grow personally and professionally. "

"The life I have is pretty glamorous sometimes, forget the 'crazy scientist' stereotype, we travel a lot to visit other colleagues and attend conferences in really nice places (for work I have been in San Francisco, Japan, Paris, Canary Islands, etc.). Of course I love to get my hands dirty and do an experiment in the lab, with is really rewarding. We also interact with audiences at a different levels, from interviews with journalists when doing outreach to a night club doing 'stand up'. There are many opportunities out there for everyone interested in science, we need as many people with different backgrounds and personality types to find creative solutions to complex scientific problems. "

"There is not typical day. Since I am an early career researcher my main goal is to obtain funding to kick-start my research, so I spend a lot of time writing grants and projects applying to research councils. I also spend time teaching and learning how to teach. Planning experiments and directing projects. Convincing colleagues that my research is interesting, finding collaborators, coaching students. There are lots and lots of little tasks that constitute a 'typical day'. Overall is good fun, there are tedious tasks like answering minions of emails, keeping up with the literature, but this will happen in any job. "

"Basically I did a Masters and a PhD in chemistry, this is the typical research path career. It is not as scary as it sounds, being passionate and focused is key. The first step is getting a degree in any STEM subject, the world will be your oyster after that. "