Is a career in research worth the pressure?
Hello! I’m a senior in high school, and since the beginning of high school, I’ve been involved in some sort of bench science. It started off with just a summer program learning wet lab techniques, but led me to work under science programs and intern in a research lab where I’ve had the amazing opportunity to start my own independent sub-project. I feel like I’m drawn to research because I’m I love the idea of learning unsolved questions and just the excitement of experiments and just research in general (just inexplicable to be honest!). I’ve been looking more into a career in research, and as I look more into it, I feel that there will be a lot more pressure for me (for example, for a PhD, many committees expect to have positive result and to get funding as a PI you need them as well). I feel like this sort of detracts from my excitement of research. I feel that the failures are just important as the successes, and it kind of demotivates me to see that I’m forced to work only for positive results and adds that sort of pressure (that I don’t feel now because I’m not obviously expected to produce a massive breakthrough). I was wondering whether anyone has any opinions on whether this added stress is worth it? I’d also love to hear your thoughts about your own personal experiences!
Posted Mar 5, 2026, 2:38 AM UTC