What is it like to be a researcher?

I must point out that everyone has different experiences and it is different for everyone. When transitioning between being a student to being a researcher, I noticed several things. Here are my observations and experiences:

1. You become comfortable, yet not content, with not knowing things. We research things because they are unknown. There is no known answer and it is up to you to figure it out, or at least make some sense of what you see. Things do not always turn out how you plan or even predict. This can also be a good thing if it tells you more about how things really work.
   
2. You may not come up with a catch-all "answer". Sometimes you can only rule out other things that may happen. This can be nearly as useful as a complete answer. For example, for my experiments, x-ray diffraction is not good at telling me whether I just have Cu2ZnSnS4 or if I have a mixture of Cu2ZnSnS4 and ZnS. It is still a useful technique because it can tell me about when and whether other phases form and can give me kinetic information on many of the reactions that can take place in the film, but it does not give me a complete answer. I can use other techniques to make up for this limitation and can still get some good information from the technique. 
3. Questions can be more fascinating than answers, since they lead to more questions, which allow you to reach more complete answers. I have been recently reading some papers that talk about the crystal structure of Cu2NiSnS4. Several papers say that it is cubic, whereas one paper says that their material was of a wurtzite (hexagonal) structure and all have data to back up their claims. Why are these different groups seeing different things?
4. Other people will know things that you do not. This does not make you stupid or mean that you are less intelligent. It is just an opportunity to learn more and see how you can use what you know to help them and how you can use what you learn from other people. Questions are a sign of an active, agile mind. 

   

   Photo from Travelated

5. The pictures that you see in the media and group websites depicting scientists at work are often hilarious. In our efforts to get as many people on a research team into pictures and appear cool and cutting edge, poses often look funny from other angles. You often end up with photos of yourself staring intently at steel blocks that do nothing. If the photo were taken from any other angle, it would look ridiculous. Also, you don't always work with shiny new equipment. Sometimes the old stuff works better or you already have old equipment on hand that suits your purposes just fine. Sometimes you just need to creatively make something from what you have available. Scientists have budgets, too.