• Question: Do you feel pressured when you make a mistake

    Asked by dahs497raft49 on 18 Feb 2026. This question was also asked by feds532agha26, upon532wove24.
    • Photo: Amrit Phull

      Amrit Phull answered on 18 Feb 2026:

      There is always a little bit of pressure when you get something wrong, but making mistakes is a big part of learning! In Engineering, we’re really careful to check each other’s work, so its easy to have discussions and catch mistakes early on. If you catch a mistake early, there is no harm at all. The danger comes when mistakes aren’t caught and end up in a finished product

    • Photo: Georgia Rowe

      Georgia Rowe answered on 19 Feb 2026:

      Making mistakes is an important part of science. Sometimes you discover something that you might not have tried before. A failed experiment is always a good experiment because you can learn from it.

    • Photo: Nazia Bannister

      Nazia Bannister answered on 20 Feb 2026:

      Not pressured as such. We try to find out how the mistake happens and then we fix it. My team is great at supporting each other to do this. But no-one gets ‘told off’ or anything like that. As long as you show you have learned form the mistake and try not to do it again, it is fine

    • Photo: Daniel Chernick

      Daniel Chernick answered on 20 Feb 2026:

      I think the really great thing about being a scientist is that everyone wants to learn. I’ve made a lot of mistakes during my PhD, but it’s always been a great learning opportunity. Same thing with my work at the Environment Agency. When I first started I was so terrified of making a mistake, but whenever I did, the people around me reassured me that it’s part of the process!

    • Photo: Michael Gillin

      Michael Gillin answered on 20 Feb 2026:

      Nothing will ever be achieved if you never make mistakes! One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard was that failure is the greatest teacher, and that is very true in science.

      In chemistry, making mistakes is an important part of developing your competence in the laboratory to make sure that you can work more safely and quickly. Similarly, if you are wrong about something relating to theory, making that mistake will help you identify gaps in your knowledge so you know what to improve on.

      Mistakes are very common in science, so you will often receive a lot of support from your colleagues if you make one. As long as you can learn from your mistakes and avoid making the same mistakes in the future, you can be a very good scientist while making errors!

    • Photo: Mark Ridgill

      Mark Ridgill answered on 25 Feb 2026:

      It’s obviously not ideal but I try to be professional and grown up about it. I own up straight away and work out how to rectify the error. When I spot a mistake from others I point it out to them in a non-judgemental way – we’re all human!

    • Photo: Pratibha Gautam

      Pratibha Gautam answered on 26 Feb 2026:

      Sometimes yes, I think “Oh, I’ve made a mistake” but then my next question is how can I solve it. is it reversible? what will happen now? Can I redo the work? or should I completely discard whatever I was doing? Sometimes, there’s nothing you can do, then you hope for the best and learn to try and not make that mistake again. Remember every great discovery was once considered an accident, which we learn from and move on. Dont let the pressure get onto you. Just think, Oh no, I did something wrong but now how can I correct it? Always look for solution rather than worrying about the problem.

    • Photo: Santosh Mahabala

      Santosh Mahabala answered on 27 Feb 2026:

      Not really, but I feel happy when I understand what mistake I made, it makes me learn and stops me from doing the same mistake again.

    • Photo: Robbie Lynch

      Robbie Lynch answered on 4 Mar 2026:

      So I work in a manufacturing environment and that means that things are moving fast and mistakes lead to financial consequences as well as consequences for the customers. I have learned over the year that mistakes are often caused by pressure and not the other way around. So the answer is yes but if the enviornment you work in is healthy then this can be overcome.

    • Photo: Amelia Loustas-Cooke

      Amelia Loustas-Cooke answered on 10 Mar 2026:

      I think it is normal to feel embarrassed and/or under pressure when you make a mistake but unfortunately it is always going to happen! You need to make sure you own up to it, discuss with your colleagues and try come to a solution 🙂

    • Photo: Olivia Williams

      Olivia Williams answered on 10 Mar 2026:

      I do but also mistakes are how we learn, so I remind myself this too. Also others you work with can help you pick up on things like this so as long as it is caught early, there is no need to feel pressure 🙂

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