Good uplifting answer. But it is for what can lead to a hobby, rather than a career. Even certificates from MOOCs won't lead to a job in science, researcher or not.
Even certificates from MOOCs won't lead to a job in science, researcher or not.
That depends on how tightly you define "science". If you mean "science in traditional academia, working for/at a major research university or research consortium" then you are almost certainly correct. But if you expand the definition to include the corporate world, and roles that maybe aren't pure research, then I would argue that you can get a job doing science with less "paper credentials" than one might expect.
Whether or not that would/could apply to anything related to QC, I'm not sure, as I don't work in (or even really near) the QC domain. But to pick one example: in terms of machine learning / AI, I've definitely seen it. But maybe AI/ML is an exception to everything else just because it is (at the present) such an empirical / observation / experiment based domain.
Outside of all of that is the notion of "create your own job". If you want to be a researcher in Field X, start a company related to Field X and hire yourself. And, no, I don't intend that to be a glib answer, and I certainly acknowledge that it A. isn't easy, and B. is probably harder / easier in some domains than in others.
That depends on how tightly you define "science". If you mean "science in traditional academia, working for/at a major research university or research consortium" then you are almost certainly correct. But if you expand the definition to include the corporate world, and roles that maybe aren't pure research, then I would argue that you can get a job doing science with less "paper credentials" than one might expect.
Whether or not that would/could apply to anything related to QC, I'm not sure, as I don't work in (or even really near) the QC domain. But to pick one example: in terms of machine learning / AI, I've definitely seen it. But maybe AI/ML is an exception to everything else just because it is (at the present) such an empirical / observation / experiment based domain.
Outside of all of that is the notion of "create your own job". If you want to be a researcher in Field X, start a company related to Field X and hire yourself. And, no, I don't intend that to be a glib answer, and I certainly acknowledge that it A. isn't easy, and B. is probably harder / easier in some domains than in others.