Gangotri Dey, studying quantum chemistry at the Tyndall Institute

What were the main ‘career decision’ milestones in your life so far?

Choosing to do chemistry at the University of Calcutta in India was very a big challenge. The days were very tough. It did not have the juicy flavour of college life that I had heard of from school days. But the things that I learnt during those three years helped me shape my future.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

Yes it does. The choice and flexibility with which I can work is very good. I just need a computer or else sometimes just a pen and a paper for my work. No need for a million dollar machine to carry out my experiments.

How did you go about getting your current job?

I had subscribed in a site Schloarships.com. They used to send me email alerts regarding PhD opening all over the world. From there I came to know about this opening in Tyndall National Institute in Computational Chemistry.

Describe a typical day

It will begin by coming to the desk: looking at the running calculations to check whether they are going OK. Doing a literature survey. Reading about them. Sometimes attending a group meeting or discussing something important with the supervisor.

What are the main challenges?

Reading literature and keeping yourself up to date with the latest information in your work area is very important. Since I work in collaboration with an industry, to meet their targets sometimes becomes very difficult.

What’s cool?

Working from home, office, abroad etc. You can work probably from anywhere in the world if you have a computer with an internet connection. I am from India, and when I go home for a month’s break or so, I can work from there too. You can let your imagination flow wherever you go.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

I am a diligent person. I am very particular about what I do and how I can reap the result from it. In science, most of the time what you need is a lot of presence of mind and common sense combined with hard work.

What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?

I did English, Bengali (my mother tongue), history, geography, math, chemistry, physics, computers and biology. If it had been possible, I would have learned another foreign language like German or Spanish.

What is your education to date?

Masters completed from University of Poona with first class. Currently I am pursuing a PhD at Tyndall National Institute in Cork.

What aspects of your education have proven most important for your job?

Chemistry, maths and English. These are the basic things that I learnt which helped me to shape my career. Having knowledge of BASIC (computer language) also helped me later in my career.

What personal qualities do you have that helps you in your career?

Ambitious, organised and sometimes outspoken. You need to be a good speaker, otherwise it’s difficult for you to communicate your research.

What is your dream job?

To become the Minister for Science so that people can pursue science in a better way.

Maeve O'Neill, Biochemist

What were the main ‘career decision’ milestones in your life so far?

What to study for A-Level (equivalent to Leaving Cert)? What to study at university? Where to go for my industrial placement year? What to do after my degree? What to do when I got back from travelling the world? What to do after my PhD?

Who influenced your career direction?

My career has most been influenced by my family and close friends/colleagues. A friend can tell you what you are good at, a good friend can tell you what you are not so good at and matching your skills to a particular job is vital to do well.

Careers counsellors at universities have also been an invaluable source of information – they can’t find you a position but they can suggest ways you can help yourself.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

Yes. I work in an international interdisciplinary environment. It is young and the work is fast-paced and research groups are always evolving. I choose what hours I work so I can fit in events and appointments (but I still have to get the job done).

It’s not the best-paid job in the world and can be frustrating at times, but I don’t know so many of my friends who love going to work every day quite as much as I do.

How did you go about getting your current job?

I worked out what areas of chemistry I wanted to work in, narrowed down my country of choice (to Ireland) and looked at the profiles of all the researchers there.

When I sorted out who I wanted to work for I wrote him a speculative letter of application. Within a month he had invited me for an interview, we had talked science for a few hours and he had offered me a position in his research team.

Describe a typical day

A typical day starts at 8 (but I do choose my working hours so the early start is my own fault). I am often setting up an experiment which will run for a few hours and in the meantime I will be looking at the results of a previous experiment (it is common to have several experiments running at the same time).

Then I might get a coffee and drink it while ordering supplies on the computer for the students in the lab. If I have time, I will set up the analysis of the first experiment to run over lunch.

In the second half of the day I might have a meeting with a professor about lecturing responsibilities, or with a PhD student to help them overcome problems in their work before squeezing in a quick coffee break and planning the experiments for the following day, leaving the any time between 5 and 7.

What are the main tasks and responsibilities?

My job is to be a researcher. I am employed to plan, execute, analyse and write up my experiments to achieve goals and make novel scientific discoveries in a given research area.

I spend a lot of my time troubleshooting. Additionally as a postdoctoral researcher I am expected to help the PhD and masters students both in the lab and out of it with their work and all work-related issues. On top of this, I lecture to first-year undergraduate students and give tutorials to second-year undergraduates.

What are the main challenges?

Self motivation! Motivating yourself is easy when the work is going well but staying focused is difficult after days or even weeks or not getting a positive result for an experiment and not knowing why.

But that is soon forgotten and all the effort is proven to be worthwhile when it is possible to (eventually) work out the solution to your problem.

What’s cool?

It’s cool knowing that some of the science on programmes like “CSI” is not possible. I love helping others overcome a problem and working out the solution as a team.

What’s not so cool?

Not knowing how long the job will last for. A lot of research is on fixed-term contracts and there is a lot of pressure to publish and to get results within a set timeframe.

You can be the best scientist in the world (am I’m far from it!) and sometimes you just need a little luck to get that result.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

Organisation; self-motivation; discipline; communication; teamwork; a sense of humour.

What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?

For A Levels (equivalent to Leaving Cert, except we only study three or four subjects) I studied chemistry, English, mathematics and physics. I chose subjects I enjoyed and was good at, but that also gave me as broad an opportunity as possible for the next decisions.

This meant I could go into science, but also engineering or medicine or even maths/accounting. Sometimes it’s important to see what careers you are cutting off by your choices as well as what you are leaving as a viable option.

These subjects all helped me in my current role. Maybe biology would have been beneficial too but I didn’t really like it at school so I knew I would find it difficult to apply myself.

I went on to do a Bachelor of Science in Medicinal Chemistry with a year in industry (spent at a pharmaceutical company in Germany) at Queen’s University Belfast for four years, followed by a PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of Manchester (three years).

What aspects of your education have proven most important for your job?

You need to have a Bachelor degree (with either a first-class honours or a 2.1) in chemistry/biochemistry/biotechnology and often a research masters degree. It is very important, if possible, to go to a university which well-known in your area of study.

You also need to have a PhD to do my job. For this it’s very important, if possible, to work for a “big name” in your area of science as this affords a lot of opportunities.

Do you plan to undertake any further training as part of your job?

Training is ongoing during both the PhD and postdoc. If a new piece of equipment has to be used to analyse results then I need to be trained in it, both to understand how it works on a practical level but also the theory behind the machine.

In research groups it is often the postdoc/PhD who will first try to fix the machine when it breaks before calling an expensive technician.

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

Just finishing a degree course with a good qualification is a notable achievement. I am proud to have completed my PhD as it can be a difficult task.

But I’ve also been involved in organising conferences and giving lectures to undergraduates and science peers, sharing my love of science.

What personal qualities do you have that helps you in your career?

Organisation, self-reliance, determination, motivation, good at communicating, problem solving.

What is your dream job?

I would love to own a teashop. I love cooking and baking (it’s chemistry but in the kitchen) and to own my own business would be a dream come true but I don’t think I could bake for profit as I like taking good ingredients and making them into delicious cakes and treats and I couldn’t cut the flavour in favour of cost.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

This job is not the easiest in the world. Every day there are challenges and work to be getting on with.

You would need to be interested in how things work to be a postdoctoral fellow. You would need to be prepared to go to university for up to eight years (but you do get paid for doing a PhD) and enjoy science.

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

Working in a lab of any sort.

What were the main ‘career decision’ milestones in your life so far?

Daniela Quaglia, Chemical biologist

I started to be interested in science when I was very young. I guess it was my curiosity towards understanding how things work that brought me to think of a career in chemistry.

The first important milestone was selecting “Liceo Scientifico” for my high school. In Italy this is a school which covers mathematics, physics, natural sciences, chemistry and informatics as main subjects, but also gives you a deep background in general culture with subjects such as Italian and English literature, history, philosophy, Latin.

All these subjects helped me to open and shape my mind. To be a scientist is only about being an expert in scientific matters: to me it means developing a mind that is shaped towards curiosity and the will to learn and understand. It is a way to live.

Important events in my life included my summers studying in schools abroad, far from home and learning new languages (Dublin, Boston, San Francisco for my English, Valencia for my Spanish). Understanding other cultures through the language of their people can be an important factor in opening your mind. Furthermore in a globalised world it seems to me of fundamental importance for whichever job to at least try and speak more than one language.

One of the greatest milestones was of course the choice of my university course: Chemistry for my Bachelor Degree and Chemistry of Biological Molecules for my Masters Degree, both in Universita’ degli Studi di Firenze, Italy.

For my Masters thesis I decided to move to Dublin. Collaboration in the scientific world is extremely important. I therefore spent seven months in Dublin working on a project in collaboration with my university in Italy to develop potential antibacterial agents. This experience was very positive and I decided to remain in Dublin afterwards.

I was awarded funding from IRCSET for a three-year PhD in Chemical Biology. At the moment I am at the end of my second year.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

To be a PhD researcher means no fixed working hours. You might start at 9am, but the time you go home will strongly depend on the experiment you are carrying out. Sometimes you might end up working weekends. On the other hand, you have all the freedom you want, meaning that if you want to take 10 minutes to go and grab a coffee nobody will tell you that you cannot. It all depends on your ability to be focused and professional and knowing when you need to work on what and not to end up losing precious time.

Your family will need to understand this lack of fixed schedule. Family is very important to me and I always find time for them. I live with my partner so in the evenings we are always together and I spend my free time with him and sometimes with our friends. It is easier to keep in touch with family back home compared with five to10 years ago, thanks to Skype and cheaper flight tickets.

I always find time for my hobbies: Spanish and French lessons, tennis and golf. But if you want to keep up with your favourite activities remember that you will have a very busy life trying to fit everything into your schedule.

The pay for a PhD student/researcher is quite low. You can manage to have a small apartment (if you live with your partner and share the expenses) or a nice room in a house-share with other people). The PhD life is not a luxury life, but you can manage pretty well. There is security as long as you finish your PhD on time, but once the term is over, you have to be sure of having secured a little of spare money to keep you going in case you need more time for writing up your thesis or during the time you will not work if you don’t find a job straight away after you finish.

There are loads of opportunities, but you have to try and create them yourself. Nobody will offer them to you on a silver plate. Your progress will depend totally on yourself, but you can always seek the advice of your supervisor and the people you work with.

How did you go about getting your current job?

One of the most important things to keep in mind for science (and not only science) is that you must be proactive. The jobs, opportunities and challenges will never come to you – you have to look for them.

I’m here today doing my PhD because I have been proactive. I first of all opened up contact between my university in Italy and University College Dublin when I was looking to do my stage for my masters thesis in Dublin.

Once I got to know UCD and the people who work there, I asked my supervisor Dr Francesca Paradisi if she would like to apply with me for IRCSET funding. She agreed, we applied and we got the funding.

When I saw that I was in the list of people who received the grants I could not believe it – one of my biggest dreams had come true.

Describe a typical day

I usually arrive at work around 9am and check the plan for the day. Some days I will be all day in the laboratory performing experiments, on other days I’ll be busy reading up the literature or learning new techniques or theories from books to then apply to my research.

Or other times I will be busy writing up my thesis, a paper or an abstract for a conference presentation. I also need to follow some courses to get enough credits for my PhD.

One thing I do every day is to report my experiments into my lab book. To write up everything you do is very important for a scientist: your lab book is an important legal document that collects all the data you will eventually publish in a scientific journal.

I am also a demonstrator and tutor for undergraduate students between September and April each year. I adore teaching the students. It is very rewarding when you see that they learned something from you.

What are the main tasks and responsibilities?

My responsibility is to get the job done on time. I am at the same time responsible for teaching undergraduates, helping in the housekeeping of the laboratory, and helping other PhD researchers who started working after me.

A scientist has to be organised and able to work on several tasks at the same time.

What are the main challenges?

To cope with time. As a scientist you must be precise, professional and quick at the same time.

What’s cool?

When your experiment works it’s the coolest thing in the world. To be able to obtain results and that these results are reproducible makes you feel that you are doing the right thing, building something important, no matter how small.

To see somebody else learning from you (e.g. an undergrad) is the most rewarding feeling of all.

Then there are experiments that I like most such as PCR (polymerase chain reaction) or gene cloning. It is really very cool to perform them.

What’s not so cool?

When your experiment fails. When you are stressed because it seems there’s never enough time to complete your job. When you have to come back to finish your experiments during the weekend, sometimes it can be very heavy.

There are some experiments as a researcher you like most and some others that you can’t stand. The experiment I like least is protein purification: it involves a very long and tedious day of work that never ends, during which I don’t even have time to go for lunch.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

My background in organic chemistry and biochemistry is really fundamental. My mathematics skills are very useful. To speak many languages is a cool advantage. Fundamental qualities are patience, organisation, creativity and passion.

I know many people hate mathematics, but I would suggest you to select this course because if you want to be a scientist, to have a good mathematics basis really helps a lot (even if you are doing biology).

What is your dream job?

To become a university professor and work on a relevant research in the field of chemical biology or biotechnology. On the other hand I have another dream in my drawer to become a science journalist.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

Be passionate about science, organised, creative, devoted to your job and professional. You need to be strongly motivated and self determined. There are times when things go wrong and you’d like to change your life completely and not to have started in the first place. You need to be able to overcome those feelings and go on, no matter what.

Most important: do not feel forced into choosing something just because somebody else tells you to do so or because you think there are bigger job opportunities in the area. Do what you like – only in this way will you succeed.

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

Spending some months in a chemical laboratory.

Brian O'Connor - Analytical chemist

What have been your main “career decision” milestones so far?

When I was 15, I moved to the United States to live with my father after I completed my Junior Certificate. I always planned on being a doctor of medicine from an early age, and this didn’t change when I got to America.

In the States though, you have to complete an undergraduate degree first. So I chose chemistry, while completing a minor study in biology and maths.

I fell in love with chemistry and switched plans, deciding to go to graduate school in chemistry. I completed my Masters of Science later at the University of California in Los Angeles.

Who most influenced your career direction?

Perhaps the biggest influences in choosing chemistry were my undergraduate professors, Dr Naylor and Bunde.

They both had such a passion for chemistry, which I couldn’t understand at first because I felt that all people hated chemistry or that you couldn’t learn to love such a subject.

Their passion for it rubbed off on me and I too learned to love the subject.

Chemistry is a great subject because everything around you is chemistry. The more you can understand it the more you enjoy it.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

Yes. Wyeth is a great company to work for and they ensure that employees have a good work/life balance.

I find that I get good time off and I don’t see work interfering with my personal life too much. I also get to travel quite freely and love to hit other spots around Europe.

I’ve been very fortunate at Wyeth to have progressed through several levels since being here, and I am now manager of the raw materials lab after joining as an analyst.

How did you go about getting your current job?

While still living in America I heard that Wyeth were opening a plant in Clondalkin, where I grew up. I was excited about the prospect of actually working in a biotech plant in Clondalkin.

I applied online, then when I moved back to Ireland I went to an assessment centre which also included an interview, some role-playing and aptitude tests. I was called soon after and was told that I’d got the job.

Describe a typical day

My typical day involves taking part in a lot of different meetings with people from around the site. As manager of my area it is important that I am always planning ahead for what new activities may be coming into the group.

Some of the meetings are for this planning while others deal with day-to-day activities in the lab. I talk to my supervisors daily to discuss any issues in the lab.

What are the main tasks and responsibilities?

Ensuring that we release raw materials in time to keep up with the demands of the production schedule. We essentially have four different manufacturing areas at Grange Castle and each one demands different use of different raw materials.

The raw materials are the ingredients of the drugs and if we do not release them then manufacturing will not proceed,

What are the main challenges?

As in any chemistry lab we have to deal with atypical or out-of-specification results. When these happen, at first you are unsure whether the batch of material in question is of the quality standard expected.

We conduct investigations which at times can be very laborious. Besides this, other main challenges would be to keep the group content with the work they are doing.

It is important that we are all constantly challenging each other to help us learn more about science and develop into more all-rounded scientists.

What’s cool?

The coolest thing about the job is seeing the results when patients take our drugs. The drugs produced at Grange Castle dramatically improve patients’ lives.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

As an analytical chemist, the best skills I bring to the job are around the use of analytical instrumentation and the interpretation of data from it. Analytical chemistry is important to all of us as it ensures through testing that products from food to medicines are safe for us to consume.

What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?

Because I didn’t do my Leaving Certificate in Ireland, I didn’t have to make as big choices earlier on in my life. It was when I went to college that I chose the subjects that I wanted to do.

I chose to major in chemistry and to minor in biology as a pre medical school student. In America you have to complete a degree first before you are accepted into medical school.

By my third year of college I fell in love with chemistry and no longer wished to go to med school. It’s funny how it all worked out but I have no regrets – I really enjoy being a chemist.

What is your education to date?

I went to three secondary schools:

Moyle Park College in Clondalkin, where I completed my Junior Cert
Plantation High School, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (1 Year)
Hartselle High School, Hartselle, Alabama (2 Years) – High School Diploma
In Tennessee in Maryville College I did a degree in chemistry and then moved to California to the University of California Riverside where I completed my masters in analytical chemistry.

What aspects of your education have proven most important for your job?

Graduate school specifically was where I really learned to understand chemistry. Looking back now, the majority of undergraduate work is an introduction to chemistry.

The subject is so vast that you can only truly learn to understand aspects of it. I chose to be an analytical chemist, and did my initial research on instrumentation, which involved building instruments such as mass spectrometers in grad school.

My courses in analytical chemistry, notably around separation techniques, are still applicable to me today in my function and are most important to me in my job.

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

When I was at Amgen I worked in pure research. We were trying to find cures for different types of cancer, arthritis and other uncured illnesses. Knowing you were playing a role in this was very rewarding.

What personal qualities do you have that helps you in your career?

As a manager, you have to be a very organised person who knows how to prioritise well. Of utmost importance is that you have good people skills. Nobody wants a boss that is yelling at them.

To get the most out of people you need to have a positive approach and let people know when they are doing well just as when they need to improve. I have a positive outlook on life and I think this all helps.

What is your dream job?

I think if I had all the money in the world I’d probably just stay in school full time. I love to learn. I do learn at my job currently which is very important to me.

I’d love to have a job where I learned about different things all the time. There are not too many like that out there. As scientists we tend to become experts in the area that we studied in.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

Science is a fascinating subject and you truly have to immerse yourself in it. When you do, the rewards are fantastic. It is of course a tough subject but once completed you learn how to solve many problems yourself.

What are the three most important personal characteristics required for the job?

• Sound chemistry knowledge
• Good leadership skills
• Good people skills

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

Any work experience that you can gain in a lab, whether it is for a summer or over a transition year. You have to enjoy your time in the lab, as you will be there for the first few years or throughout your career even.

Not all scientists work in labs. I think that’s a big misunderstanding. But almost all scientists do spend time in there initially, so it is important to spend as much time in there through work experience to see whether this is the type of job that suits you.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

Dr Simon Elliot - Researcher in Theory, Modelling and Design in Tyndall National Institute

Research must be one of the most varied jobs there is. Most of the time, I am free to organise my day how I want.

Sometimes there are bursts of stress, such as working late nights or travelling at weekends. But most of the time I am free to fit together work commitments and priorities outside work.

How did you go about getting your current job?

I was approached at an Irish conference (great for local networking) and invited to apply for an upcoming position. As the position was in a technology institute, I was dismissive about being suitable, but came down for an interview anyway.
Despite my doubts at the start, the institute has turned out to be a great place to do science and see how it can be applied. So I’ve now been here seven years.

Describe a typical day

The day starts with checking email and replying to the easy ones. Then I check the computers to see how my simulations have got on overnight. Other than that, every day is different. I’d be involved in a couple of research projects simultaneously, so I have to keep all those “balls in the air”. This can mean discussing results with other researchers (face-to-face here in Tyndall or abroad via email or phone). Or maybe putting together reports of the work as papers or presentations.

What are the main challenges?

Sometimes I feel that I’m running a small business, which I certainly find challenging. I have to keep on top of developments in the “marketplace”, bid for new contracts, find and employ good staff. But that’s OK as long as I don’t lose sight of the science that’s at the centre of it.

What’s cool?

Most science is done in teams, which are often spread across many countries. It’s great to have the chance to travel, see foreign cities and meet the other members of the team.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

The most important thing is probably to be self-motivated, but that’s easy when you love finding out new things. Sticking at a puzzle and seeing it through to the end is also vital. You need an active imagination, a creative approach to solving problems and an appreciation for the beauty of how the world works. The really good scientists can also express themselves clearly and elegantly and get other people enthusiastic about what they do.

What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?

For the Leaving Cert I took maths, English, Irish, chemistry, physics, applied maths, German and musicianship. Maths and English were probably the most important of these – because of being able to express yourself or address a problem in numbers and words. Having the basics of German meant I was able to travel for further study. Of course I really enjoyed the science subjects, but career-wise it would have been no big deal to pick them up later if I needed to.

What is your education to date?

Leaving Certificate, four-year degree in chemistry, doctorate in theoretical chemistry.

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

Giving an invited talk at an international scientific conference. In some ways this was the culmination of six years’ work and it was very rewarding to have that work recognised by experts in the field.

What would be your dream job?

In research – basically what I’m doing now. As far as I can tell, most scientists feel this way – we are really lucky to be doing our dream jobs already. Of course, in my dream job I would organise the work differently and never be distracted from science by administrative tasks… dream on!

What are the three most important personal characteristics required for the job?

Curiosity, persistence, creativity.