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

Aisling Soden, geologist

I’ve always been interested in how and why things work and happen in the way they do, which is what science is all about, and I always enjoyed science at school. So I knew I wanted some type of career in science but I didn’t really want to spend my entire time in a lab.

Tie this together with a love of the outdoors and one too many nature specials and I decided that a career in geology would be the ideal combination.

A “milestone” in my career direction so far was when after two years in industry I wanted to return to research.

I really enjoy the unexpected paths that research can take you down and the different directions you can take your research in – I definitely learn something new every day and that really is an aspect of my work I enjoy.

Who were the biggest influences on your career direction?

My parents have always been a great support, encouraging me to do what I enjoyed rather than pushing me into something I wasn’t interested in. My Dad has a great interest in all things scientific and engineering, and that enthusiasm definitely transferred to me.

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

Yes, luckily my current job allows me to live close to family and friends but stability in research careers can be precarious, particularly when you are starting out and trying to establish yourself. To get a research position, more often than not early career researchers will move between a number of universities within and between countries while they build their research profile.

So until you land a permanent or long-term contract you have two to three years of not knowing where you’ll be for certain. Of course the up side to this is getting to live in a lot of great places and work with some really interesting people.

Day to day, I work relatively normal hours. Of course there are times when I’m trying to finish a paper or meet a deadline that means working longer hours or weekends, but when it’s something you enjoy doing and will benefit you in the long term it doesn’t matter so much.

Describe a typical day

I’m working on a specific project that requires the analysis of a natural data set from scratch, so I’m working my way through that, getting the data in the right format so that it can be easily examined, measurements taken etc and that the analysis will be consistent. Then I’ll start to collect the information I want and examine it for patterns and relationships that might suggest how the system is working.

So it’s a project that will evolve over months, moving on to a new step every few weeks. It’s a bit like piecing together a jigsaw and when you start to see the picture appearing things become really interesting.

What’s cool?

For some of my research I’ve go and collect the data myself, which has meant travelling to some really beautiful, remote and sometimes sunny places. Fieldwork is definitely one of the best bits about my job and a great way of seeing the “real” side of a country.

What particular skills do you bring?

I definitely think patience and perseverance are two really important qualities for a researcher, but equally important is having an enquiring mind and the capacity for critical thinking.

You should always keep an open mind and be just as willing to question your own ideas as the ideas of others.

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

I chose chemistry, biology and geography which helped me through the first years of my general science degree. In hindsight I think having physics might have been a greater help than biology. Although I really enjoyed biology, I think if you know you’re not going to pursue a life science having a strong background in chemistry and physics is more helpful for physical sciences.

What is your education to date?

The science subjects I took for my Leaving Cert were chemistry and biology. I did a General Science degree in TCD; in years one and two I took geology, chemistry, biology and applied maths and specialised in geology in years three and four.

My PhD focused on structural geology, examining fault growth and how the rock type affects what the faults look like.

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

Having studied a few areas of science has been helpful, as geological processes are a combination of chemical and physical processes. So although I might not know about a particular area in detail I understand the basics, and that’s a good place to start from when learning something new.

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

Completing my PhD – from starting out with just an idea of what might be happening to developing a model of how something is working, as well as generating a few more questions along the way, was extremely satisfying and rewarding.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

You really have to be enthusiastic about what you’re doing and enjoy it, whatever area of research that might be. It’s really a bit more than a job, it’s a genuine interest. If you have that then you’ll be able to cope with any problems that come along. But I reckon that’s true for most people who enjoy their job.

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

Patience and perseverance, verging on stubbornness, can help a lot but they won’t get you anywhere unless you are genuinely excited about your research area and about doing good science.

Cecilia Fenech, Environmental scientist

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

I started by choosing the three sciences: chemistry, biology and physics, when I was 13 years old, when students in Malta get to choose their subject choices. I kept within the sciences until I got to university where I did my first degree in Chemistry and Biology.

I always enjoyed doing research, so I followed my degree studies with a Master’s research programme at the University of Malta, while working in the beverage manufacturing industry. This allowed me to understand better what industry and academic life have to offer.

I enjoy doing both; however I wanted to further my expertise in the environmental sciences and started looking for the next challenge. Opportunities in Malta are quite limited so I decided to expand my search to other countries, and I got offered this post in Ireland on a project I am really excited about. I moved to Ireland in October 2010.

Who are the people who most influenced your career direction?

My family. They are always there to provide support wherever I may be and whatever effort it requires from them, even if they live thousands of miles away

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

Work expands to fill all time available. You decide your lifestyle, depending upon your time management capabilities. My current job as a PhD student and researcher allows me to merge all the things I love to do.

I make time to play a team sport, go out with friends and even take regular holidays to go home. Yet you still need to work hard. It is not the first time that it is late at night or the weekend and I am in the lab. The project is like your baby: you live through it for a couple of years, yet you need to make time for yourself.

How did you go about getting your current job?

I used to look through the websites listing the PhD and research opportunities in Europe (mainly www.findaphd.com, www.euraxess.eu, www.academictransfer.com, but also others) on a regular basis to find a position of interest to me.

After sending an application and a telephone interview, I was advised that I was given the position, and from there the arrangements to move country began

Describe a typical day

There is no typical day in a researcher’s life. Some days you might be in the lab doing experiments, on another day you may be outside sampling or abroad at a conference. It is a challenging job, but very rewarding.

What are the main tasks and responsibilities?

Being a researcher, the main responsibility is to fulfill the project entrusted to you. My main responsibility is to conduct research on identifying the sources of nitrate pollution in our rivers. It is a form of pollution forensic science.

Apart from the field sampling of river water and its analysis in the lab, my responsibilities also include writing scientific papers related to my project and presenting my work at conferences and meetings in Ireland and abroad.

What are the main challenges?

Dealing with disappointments such as instrumentation not working or an experiment not going as expected after spending days or weeks working on it.

What’s cool?

I love travelling and meeting other people. You get to go to conferences and meetings abroad or in Ireland and meet other people who love your subject as much as you do.

I also love that I am my own boss (to a certain degree), though your supervisors are there for you to turn to for support.

What’s not so cool?

Dealing with things that don’t work. You are doing research into a new area, so many things work, but many things do not work.

It is not a series of great discoveries, but a series of non-discoveries and hopefully one discovery over a period of years.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

I always liked doing puzzles and asking why. And this is something that all scientists should have. If someone says something, I do not accept it as being necessarily true. I am always challenging people to why they think in a particular way.

But the most important quality I have is that I love my project (even though sometimes it makes me want to scream when things are not going well). I am really interested in finding out the solution to the problem that has been given to me to solve.

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

I studied chemistry, biology and physics as options when I had the choice, and I think I chose well for my current career. Together with these I studied maths, English, Maltese, German, philosophy, history, geography, social studies and religion.

My suggestion is to keep your options open. To choose subjects which give you as many options later on in life, rather than ones that keep you limited. If I were to make a different choice, it would be to pay more attention to chemistry.

What is your education to date?

It’s relatively straightforward: a science based secondary school subject choice, followed by a degree in chemistry and biology (four years), a Masters degree (two years on a part-time basis) and now following a PhD research programme.

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

I think the extracurricular aspects of my education are among the most relevant to my course. Participation in sport and music activities, the local community, science competitions etc.

As part of my job there is no one to run after you to make sure you did your “homework”, and by being involved in numerous activities (while still giving my best at school) it allows you to learn all about time management and also how to deal with different people.

In particular it has taught me how to speak about my research to different people coming from different backgrounds, which is an important trait when attending conferences or meeting new people.

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

I am most proud of obtaining the position on a Marie Curie Initial Training Network funded by the EC FP7 People Programme, ATWARM, due to the stringent requirements.

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

You need to be self-motivated, hard-working, ambitious, have good time management and ability to solve problems.

What is your dream job?

Work in a science museum or on a science-based TV show or similar to be able to share my love of science every day.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

The most important thing for fitting into this job is loving the research you are doing. You have at least three years working on the same project. So unless you are truly interested in the subject you will not succeed.

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

Any kind of lab work will prepare you for the lab portion of the work. Other aspects such as participation in the local community, being in a sports team or a committee or other organisation are also important, as they are good learning experiences for working within a team, time management, organisation of work and project management.

GIS researcher Rory Scarrott

What have been your main ‘career decision’ milestones so far?

Best “career decision” I made was to go to university as opposed to rejecting study altogether. Honestly, I didn’t like school much. I kept my head down and just did the work, but found the school environment really restrictive. I wasn’t a troublemaker or anything, just didn’t particularly like school.

However, I took to university like a duck to water! I stuck with the courses and modules I enjoyed, and got the best out of both the academic and social sides of university life.

Who influenced your career direction?

My father got me interested in natural sciences from an early age. Dad had a strong interest in the natural world and how it worked, and used to encourage myself and my brothers to question it too.

Secondly, my biology teacher in school (Mr Guiney) was a major influence in my choice of subjects in college, and my enjoyment of them. His passion and joy in studying and teaching biology and life sciences showed me how challenging and interesting the subject was, and I just never looked back really.

Lastly, my BSc final-year-project supervisor, Dr Harrison, convinced me over the course of many fieldwork expeditions (wandering through woodlands near Macroom collecting invertebrates) that working in the environmental science sector was where I wanted to be.

How did you go about getting your current job?

Story and a half! Building a career in the Irish environmental sector isn’t as clear cut as building one in accounting or in medicine. There are no consultancies lining up to take up fresh faced graduates, and you do have to work at it early on, and build yourself into your chosen career. Despite this, I can say for me it was worth it.

When looking for jobs, I noticed that positions in Ireland pretty much all demand a minimum of one year’s work experience. I did go for a few interviews in Ireland and the UK, but my lack of experience was a hindrance.

I had taken out a student loan to help cover my MSc costs, so I couldn’t exactly leave the country, the bank had to be paid back. I opted instead to work in a bar, but contacted companies, consultancies and research institutes looking for voluntary work experience. It was really dispiriting, but with hindsight it also meant that I got a feel for the industry and where I wanted to go.

After a few months, my offer of voluntary work was taken up by the Coastal and Marine Research Centre (CMRC) at University College Cork. I had a sound knowledge in GIS and ecology applications, and the institute’s director forwarded my CV on to some of the PhD students, one of whom contacted me with a few GIS queries to see if I could help out.

I came in once a week for a few weeks, talked him through the process, what he should consider, and in general provided technical advice and a sounding board for him to bounce ideas off. I also got the chance to do some of the basic processing work, and see the area he was working in.

Then his supervisor got in contact with me with a short (nine-week) opportunity to use satellite data to study peatbog extraction in Ireland. From there I’ve been moved from contract to contract, branching from studying peatlands to looking at phenology with satellite imagery, and on to more GIS jobs.

What’s cool about your work?

When people outside start using my conclusions and results. With the peatlands work I first started out in, a group who funded the project called Friends of the Irish Environment began using the maps of identified exposed peat, when engaging and explaining their position to governing authorities.

When this kind of action happens because of the work I’ve done, it really makes it worthwhile.

What’s not so cool?

Some people are good at some aspects of work, but woefully bad at others. I simply am not what I call a “computer person”. I see myself as being good at looking at systems, and putting the pieces together, but translating that into “computer-speak” is a challenge that I just have to grit my teeth and overcome.

What subjects did you do at school and how have these influenced your career path?

English, Gaeilge and Maths, then I took a language (French) and two sciences (Physics and Biology) and Geography.

In the end I had to cover Biology, Physics and Chemistry in first year in UCC, but once in second year I could drop Physics and Chemistry and focus again on Biology.

I don’t know if the subjects I chose really influenced my career path, I always did whatever subjects I found interesting (except in the case of Physics, but I figured I’d be more miserable doing Economics, and I didn’t qualify for Art unfortunately as it was not an option for me as a Junior Cert subject).

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

Maths is undoubtedly vital for whatever science career you choose. It just pops up everywhere. I’m no maths-whizz, but I learned the fundamentals, and use them every day.

Obviously, doing a science subject you are interested in is vital. Through the Leaving Certificate Biology and Physics courses, I was exposed to a huge variety of different scientific disciplines. I didn’t like all of them, but I did like a few, and pursued these later in university.

Curiously, English stands out as having been really important for my career. It took me years to realise this, but every day I find myself using skills taught to me in English class to communicate my research clearly.

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

Travelling around the Mekong Delta in Vietnam interviewing farmers about their rice crops, and joining their families for the autumn festivals… completely random, totally rewarding, and absolutely brilliant.

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

Having worked with digital media is always a plus when it comes to looking at remote sensing data. I’ve also found teaching kids science is a great way to start off learning how to communicate what you know to others (if you’re not communicating well enough, a child will simply stop paying attention, and will make it obvious!).

Seek out as many opportunities as you can to go on fieldwork surveys. And not just out in the mountains, but in urban environments too. Fieldwork is physically tough sometimes, but it’s great craic, and even now I jump at the opportunity to leave my comfy desk and go do fieldwork.

Voluntary work experience was crucial in my case. It proved to me I would like what I studied as a career, showed employers I was willing and able to do the work, and allowed me to build up a network of contacts to work with in the future.

What is your dream job?

Sir David Attenborough’s job: travel the world, go to remote exciting places, and get to see in person the incredible variety of life on this planet.

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

• A sense of wonder at the world around you
• A willingness to question, enquire, and learn as you go
• An ability to see things not working as a result – “If it didn’t work, why didn’t it work?”

Michael Gaffney, Horticultural development officer

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

I suppose the biggest career decision I made so far was deciding to give science another go after failing my first year in Maynooth.

To be honest I was fairly close to packing it in at that stage, but I am very glad now that some people, my parents especially, convinced me to give it another go.

After that, the decision to give up my job in Swansea to return to Teagasc. I had always wanted to work in academia, in a university, lecturing and doing research, but after a few months realised that I didn’t particularly enjoy it. Even still it was a very hard decision to move away from lecturing into an advisory role.

Who are the people who most influenced your career direction?

My parents have probably been the biggest influence in my career decision, mainly in the fact that they mostly stood back and let me make my own decisions, even when it looked like I was making the wrong one.

They offered advice at times but would leave it up to me to make the final decision.

A lot of the people who I met while doing my postgraduate in Kinsealy have helped me to get the job I now have, either by taking 10 minutes here and there to teach me something new, or by introducing me to other scientists I could learn from.

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

I am very happy with the lifestyle that my job provides for me. I spend a large proportion of my working day outdoors. I get to travel a lot.

As it is a public sector job, it has good security and promotion prospects if you are willing to work hard. The hours can be fairly flexible, which always makes life a little easier, avoiding traffic etc.

Describe a typical day

I suppose I have two kinds of typical days, depending on what area I need to focus on.

A day doing advisory work usually involves spending the first half of the day visiting growers, talking about what problems or issues they are having and also talking over any successes that also may have occurred.

The second half of the day would be back in the office following up on any queries or questions that arose from the visits that morning.

A day working on research projects usually involves conducting and setting up experiments. Experiments in horticulture, especially field trials, need to be planned extremely well because if errors are made in the set-up, you usually have to wait till the next year to repeat it.

Administrative work involved with research projects takes up a lot of time, but it has to be done. In reality my typical day is usually a mishmash of the two.

What are the main tasks and responsibilities?

My main task is to provide an advisory service to growers, especially protected crop growers (crops grown in glasshouses and plastic tunnels).

This can mean helping them with advice, from crop nutrition to pest and disease control and pesticide advice to help with government schemes. I am also responsible for conducting research programmes which have special relevance to the area of horticulture.

The areas I focus on are pesticide replacement (biological control), phytochemicals (health-promoting chemicals) from fruit and vegetables, and the benefits of using compost in horticulture.

What are the main challenges?

Trying to keep up to date with new innovations in the protected crops area. A lot of the research being conducted in the area is by private companies, so by the time it becomes public knowledge, it is usually a couple of years old.

Because of this, I spend a lot of time going to growers conferences and visiting growers in other countries to keep up to date.

Horticulture is very much about trends – some years grasses are very popular, the next year aliums may be the big sellers.

Even in the fruit and vegetable sector things are always changing, be it the colour (blue potatoes, black carrots), size (different baby vegetables) or even new markets such as fresh herbs, which, except for parsley, would not have been very popular 10 years ago, are now becoming incredibly popular. Keeping up with all the new trends can also be difficult.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

Enthusiasm, an ability to learn from previous mistakes, friendliness, problem-solving skills.

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

I suppose I made a couple of bad choices for my Leaving Cert. I chose chemistry which to this day I’m not really sure why, as I was always better at biology.

I also did accounting which helped me decide that the one thing I definitely did not want to be was an accountant. In hindsight, I probably should have picked biology and economics.

I think the best thing about the Leaving Cert is that because you can do such a wide range of subjects, it helps you decide what career areas you definitely have no interest in as well as some areas you might like to study further.

Being 17 to 18 is very young to decide on what you want to do for the rest of your life, and while it works for some people, I think for the majority it’s best to pick the subjects you enjoy (or hate the least).

What is your education to date?

I did my Leaving Certificate at Coolmine Community School, but did not do very well, mostly due to me being lazy but I think I also made some bad subject choices (my father was a guidance councilor and he tried to advise me, but I thought I knew better).

In the CAO I was offered a place to do science at Maynooth which I took. Again I didn’t do very well in my first year, passing biology but failing maths, chemistry and computer science.

I ended up repeating the year and decided to start studying properly – otherwise I would fail completely or be a fairly old man by the time I finally graduated. I ended up knuckling down and three years later managed to graduate with a degree in biology.

I was then offered a place to do a masters in UCD and Teagasc at Kinsealy. It was based on developing fungi to control insect pests.

It was a little different to normal masters projects, in that it was very applied, but also allowed me some freedom to research areas which interested me.

After four and a half years at Kinsealy I went to work at the University of Wales in Swansea, where I was running a project on developing fungi to control forest and nursery stock pests. Eventually I returned to Teagasc to take up my role as a horticultural development officer at Kinsealy

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

My degree from Maynooth gave me a very broad knowledge of biology, chemistry and maths. This has made it easier to move into different areas of research.

Our biology degree spanned modules from molecular immunology to ecology, and it really gives you a good solid foundation in many areas of science.

Also there were a number of plant biology courses which have helped a lot in the advisory side of my job.

Have you undertaken, or do you plan to undertake any further training as part of your job?

In horticulture, most of the further training happens by attending conferences and seminars, mostly abroad, which is a nice perk. I do intend to take some sort of management course in the next year or two.

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

Graduating from college. Setting up my own research areas.

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

Listening to people, flexibility, and curiosity.

What is your dream job?

If I could I would love to grow grapes in the south of France or be a rugby journalist. If I could combine the two, even better.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

If you want to get into horticulture, be it in research, advice or actually growing, there are many different ways to get the necessary skills.

You can start by working in a nursery, learning on the job. Also applying to some of the horticultural colleges or research stations for work experience will also give you a good idea what this industry is about.

There are plenty of college courses, both full- and part-time, that you can do. You can even get into the industry later in life if you wish to do another degree/course first.

A lot of the people I see in horticultural college are people who have already started one career but then decided to go back to horticulture. A lot of people see horticulture a way of making their hobby into their job.

Dr Margherita Gioria, Environmental science researcher

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

An unstable economic situation in my country, as well as a strong desire for financial independence, led me to undertake a degree in economics. After five years (that is the duration of a science degree in Italy), I obtained a very good job as a financial advisor and analyst in one of the most important financial institutions in Italy.

Over time, however, I discovered that what I really wanted was to research environmental issues. I decided to leave my job and do an MSc in Environmental Science. I loved the experience and I went on to do a PhD in Botany, which I successfully completed more than a year ago.

Who are the people who most influenced your career direction?

Some of the lecturers at the Department of Environmental Resource Management at University College Dublin inspired me with their passion for nature and encouraged me to pursue a career in science.

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

Building a career as a researcher is a long process, but it has also given me a lot of satisfaction. Among the things that I like most of my job is the opportunity to study invertebrate and plant communities, and being in contact with nature.

University researchers are task-oriented so the hours are flexible, although I spend most of my spare time in the field. Presentation of my research at conferences is also a plus.

I have visited many countries over the past four years and established contacts with international researchers. Teaching and supervising the projects of undergraduates and postgraduate students is also very rewarding.

Describe a typical day

From April until October, I spend a lot of my time in the field collecting data and samples. This gives me the opportunity to get in contact with nature and meet very interesting people although it can be very tiring, especially under bad climatic conditions.

The identification of plants and insects, the chemical analysis of water samples, as well as the statistical analysis of the data collected are the most important aspects of my job. Writing scientific papers and attending and presenting the findings of my research at conferences are also a key part of my research work.

What are the main tasks and responsibilities?

My main responsibility is to conduct research on the effects of agriculture on the biodiversity of ponds. This involves collecting plants, insects and water samples in the field, mainly from ponds within farms, golf courses and other habitats.

Approximately half of my time is then dedicated to the statistical analysis of the data that I collect, as well writing and reading scientific papers and reports, attending conferences, and keeping up-to-date with research in my field.

What are the main challenges?

Writing papers for publication in international journals is one of the biggest challenges of my job.

What’s cool?

I like all aspects of my job, from field work to the analysis of data.

What’s not so cool?

Jumping into ponds in a rainy day… Finding highly polluted water-bodies with little life in them.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

I have the ability to independently develop research projects, and also possess good written, oral and interpersonal communication skills. Originality, creativity and innovation are also traits that have helped me in my career.

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

I took Maths, Biology, Physics, Latin, Philosophy, History, Italian and English. I believe that all these subjects helped me in my career. I still use some of the basic ideas I studied in school, and the study skills I developed in schools helped me later on in university.

What is your education to date?

I hold a BSc in Economics (5 years), an MSc in Environmental Resource Management (1 year), and a PhD in Botany (3 years)]

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

I am determined, curious, analytical, organized, and creative. I have strong management skills and I love reading, writing, and giving seminars and lectures. My strong passion for nature has also helped me a lot in my career.

What is your dream job?

One that allows me to conduct research that helps the conservation of nature, as well as teaching the value of biodiversity to students and people in general.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

Be determined, organised, and creative. Good management and communication skills are essential, as well as a strong educational background and analytical skills.

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

Working for an environmental consultant or the Environmental Protection Agency would be good experience.

Dr Sarah Varien - Marine environment consultant

What were the main “career decision” milestones in your life so far?

For me, making the decision to do a course or a degree was the easy part. The difficult decisions were made afterwards once I entered the workplace and I moved around a lot before I found an environment that suited me.

Apart from my interest in the subject of biology, one of the main motivations for me was to feel like I was making a positive difference to the environment. If I was in a job that wasn’t fulfilling that need, I just ended up moving on.

It’s also important to consider that work may not be the only influence in your life, so there are other factors that will inevitably shape your career too (e.g. where you want to live, the hours you work, spending time with loved ones etc).

Who most influenced your career direction?

My parents would have had the greatest influence on me making the decision to study marine biology. They have always been enthusiastic about wildlife and the environment and they very much supported me when I expressed an interest in going to Galway to do my degree.

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

Opting for a career in nature conservation is very much a lifestyle choice. In a way, you are turning a hobby into work and that has its pros and cons.

On the one hand, you have the luxury of almost always being interested and excited about your work. Sometimes I forget that I am working because I am so into what I’m doing.

On the other hand, the world of wildlife is full of people who are utterly dedicated to what they are doing, and it’s not unusual for people to work long, long hours (e.g. 70 hour weeks). This makes things very competitive.

It’s also not a career that can guarantee much security from a financial point of view as most of the work is contract based. For me, the enthusiasm I feel for my work makes up for this, but I think it really depends on the individual as to what they consider to be acceptable.

What are your main tasks and responsibilities?

My role as business director and manager obviously involves certain responsibilities, ensuring that projects are well run and that we are on track for meeting targets and goals.

My work as a science communicator is all about holding the audience’s attention, so energy, enthusiasm and a sense of humour tend to go a long way with that one.

When I’m working on scientific surveys, my formal scientific training comes into play as I need to be independent and objective in the way that I evaluate the environment. It’s important not to allow your feelings for a subject to bias the results.

What are the main challenges?

The main challenges for me are all related to the business management side of things, e.g. fundraising, meeting numerous deadlines, making do with limited resources, managing time etc. The science itself is fun and easy in comparison.

What’s cool?

Getting out in the field, traveling, getting close to wildlife, meeting lots of interesting people, being able to try out ideas, seeing a child’s eyes light up when they touch a starfish for the first time, breathing in the sea air…

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

I took eight subjects for my Leaving Cert, including the three sciences (biology, chemistry and physics) and music.

In hindsight, I think it probably would have been best to take two science subjects. The workload was very heavy with so many practical subjects (I never had any time to practice the piano!).

I also think it might have been worth studying Spanish rather than French, as it might have been more useful from a globetrotter’s perspective.

Sarah Varien - Marine Environment Consultant

What is your education to date?

• Secondary level: Alexandra College, Dublin
• Tertiary level: BSc Hons in Zoology (1st class), PhD in Fish Biology and Behaviour, University College Galway
• Diving Qualifications: PADI Divemaster

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

Pretty much all of my education. I think there is a tendency for people to focus on subjects that are directly related, e.g. biology or chemistry, but I believe that subjects that receive less emphasis, such as English, are just as important.

A scientist needs to be able to draw upon a whole range of skills in order to be successful in his or her career. For example, good communication skills (both written and spoken) are becoming increasingly important in the science world.

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

I am currently attending the Wicklow Enterprise Board’s Management Development Programme which is certified by the Carlow Institute of Technology.

Because I am running a small business, I need to be looking at constantly improving my business management skills.

I have also signed up for a Wicklow Enterprise Board workshop that focuses on developing media skills. Other areas that I would like to get training on are project management and fundraising skills for NGOs.

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

I think that the day that I realised that my business, Marine Dimensions, was actually viable (at least until 2009) was the most rewarding.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

Think carefully about pursuing a career that requires a very strong sense of commitment and dedication. If they’re dreaming about that Louis Vuitton handbag or a permanent pensionable job, it’s probably not going to suit them.

But on the positive side, if he or she loves discovery and exploration, well then deciding to be a marine biologist or zoologist might be the best choice they ever made.

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

Determination, enthusiasm for the subject and hard work will get you where you want to go, no matter what your skills are. I would also say that a strong sense of integrity and a good sense of humour should serve you well too.

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

Working with an environmental consultancy, assisting scientific researchers in a university or research institute or working as a volunteer with any of the environmental NGOs.