Liz J.
About me
| Liz J. | |
| Biology | |
| Biology | |
| Research Postgraduate | |
| Wentworth | |
| 2006 | |
| United Kingdom |
My employment
| Head of strain development | |
| Green Biologics Ltd | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Science and research |
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A day in the life of a Head of strain development in the United Kingdom
Making the most of opportunities available to me has helped my career progression
My career goals when I graduated
I had no idea what I wanted to do and looked into several options e.g. science writing, patent law, as well as bench science.
My career history
PhD at York led to postdoc for just over a year
Joined GBL as senior scientist, was made head of mol bio after a couple of years. Then took over microbiology and became head of strain development and 12 months later got given analytical chemistry and overall lab operations as well.
What has helped my career to progress
Being aware of and making the most of all opportunities available to me. I have been given more and more responsibility over relatively short timeframes because I take on challenges, prove I am capable then actively look around for what else can I do. Along with my 'day job' I also run grant funded projects with multiple partners, engage with universities as industrial placement / intern placement co-ordinator, engage with external STEM outreach organisations, lead on synthetic biology and responsible innovation frameworks etc etc…
Also being open to learning from everyone else around you regardless of how much experience they have and whether they report to you or you to them.
Learning how to delegate and actively building the skills of everyone else in my groups. I can only expand my role if I expand the roles of the rest of the team.
My advice to students considering work
It is becoming much more competitive to get lab based roles so if this is what you want to do then make sure your application stands out. If you have the opportunity to do a year in industry or find lab experience through uni tutors then do it.
My advice about working in my industry
Working in industrial biotech is incredibly rewarding but it is also hard work. As a new graduate don't expect huge salaries, especially if you join an SME, you will almost certainly be disappointed. However make the most of any opportunities given to you, prove you are capable, enthusiastic, eager etc and as you work your way up the salaries do get better.
What I do
I head up the strain development research group for an industrial biotech company. We develop molecular and microbiology tools and techniques for optimising microbes for the production of bio-chemicals using fermentation. I also oversee the analytical chemistry group and am responsible for overall lab operations.
Skills I use and how I developed them
Project Management / Time Management/ Organisation / Prioritisation - We have lots of projects running at any one time and I need to know who is working on what, what the progress is and whether we need to re-prioritise. Developed through working my way up from bench scientist (responsible for just my own work) through managing ever increasing numbers of people.
Communication - Developed through lots of meetings, report writing, day-to-day interactions, outreach activities through STEM ambassador scheme
Innovation / Creativity / Problem solving - a lot of what we do involves coming up with new methods that will enable us to generate strains to give particular characteristics. I work for a company so there is also an expectation that we will be developing patentable technology. These skills were developed through spending a lot of time in the lab and trying things out to fully understand how techniques work and what the limitations are.
People management - my group has expanded significantly over the last few years. These skills have been developed largely through trial and error. Actively listening to people and acting on feedback.
What I like most
Having the freedom to try things out and to develop creative solutions to overcome some of the most frustrating aspects of molecular biology limitations
Next steps...
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