This week marks the 5th anniversary of regular posting on Girlymicrobiologist.com. I can’t believe that time has flown by so quickly. I also can’t believe that something that started out with such small expectations has grown to play such an important part in my life, and in my sense of identity. This was all really cemented for me in something that also happened this week, the publication of my first ever book.
Now, it’s been no secret that I have been putting some time aside to try and write something for the last few months. You have all been very patient with me whilst I posted a little less frequently, and I cannot help but give a massive thank you shout out to Dr Claire Walker who has curated some wonderful guest blogs in order to keep the content flowing. It’s a world of different having an idea and starting to write it, to holding the real thing in your hand, and so my brain is still catching up to the reality. I plan to write a bit more of a step by step guide to what the experience has taught me about self publishing, and why I thought self publishing was the right choice for this particular book, but for today I wanted to focus on moving something from a vague wish to a reality you can hold in your hand.
So how did I get here?
Back in 2022 I wrote a post about the fact that I was playing with the idea of writing a book, although I wasn’t quite sure about the direction that book would take, and listing a number of steps:
Further formulate the concept i.e. what kind of book? I actually have 2 ideas. One is turning this blog into a book format. The second is that I also have an outline structure for a Pathology murder mystery. I’m excited by both, but right now I think option 1 is more achievable with my current resources
Review what I already have. If I go for a non fiction book I need to undertake a gap analysis of what I have, what can be modified and what new content is needed. For the fiction version I need to start getting my concepts down so that I know how viable they are
What good resources are available to me? This is an ambition of plenty of people and there is a wealth of information out there. I need to explore, quality assess and curate what there is so I don’t waste time and energy making unforced errors. There is no point in reinventing the wheel, modify it so it works for me, but let’s not start from square one.
Undertake some appreciative enquiry. Success is often about asking the right questions and making the right connections in order to increase your odds. I have some friends in this field but not in the area I’m thinking of working in. I need to be brave and put myself out there to gain insight into the ‘Known Unknowns’
Use the knowledge and information gained to put together a project plan. Establish some small steps that can make the project as a whole less overwhelming
Establish my success criteria. What does success look like? For right now it’s the process of creating that will feel like a success with a stretch goal of sharing what is produced, but that might change based on what I discover
Research your audience. If I decided to include sharing what is produced as part of my success criteria who would like to see such a book? If I were to share the content what would that look like and what would be needed?
You’ll notice that those early steps involved a lot of information gathering, and reflection before formulating a plan. Writing that blog post encouraged me to do just that, but more than that it meant that I had made a declaration to all of you and started talking about what the next steps would look like, so I could be held to account by others as well as myself.
One of the things that my research led me to understand with greater clarity, is that to get from where I was to publishing a book required both the formulation of a plan, but also the development and practicing of skills. To a certain extent, the project plan was the easy bit, as long as my research was effective. The skill development piece was harder. It seemed to me, that the best way to go about this was to support others by being involved with their work in order to learn and develop more.
This led to me being involved with everything from textbooks, to a book on the impact of waste on our society. Every encounter taught me something. Every encounter helped me to refine what I was interested in and how I was interested in working. It also supported me in developing an author page so that I had a place where I could sign post others to the work.
Fairly early on I realised that I didn’t have the time or bandwidth to develop my pathology murder mysteries right now, although I am still drafting plot on the side. The writing style is just too different for me to be able to dip in and out of , and I need to put in many hours of practice to get that style to a point where it would be acceptable.
That left me with content linked to this blog. Many of you will know that I started drafting, and am still working on a book called White Coat Syndrome (or similar). This is still in the works but a wise friend suggested that I keep working on getting it traditionally published, so I need to give it some focussed time. That left me with looking at the content I already have for trying out what the self publishing process could look like. Over 90% of non-fiction books are self published these days, and of the ones that are traditionally published still, most are linked to people in the public eye or with social media followers in the millions. It will be a surprise to no one that I do not fall into either of those categories, and so exploring the process of self publishing felt like the right move, not just for this book but to understand more moving forward.
So why this topic? In a moment of frustration about life, the universe, and everything, I was having a late evening rant and Mr Girlymicro and he said ‘Why don’t you write a book on how to do a PhD? You talk about it all the time. You spend lots of time supporting others through it, and you have already written thousands of words on your blog linked to it’. I just looked at him, went to bed, and woke up with a 40 chapter book outline. It just felt right. Something in my brain just clicked, and so the writing in the end was the easy part. After all, Mr Girlymicro is pretty much always right, and yet again he proved it.
Once the topic and method of publishing was chosen, then all that was left was pulling it together. It was so important for me that this book came from a place of authenticity, a place where I don’t pretend that things are easy, perfect or even equitable. In fact, it was that sense of inequity as I was writing that became a real motivator for finishing the book. As I reflected and wrote I became increasingly aware of how inequitable access to PhD programmes have become. How the way access routes are set up to be even more challenging if you have health or caring needs, but also if you don’t have access to someone who has done one to advise you on how to apply and what factors might be significant to talk about.
The next factor was to to decide on a time scale. Now, this part might be a little piece of madness but I know how busy IPC gets once we hit winter, and so allowing a 4 month time frame in order to get the book out before winter pressures and to align the release with the start of the academic year seemed like a good idea. I’m not saying that it was a good idea…just that it felt like one at the time. I think tasks take up the time that is allowed to them, however. I think if I’d allowed a year it would have spread to take that much time. It is sometimes better to set a tight timescale and stick to it, rather than allowing a window which could extend the project for longer than is really needed.
I also gradually became aware that providing some practical exercises would add value in a way that I could not include in a book format, and so decided early on that several of the chapters would have these hosted on the Girlymicro website so they would be free to access and download. Providing a holistic, interactive approach was key to my thinking, as was making sure that at its heart the book is about community and supporting each other, the same as this blog. I didn’t want to pretend to be someone else, or write in a way that was more academic, as I think there are enough of those styles of books out there. I wanted this book to support everyone to bring their whole selves to their PhD and their topic, and so it was important to me to write in a way that I also did the same.
Now the book is ready. Now that it is a real thing that I can hold in my hand. There are two main tasks taking up my thinking. The first is trying to work out how to get it to people that it might help, something that I would be grateful for any advice that you can give to me. The second is about how I can help others by sharing the knowledge I’ve picked up myself as part of going through the writing and self publishing process, to make it easier for others to get their voice out there. There are benefits to both ways of publishing, but there is something empowering about being able to feel like you can speak directly to your readers by maintaining more control over the content, rather than it being seen through a commercial lens. I’m not in this for the money after all.
There is still one thing that I talked about on my list of steps, way back when, and haven’t yet addressed, and that was success criteria and decided how to benchmark what success looks like. As I’ve said, I’m not doing this to make money, I’m doing this in the hope that it might assist others, and so for me it has never been about a commercial approach. I still need some way of judging progress however. On doing some reading I discovered that many books never sell more than 20 copies, and most others don’t sell more than 250 copies in their first year. My aspirations are pretty small therefore, as this is something I’m just beginning. I would consider the book a success if I sold more than 20 copies. I would be over the moon if I sold anywhere between 50 and 100 copies in the first year. The topic is fairly niche after all. Mostly I just want to mark the event and use it as my own benchmark for improving during future projects. We all have to start somewhere.
If however, you’d like to add to those 20 I’ve included the link for purchasing below:
Thinking about what’s next
Like everything is life, my first thought when I finish something is to think…what’s next? I have learnt so much and my plan is to take a little time to reflect on that learning and to enjoy focussing on blog writing for a while. That said, I am now going to return some of my focus to the book pitch for the Girlymicro general book, and I do have to admit I have the title of my next book in mind if I decide to try another self publishing exercise. Mostly I would like a few weekends off as it’s been a while since I could embrace the sofa and fully rot for a weekend. So while I cogitate, I intend to treat myself with some truly awful reality TV, and spending quality time with mummy and Mr Girlymicro.
Taking a moment to enjoy, celebrate, and mark the occasion
Before I slob off to the sofa though…you all know that I am a strong believer in celebrating and marking the moments that impact our lives, and this book is no different. To mark the moment I’m a having a small, low key book launch on Friday 17th October and there are just a couple of free tickets still available if you’d like to join.
Whether you can make it or not, I’d love to hear what you think as I’m all about improvement and learning. If you do get the book it would also be amazing if you could leave a review on Amazon with your honest thoughts. Apparently reviews really help increase visibility, whether good or bad, and so it would be wonderful to think that this book is finding its way to those who would need it.
I want to sign off with a thank you. I would never have gone through the process of thinking about writing a book if it wasn’t for all your support. I wouldn’t have had the content or undertaken the self reflection needed to know what to write if you hadn’t kept reading this blog. Finally, I wouldn’t have had the motivation to get through writing it and working out so very many templates and decisions if I didn’t know you would support me in the effort. So thank you. I appreciate every read, every interaction, and every conversation we have.
For my birthday in 2014, I celebrated by submitted by PhD thesis for printing. I ripped off the band aid and committed.
For this birthday, 11 years later, I’m taking another leap of faith, and once more rolling the dice on myself. This time it’s still PhD related, but rather different. This time it’s to let you all know that I have written a book, which will hopefully go live on Amazon on Friday the 17th October.
It feels like birthday launches could become a tradition.
I’ve been talking about a super secret project for a while now, and the wonderful Dr Claire Walker has been taking on some heavy lifting in terms of arranging some guest blogs, so that I could write a book on my weekends rather than writing a blog. But what is the book, and why did it come about?
The Book
The book is entitled ‘It Shouldn’t Happen to a PhD Student: How to thrive, not just survive, during your PhD’. It has 40 chapters that take you all the way through from deciding you want to do to PhD, and thinking about where and what type, to submitting your thesis, and what kind of skills you may need to develop during your PhD to maximise your career success after it is done.
Professor Elaine Cloutman-Green, otherwise known as “The Girlymicrobiologist”, is a clinical academic with over 2 decades of experience leading research projects and supporting students at all levels, including PhDs. She also runs the popular Girlymicrobiologist blog, which aims to de-mystify science and support those wanting to engage with academic careers from A-level all the way through to career enrichment.
In this book, Girlymicro talks about the reality of what it is like to study for a PhD, what gateways you may need to pass through, and how to manage key relationships in order to achieve success.
This book starts at the very beginning, with why you might want to do a PhD, how you might decide what route to PhD is right for you, and what a successful application might look like.
It then takes you through your PhD journey, year by year, with tips about how to approach and succeed during significant moments, such as attending your first conference, or writing your first academic paper.
Finally, you will discover what other skills you need to develop during your PhD to give you the best route to success after your viva. All of this supported by links to activities on the Girlymicrobiologist blog, to help you with practical exercises in order to apply what you have learned.
Whether you’re planning your PhD, a healthcare professional looking to develop, or simply curious to know about how the world of academia works, The Girlymicrobiologist offers a refreshing blend of knowledge and relatable experiences. Get ready to laugh, learn, and be inspired to find a way into, what she describes as the best job on the planet.
This is the book I wish that someone had given me when I started on my PhD. I was pretty clueless and spent a lot of time finding my way, and making heaps of mistakes. It seemed only fair to write all of my learning down so that I can share it, not just with my own students but more widely, so that everyone is free to make their own new mistakes, not just repeat ones I’ve already made.
The Why
I’ve been talking about writing a book for ages, and I still have the original Girlymicro book I’d planned going on in the background. I was prompted to do this book now though, after spending an afternoon at an awards event and realising that I could tell you every person who was going to win in every category before the dinner even started. It made me think a lot about access and privilege. That night I came home and I was really glum, and I couldn’t quite process why I was feeling that way.
I slept on it and spent some time speaking to Mr Girlymicro the next day to process my thoughts. I talked about how much access to healthcare professions and even academic training schemes are now based on who you know, to describe the best way to get through gateways like applications and interviews. How, even once you are in them, to feel like you understand how things work and the undisclosed boxes that need ticking, you need to have someone who will let you in and tell you the unwritten rules, and frankly not all supervisors see that as their role. This means that I really feel like we are missing out on some amazing talent. People who would make wonderful PhD students, or academics, because they can’t get across the threshold or see themselves in the role.
Not everyone has strong connections with a university. Still fewer people know someone who has a PhD. The way the system currently feels is that if you can access information you really have such an advantage over those that don’t. I therefore see a lot of my medical colleagues getting access to PhD funding, and yet fewer and fewer of my nursing and scientific colleagues. I increasingly encounter more and more undergraduates who are reaching out because they need help to know why they aren’t being successful, because they don’t know what is expected of them. It has always been hard to get onto PhD programmes, and it should be. What it shouldn’t be is hard because you don’t have access to the right people to give you the knowledge you need to level the playing field.
I realised that was why I was feeling upset and unsettled. I don’t like unfairness. I don’t like inequity. I don’t like realising that I’m part of the problem. Mr Girlymicro commented, as I was off loading, that I had plenty of blog posts that talk about how to apply for and do a PhD, and so why didn’t I take the way I was feeling and turn it into something positive. A book. So, this book concept was born. A book where I set out to play my role in fixing the disparities as I see them.
The Vision
That conversation happened right at the end of May. I gave myself 3 months to take some content form this blog, as well as creating new content, to come up with a book of ~80,000 words that captures the advice I give to my PhD students, and those approaching me floating the concept of applying for a PhD.
Why 3 months? Well, if I allowed myself a year, I would take a year, and remember that other book? I still want that to happen at some point. The other thing was that I wanted it finished as close to the start of the academic year as possible, so that it could start benefiting people right away. We all also know that I have no patience, and so using my birthday as a cut off always felt right.
The book was finished at the end of August, and I’m in final edits before upload at the end of the month. I want it to be the kind of resource that people can dip in and out of, whether they are doing a PhD or not. Chapters, such as developing goals, or on public speaking, should stand alone to benefit even those who are not in academic study. The activities that can be accessed alongside the book, to help things like developing your elevator pitch, should only grow in number over time, and hopefully will be a good general resource for anyone that finds them, not just for those who are studying for a PhD.
My main hope however, is that people who are on a PhD will find it not only helpful, but something that will help them feel a little less alone in the process. There were times, as I was doing my PhD outside of a standard academic department, that I felt really lonely, and sometimes even very lost. Not everyone has a super supportive supervisor, not everyone finds those peers that keep you going. I was lucky that I had great colleagues who picked me, not everyone has that. I hope that this book can act a little like the friend you need, who you can turn to for advice, and to know that others have been there before and found a way to succeed.
What to Expect
I don’t know what to expect to be honest. I’ve never written a book entirely alone before, with thanks to Dr Helen Rickard and Dr Sam Watkin who have contributed text. I know why I needed to write this book, and as I say in the first chapter, knowing your why is the most important thing. I don’t expect it to be perfect, nothing is, but as I say to my students, the main thing is that it is done.
The book should go live on Amazon (depending on their turn around time) on Friday 17th October. It should be purchasable in 3 forms:
Ebook for £2.99 or included in your ebook subscription if you have one and free to download
Paperback for £9.99
Hardback for £15.99
None of this is about making money for me, but Amazon have minimum costs, especially if you want it to be available widely, so there we go.
To mark the occasion, although it is terrifying me at the moment, I’m holding a small book launch event at UCL on the same night. If you fancy, come and join me. After all, we should all do a little something that scares us, and I’m hoping if I feed you wine you will forgive any deficiencies knowing the reasons why this book came into being in the first place.
If you like, I’m kinda hoping you might also tell your friends…
I got an alert of my phone last week that I set up this blog on WordPress 10 years ago! That was a bit of a shock I can tell you. That said, as I posted about in 2020, although I set up the blog and made my first post as I finished my PhD in 2015, I didn’t start posting regularly of another 5 years. I started it as I was looking for my next passion project but I didn’t really know what I wanted to say for quite a while. Despite the gap between starting and regular posting however, 10 years still feels like a gateway and something worth marking. I thought therefore that I would write something that reflects how I, my practice, and in someways the world, feels like it has changed in the last 10 years to mark the event. On the back of that, it also seemed fun to embed a few of the blog posts that have been put together since Girlymicrobiologist began in order to show how this blog too has changed and grown.
Apologies, this turned into a bit of a long one.
Microbes have changed
In 2015 I had finished my PhD in January, as well as a PGCert in Teaching and Learning in Higher and Professional Education. I had just taken my final clinical exams (Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists) in September and found out I’d passed them in November. After a decade of focus linked to completing what felt like an unachievable list of academic steps I was done. The question therefore was………what’s next? So, in December 2015 I started my first ever blog post, although I had been sitting on the web page for 6 months not knowing how to begin. This is how that Girlymicro blog began:
So, this is my first ever blog post. Bear with me as I don’t really know what I’m doing.
I’m what is know as a Clinical Scientist and I work in Infection Control.
Most people don’t know what a Clinical Scientist is so I thought I should briefly explain.
Most scientists that work within hospitals are involved with imaging (X-rays, CTs etc) or processing patient samples. We all work to support diagnosing patients. Did you know that scientists are involved with >80% of all diagnoses within the NHS? Their work is crucial to improving patient care, but the scientists are often unsung heroes as they often never meet the patients they help.
I do not work in the lab all the time like many scientists. I’m a clinical scientist, so half my time is spent working in a patient facing role within infection control and the other half involves bringing science to infection control to make it more efficient/evidence based. I work within a hospital with a team comprised of nurses, doctors and scientists. I have a PhD in infection control. I am also working towards my final clinical qualification (Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists) which is the same as my medical colleagues. My job is to help the translation of the science into a form that healthcare professionals can work with. Sometimes this means working with language so we are all on the same page. Other times this means working with the latest science and technology and developing new tests that will help.
I’m passionate about my job, but I’m also aware that many people don’t know that it exists and I’m hoping that this blog will help to change that. I plan to share a bit about what my day to day life is like as well as the science which I hope will inspire others to become healthcare scientists. After all, I have the greatest job in the world. And that is worth shouting about.
During the 10 years between setting up the website, with a world of good intentions, and writing today, many things have changed. Not least of all are the organisms people care about and the way transmission is understood. My PhD thesis was on the role of the environment in transmission of healthcare acquired infection. In many ways, getting papers published out of it was a struggle as very few journals were interested in the built environment and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC). Now organisations such as the Healthcare Infection Society run entire events linked to it, and I run something called the Environmental IPC Network, as the topics impacts so many of us. On a national level I’m now involved in writing guidelines to help support environmental IPC, all of which was a pipe dream when my thesis was being written. It felt like a very lonely area to be working in, but over the last 10 years it feels like the built environment is finally being recognised as an important component to how we keep patients safe in the world of IPC. I’ve now even had my own PhD students continue the work.
The other thing that has changed are the organisms that are perceived as being important. Even more though, there are organisms that were not even thought about in 2015, or didn’t exist, that can or are impacting so many lives, for instance Candida auris is a new kid on the block, and Mpox was called something completely different. Few people cared about Gram negative bacteria when I started my PhD, let alone Adeno. This was true even to a certain extent when I finished. I’ve worked on Adenovirus for over 2 decades, so it feels especially vindicating to see it make it onto the UKHSA priority pathogen list for research. All of this is to say, you don’t need to follow the crowd, if you find a problem that you believe is important enough, stick at it. Gather the evidence and put it out there. Eventually you’ll find others that join you in seeing the significance of your direction of travel.
Speaking of organisms, in 2015 we testing for the odd Coronavirus, and of course the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak had happened, and the Middle Eastern Coronavirus (MERS) outbreak was ongoing. Many of us had been concerned with the potential of Coronaviruses to cause a pandemic, but most of the planning was still linked to Influenza based risks, as that was what had been seen historically. Awareness sadly does not necessarily link to preparedness, and as lived experience shows, the SARS CoV2 pandemic was both fast and devastating. We were unprepared, but I don’t know that we ever could have been.
Outbreaks with a worldwide distribution are not unusual and the table below shows just how many have happened or have been ongoing from 2015 onward. It also shows that not all outbreaks with world wide spread are considered to be pandemics, and not all pandemics have death tolls in the millions. In fact a pandemic is defined as “an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people”. With this classical definition including nothing about population immunity, virology or disease severity. So, preparing for a pandemic is not as simple as it can initial appear.
NB for ease I grabbed this list from Wikipedia, please don’t judge me for it
The table also shows quite how hard life can be in the world of IPC as the organisms don’t stop because we are tired and need a break. In fact the world re-opening post pandemic, combined with some of the scientific distrust that the political handling of the pandemic created, and the fear people experienced, means that managing outbreaks since has been an ongoing struggle. Vaccine hesitancy is having a real impact on transmission and making a key line of defense less effective. Many experienced experts in this field and others related to infection and public health have now retired or moved away due to the ongoing personal impacts. This means it’s more important than ever to turn up, be seen and to have engaged conversations across boundaries and silo’s in order to develop trust and support patient safety. No matter how hard it feels, it is still worth it.
My clinical world has changed a lot, partly because of the changing organisms and the pandemic, but also because the patients and healthcare are changing. It can take quite a lot to keep up with all of these changes, and you have to be fully engaged with an approach that aligns with continuous learning to stay up to date. On top of this, when you start out as a trainee with over a decade of training ahead of you, you have also got a list of key education targets to prioritise. It can therefore feel very much like you are just working your way through a list of items that need to be ticked off so you can eventually get to the finish line. There is a lot of ‘onto the next thing’ as soon as you manage each key milestone because otherwise it can feel overwhelming. One of the key things I’ve realised since 2015 is the importance of cherishing the moment and recognising the importance of progress, rather than rushing from one thing to the next with my entire focus about keeping an eye on the prize.
Passing FRCPath first time is still one of the most challenging things I’ve done in over 2 decades in healthcare. To be honest, I’d rather do another PhD than take FRCPath again, any day of the week. I wish that I could have found a way forward where I didn’t let my ability to pass, or risk of failure of an exam define me, but for many years it did. I’m pretty sure that telling my younger self this would have achieved nothing, as it takes time and distance to be able to understand that the tick list isn’t everything, but just in case it helps anyone reading this……you are more than the sum of the exams you sit, the letters after your name or the achievements on your CV. You have value no matter where you are on the pathway, no matter how many diversions you have taken, and to be honest, it’s OK to also decide the end destination is no longer for you. Who you are matters more than any tick list.
Part of the way I’ve gained perspective on my own training is by supporting others now through theirs. Seeing PhD students go through their own trials and tribulations, and sharing in their eventual successes., has given me insight I couldn’t have gained any other way. Supporting Healthcare Science training, everywhere from writing curricula to mentoring individuals at all stages of their careers, has allowed me to see things from all kinds of different perspectives. It’s given me so much insight, as well as time to reflect on how I felt and what might have helped me along the way, in order to try to help others better.
I feel more seen as a Healthcare Scientist than I ever have. I feel that Healthcare Science as a discipline and a profession is more seen than it ever has been. There are so many more routes into Healthcare Science these days, with so many more options. This is a truly brilliant step forward from when I joined, when there really was only one route as a Clinical Scientist and having to really fight to show that you could do things differently if you wanted to go another way. As the same time however, all that choice can feel a bit overwhelming, and in some cases paralysing, as people just don’t know where to start. In order to reach more people and support them in navigating this changing landscape though does require a willingness to be visible, to bring ourselves and our stories, in order to show others what an amazing profession this is. To show the openness and diversity of the workforce, in order to make sure everyone knows this can be a profession that is welcoming and open to everyone. You can’t be what you can’t see, so let’s make sure we are seen!
I have been fortunate enough to have experienced opportunities that I never believed would be open to someone as normal as me. I don’t come from a privileged background. I didn’t go to private school or attend Oxbridge. I don’t have connections, or a rich family to bail me out and pay for my exams/conference fees/fancy memberships. So when I get invited or asked to do amazing things, I of course say yes, but I’d think to think I’m saying yes for more than just me. I’m going into spaces and having conversations with people so that I can represent. Represent my workforce. Represent my gender. Represent my background and represent my family. To do so is an immense honour and a privilege that I don’t ever lose sight of.
No one I knew, outside of work, had ever had a New Years Honour, so it never even occurred to me I would get one. Being able to undertake work in Africa which aims to reduce infant mortality by 20% in high mortality settings, is not work that I thought I would ever get involved with, it felt too big for someone like me. That’s just it though, ‘someone like me’. We put so many labels and restrictions on ourselves. We limit our own vision. If the last 10 years have taught me anything it’s that you probably can’t see where you will end up, there’s too much joyful chaos in life for that, but you can control saying yes. Saying yes to things that scare you. Saying yes to rooms that may intimidate. Saying yes to being open to opportunities and changes in direction, even when you have no idea where they might lead you. Half the joy is in the discovery, so put on that adventure outfit and head out the door.
I’ve talked about the tick list and why visibility matters, and not just for you as an individual. Now I want to talk a bit about glass ceilings and choosing to do things differently. I have, over the years, lost count of how many times I have been told that something wasn’t for me. Not for me because of my background, profession or gender, or maybe just because I didn’t fit in. I used to hear a lot of ‘no’ and I used to feel like others could define me. The thing I’ve learnt is, that the only person who can define you is you. You can give away your power to others and let them made those choices for you, or you can own your path, your career and your choices, in order to define yourself. I’m not saying any of this is easy. I’m not saying it is fast or straight forward. I am saying it is a choice.
I became the first non-medical Infection Control Doctor (that I know of), because I worked to create the path to get there, which hopefully others will now follow. I didn’t know that was possible when I started, and it came with a goodly number of fights along the way. There were days when I definitely believed the ‘no’s’ and didn’t think it would happen, but I kept trying, I kept showing up. It became clear that I would never make Professor at my original home within UCL, due to long standing bias for medical over scientific backgrounds. So I pivoted and found a new academic UCL home that welcomed me and supported me in my journey instead. Things that are worth fighting for take time and commitment, and nothing is guaranteed. Paths are often not well trodden, and so finding the right people to support you along the way is key. Don’t drift. Make your choices consciously. Know what you are willing to fight for. Know also what you are prepared to let go of. When things come together share the knowledge, share the path, and make it easier for others to follow. Drop that ladder down or prop the doorway open.
I had thought it was post pandemic blues but I think it’s just transitioning to another phase of life and career that got me thinking about this one. I’ve been working at GOSH for 21 years this year, pretty much my entire working life. During this time there have been two mentors that have pretty much introduced me to and gotten me through everything. In my clinical life it has been Dr John Hartley, and in my academic world it has been Professor Nigel Klein. Now, John retired part way through the pandemic, and he really is the reason I have my Consultant post, as I took his Infection Control Doctor role. Nigel sadly passed away last year, before he had the chance to retire. In my head, I’m still the new girl on the block, the new person in the department, the young upstart. It is a shock to look around and realise I am now one of the people who have been there longest and I have very large shoes to fill, knowing how unprepared I feel to fill them. The giants that have gone before have left, but I wasn’tt prepared for them to leave. I think the biggest shocker has been that there are some who now look at me in the same way that I looked at John and Nigel, when I don’t feel like I am even in the same league. I think they will always loom large in my mind, and I honour what they taught me by embedding it in my practice.
Your career can feel like such an open pathway ahead of you. Then you wake up one day and realise you, probably, have less than a decade left. It’s at moments like that you really need to think about what it is that you want to achieve, what you want to prioritise, in order to maximise the impact of the time you have left. Ten years feels like a long time, but its really just 2 cycles of PhD students, 2 large project grants and only 3 trainee Clinical Scientists. It’s no where near as long as it feels and so planning ahead takes on an all new perspective. If your a planner like me, now is the time to plan for this new phase of your career.
Learning that you can’t fix everyone or everything
Part of that planning for the future is also knowing what not take on. I am a simple soul, I like being liked. It’s taken me a long time to grow in my leadership to the point where I acknowledge that I not a god, and I don’t have a magic wand, therefore I can’t fix everything or everyone. Nor can I be liked by everyone. Part of being a leader is making tough decisions, part of being a leader is also about honesty and not saying the easy things, just to be liked. Sometimes, I have learned, putting off the difficult conversations and the difficult decisions does no one any favours and so it’s best to have them early. As a mentor, you are there to advise, but the decision are owned by the person making them. You are not people’s parents and they are not children, we should therefore be aiming for adult adult conversations. Acting like a White Knight can actually do more harm than good, as you are removing learning opportunities for those you swoop in and save. It is a difficult balance to know when to step in and when to maintain a pure supporting role. It is one that I will continue to get wrong. All I can do is learn, do my best, own the consequences, and aspire to be better.
The flip side of learning you can’t fix everything is being aware of your duty to try to make things that are in your remit of control or influence as good as they can be. As I’ve said, I have a decade left in all likelihood, and therefore my job is to ensure that I maximise the opportunities for others until the day I don’t have the ability to influence any more. My career is very much no longer about me, it’s about those who I will be leaving behind to carry on once I’m writing murder mysteries and drinking martinis at three in the afternoon. My job is to support as many people as possible to be in the best position possible when I walk out the door for the last time. I realise it’s now my job to keep the doors open and assist people through them. Whether it’s mentorship, nominations, or speaking peoples names in rooms they haven’t been invited into, I plan to do all I can to make sure that I pay it forward every opportunity I get.
I have the job I planned for and dreamt about for 2 decades. It is my dream job and I love it I wouldn’t change it or my decision to go for it for the world. There is no doubt however that post pandemic it has been hard. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older, because the job and the world right now feels pretty intense and hard core, or because my body still kind of hates me for what I put it through during the pandemic, but I definitely feel burnt out and recognise that even a dream job can be a lonely place to be.
The thing is, not every day is going to be a great day. Even in a dream job there will be bits that are harder or speak to you less. It’s also OK to not be OK. The world, and especially those of us in infection control, have been through a prolonged period of pretty significant stress and trauma. We are not going to be the same people we were going in. You don’t have to change the world every moment of every day, sometimes showing up and doing your best is enough, and what your best looks like will be different at different times. I have learnt the importance of asking myself, what would I say to a friend in this situation, and to show myself the kindness that I would show to others rather than acting as my own harshest critic. Try to take a step back and give yourself the prospective you need to find a route forward.
Just the act of writing this post has made me realise how far I’ve come. If you’d asked me in 2015, I would have said being a leader is about setting an example, about getting things right, about showing competence and keeping a cool head. I’m sure leadership is about some of those things, but what I have learnt, for me, is that leadership is about authenticity.
It’s about prioritising bringing my whole self to every encounter. It’s about saying sorry when I make mistakes, rather than pretending to always be right. It’s about sharing that I too am finding it hard, rather than pretending to be OK, but that success is about showing up anyway. It’s about the fact that some people will find this bringing of self about sharing of weakness and use it as a route to criticise, not everyone will like or even ‘get’ what you bring to the table. It is also about knowing that you don’t have to like or be liked to work with others, but that it is instead about developing shared goals, and that diversity of thought makes us stronger and not weaker. Finally, it’s about knowing that it can be scary to share who you truly are as the comments and the insults hit harder without having an armoured shell in the way. However, if you don’t show that you can bring your whole self to a space others will feel less able to do so. Creating safe spaces where people can truly be themselves is one of the greatest things we can do, and so we need to model the way forward so that others don’t have to take that risk instead of us.
Of all the posts I was most scared to share when I wrote it in April 2021 was the one where I talked about losing my sister and how it felt to know that I wouldn’t be able to have children on top of losing her. It was one of the first really personal and vulnerable posts that I put out and I was really scared of what the response might be, both from family and from strangers. Instead, it was shared more times than any other post, and people still come up and talk to me about it, my sister, and Morgan my niece, who we also lost. Something that terrified me, led me to being able to talk about something that impacts so many and is talked about so little. Sharing, was a bravery I don’t think I would have managed in any other way than on this blog, and having conversations with people who read it are so meaningful to me, even now.
More recently I shared a post about what it feels like now, over 10 years since losing my sister. I really wanted to post how something that feels so insurmountable, in terms of not having children when you wanted them, can actually turn into something where your life still has so much meaning and joy. A position I could not have even imagined in 2010 when I lost them. I truly, honestly, love my life. My life has meaning and I have achieved things that I’ve been forced to admit would not have been possible if my life had taken a different course. I hope that sharing this can help others who are not there yet to know that there is a future where they will smile, laugh and feel valued again, no matter how dark the moment feels.
I’ve always been a family girl, but I’ve not always prioritised them in the way that I should. I’ve missed funerals and weddings for work. I’ve cancelled dinners and missed trains home. The pandemic, and life in general, has made me decide that I need to put my family first, and thus myself. There needs to be balance to make it through the marathon of a healthcare career, and some of that balance requires that the job cannot always be the thing that defines who we are. Mummy and Mr Girlymicro are my world, and every moment spent with them makes me a better person and thus better at my job. Bringing my whole self to my job and my leadership requires me to nurture precisely that, my whole self. So credit where credit is due. My family support me in being able to do what I do. They make me martinis when I’ve had a bad day, give me water when I’ve forgotten to drink, and feed me when I’ve inevitably forgotten to eat. They love me for my flaws as well as my strengths, and put me back together when I break. They are my everything, and so they need to feel like my priority in life. I guess my learning is this, don’t become so focused that you forget to acknowledge the people that got you there, and don’t be so ‘eyes on the prize’ that you forget to enjoy the journey with those who care.
Last, but by no means least. I have learnt to embrace the unexpected. I’m a planner but when I started posting on this blog I didn’t really have a plan. I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing. I just knew that it felt like it was something that was needed and had been asked for as part of a challenging time when people were looking for information. It was something that was supposed to be a little hobby that unexpectedly became a central rhythm of my life. Something that is a focus of a little time every day. Something that feels mine when less and less of my working life feels that way. It’s a space where I really feel I can connect, in a way that is probably a little insane for something I throw onto a page and don’t see people read. None of this was planned, and yet it has changed my world. It has changed my plans for the future. It has given me a creative outlet, and some hope in pretty dark times. So, if I have a thought at all for you to take from this overly long blog post, it is this. Embrace the random moments that come your way. Embrace the actions that you roll a dice on and don’t think will lead you anywhere, because every once in a while, without you even being aware of the whys or the how, they may change your life for the better.
This post was supposed to be something quite different. It was supposed to be about One Heath and a great podcast created by Beckman Coulter I was involved with in 2024, alongside some really inspiring people. In some ways it still is that, but because of the cruel reality of life it is actually also something quite different.
”Going Macro on Micro” is a podcast that Dr Simon Doherty and I were involved with that explores emerging themes and pressing issues in the world of microbiology. As the host, Dr Lough, says the podcast covers everything from investigating the global challenges of infection control to unveiling the future of diagnostic technologies.
The week the final episode of the podcast dropped, before Christmas, I got some pretty devastating news. Sadly Simon has passed away. Now, I didn’t know Simon well. We’d emailed since doing the podcase together and I kept an eye on the awards he received and his really interesting posts. In this limited contact though, he still managed to inspire. Recording the series with him was such a privilege. He was kind, open and funny. More than that he was so knowledgeable and I came away feeling like I’d learnt so much. I am so sad that I won’t be able to build on the foundation we laid to continue to learn from him and talk about the challenges/opportunities that face us in the fascinating world we both inhabited. I thought about not sharing these episodes when I heard the news, but then decided that I don’t want you to lose out on the honour I had of learning from him direct. I hope that you will hear both his wisdom and his challenge, and also aspire to do better, as I do, as a result. Thank you Simon.
I’ve decided to keep the focus on Simon and just put some graphics and links here that might supporting learning more about antimicrobial resistance and One Health. At some point when the loss of Simon has had a little more time to be processed I will think about writing something in a little more depth reflecting on his comments and the overlap between human health and veterinary medicine. Until then, the links to the episodes are below:
Ahmad Nayeem , Joji Ronni Mol , Shahid Mohammad. (2023). Evolution and implementation of One Health to control the dissemination of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes: A review. Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
Episode One
Rhouma, M., Soufi, L., Cenatus, S., Archambault, M., & Butaye, P. (2022). Current Insights Regarding the Role of Farm Animals in the Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance from a One Health Perspective. Veterinary Sciences, 9(9), 480. https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci9090480
Episode Two
Sanseverino, Isabella & Navarro, Anna & Loos, Robert & Marinov, Dimitar & Lettieri, Teresa. (2018). State of the Art on the Contribution of Water to Antimicrobial Resistance. 10.2760/771124
Episode Three
Sanseverino, Isabella & Navarro, Anna & Loos, Robert & Marinov, Dimitar & Lettieri, Teresa. (2018). State of the Art on the Contribution of Water to Antimicrobial Resistance. 10.2760/771124
Episode Four
Sanseverino, Isabella & Navarro, Anna & Loos, Robert & Marinov, Dimitar & Lettieri, Teresa. (2018). State of the Art on the Contribution of Water to Antimicrobial Resistance. 10.2760/771124
Episode Five
Sanseverino, Isabella & Navarro, Anna & Loos, Robert & Marinov, Dimitar & Lettieri, Teresa. (2018). State of the Art on the Contribution of Water to Antimicrobial Resistance. 10.2760/771124
Episode Six
Sanseverino, Isabella & Navarro, Anna & Loos, Robert & Marinov, Dimitar & Lettieri, Teresa. (2018). State of the Art on the Contribution of Water to Antimicrobial Resistance. 10.2760/771124
This time of year is always special to me. Not only do I adore all things Christmas, but 10 years ago on the 10th December, I passed my PhD viva, and so it holds some pretty significant memories.
The thing is, and what I did not fully realise in the moment when this awesome photo and meme were made by Mr Girlymicro, was that although it felt like the end of something, it was really just a brilliant beginning.
Now, I say a brilliant beginning, but since this picture was taken there has been my fair share of being lost in the wilderness. There has been a chunk of self-doubt. There’s been plenty of agonising about career decisions and next moves. When you are working towards a PhD, although challenging, the end point is clear and there’s plenty of sign posting along the way. When working towards a career, all of those things are much more amorphous, and it’s much harder to know whether the decisions you are making are either right or significant, in any given moment.
In light of all of us I thought, to celebrate being 10 years on, now might be a good time to share some of what I’ve found to be helpful in navigating the forest of decision-making that comes with entering your post doctoral era.
Take time to know yourself
When you finish any big piece of career development it is both joyous and, for me, confusing. You have been running head long towards a goal for years, laser focussed on crossing that finish line. If, like me, you focus so much on the target you forget to think about what comes next, the end can actually be quite jarring. So, I think it’s actually important to build in time to review throughout the process if possible, but definitely at the end. Which aspects did you really enjoy and would like to ensure you include as a priority in any future career planning? Which bits did you not enjoy? Can the bits you didn’t enjoy be avoided or reduced by making decisions linked to next steps? Bearing in mind we all have bits of any job we don’t adore…….If the bits you dislike are a feature of academia, then maybe also think more widely about where your science might fit.
Another thing that it is worth doing, is really taking some time to map and focus on your skill gaps. The great thing about entering a different career phase it that it is an opportunity to really re-invent yourself and re-set. The next thing you do, science wise, after a PhD might actually be pretty different. Choosing a post doc is an opportunity to take all you’ve experienced during your PhD and use it make a more informed decision about your future. It may be that you, for example, had never had the opportunity to undertake bioinformatics before your third year, and now it really interests and inspires you. What skills would you need to develop to have this as a more dominant feature in your career? What further experience do you need to make you competitive in the job market? Then use this reflection to make informed choices when you are developing your next steps.
The final thing to really take some time to review will be your personal priorities. I don’t want the same things now that I did in my twenties. To be honest I don’t really want the same things now that I wanted before the pandemic, my priorities have definitely changed. When you reach the end of a big career stage it is worth doing a piece of reflection, as you may have been working towards something for a period of years whilst life went on around you. I’ve had plenty of friends who were super career focussed and then reached a point, post 1st post doc, where their priorities changed and they wanted to focus more on their families for a while. Giving yourself some time to decide what work life balance looks like for you, and what your priorities are, will mean you maintain yourself as well as your career along the way.
Foster the old
It can be tempting, especially if you didn’t have the greatest experience, to walk away from everything linked to what you’ve just completed, like a PhD, into the sunset and never look back. Some people have great PhD experiences, some have awful ones, and most people have a time of both highs and lows. No matter how tempting it is to close the door on this chapter of your life this is my plea to you to consider maintaining those links. You will have spent years working in an environment where you will have invested in networks, relationships and learning. Utilising that foundation, even if not all of it, to support your next steps is one of the best things that can come out of your PhD. It doesn’t have to be via your supervisor, but through the peers you bonded with, or even other academics you encountered during the way. Invest a little in making sure that you don’t lose the things you have already put a lot of energy into when you start to move into something new.
Find your people
Now, having said about maintaining the old, we all know people who’ve clung so tightly to where they’ve come from that they never really move forward. This is also not great. You’re entering a new phase and you can’t truly maximise on the potential of that if you carry over too much of where you’ve been. If you want to continue to thrive, this is the time to expand and find your new tribe.
This can be an intimidating time but there are often routes out there within your organisation that really support you in doing this. I would advocate that, during any career transition phase, it is worth taking some time to see if you can find a mentor or get access to coaching, in order to help you through the reflection and to maximise the opportunity.
A key early focus should always be to get out there and start making your own connections, building your own relationships, and start stepping into that independent researcher space. Mentorship can really help with this, as its an intimidating thing to need to do, and it’s important to not shy away from. If you are not the best networker, like me, one of the things that I found really helpful for this was joining and becoming an active participant in professional bodies/societies or other opportunities that may exist within your organisation. This provides an organic way to meet people and build relationships, whilst also undertaking activities that interest you and service your CV. The people I met early on are not only my colleagues but many are now my friends. They are the people I call who keep me sane. So it’s time well spent.
Be prepared for the studying to continue
You reach the end of your PhD and most of us say that’s it, we are never studying again. Then, within a fairly short time, reality makes a liar of us all. If you want an academic career then the studying will continue. There will be a need to become a better educator, as well as researcher, with things like working towards Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) to support how well you teach, and ensure you remain competitive in the job market. There are always new techniques and specialist skills to pick up, and I would make a plea that we could all do with spending some time on developing our communication skills. I’m talking everything from grant writing skills, to media training and public engagement skills. No matter how little you think you need some of these things, you will always need them more than you predict. The added bonus is that they will also beneficially impact on other parts of your work, for instance things like public engagement skills make your general presentation skills better.
Throw your hat into the ring often
We all have moments of high and low confidence. One of the things that I’ve learnt is how important it is to notice and acknowledge whatever period I’m in, but not let it impact my activity, as how I’m feeling personally does not really alter my chances of success on any given thing as that it usually linked to external factors. It is also easy to not be applying for grants and other things if you are in a comfortable place, because you have funding etc. The thing is, the most important thing, for both your CV and your development is consistency. You won’t get better at writing grants, papers etc if you aren’t doing it, so even if you don’t ‘need’ to do it as you have funding that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t. You may choose to apply for a public engagement or development grant instead, but you should still do it.
The same is true for throwing your hat into the ring for roles and other opportunities, you often don’t know where they will lead you, but if you don’t do it you’ll never know. Practice makes perfect, and you won’t always succeed in the moment, but the experience gained will always stand you in good stead.
Learn how to process failure
I’ve posted plenty about failure before, and why I actually think I’ve learnt more from my failures than my successes. The truth of it is that academic feels like it is 80% failure and rejection, and it is, if you only focus on the outcome instead of the process. The learning is in the experience. In producing the work. So yes, by throwing your hat into the ring you are opening yourself up to a lot of failure when it comes to outcomes, but there is a lot less uncertainty linked to the fact that you will develop as a consequence. Each of us has to come to terms, and find a way of thinking about and dealing with the outcome failures in a way that supports our personal thinking and processing. Yours is likely to be different to mine, but investing some time working out how best to manage yourself in these moments will be ones of the best investments in time you can make if you want to maintain an academic career.
Practice all forms of communication
I’ve mentioned this a little all the way through, but I’m going to re-state it here as it’s important. Take every opportunity you are offered to practice and improve your communication skills. Every chance to write a lay summary, or patient information leaflet. Every chance to present, small or large, no matter how terrified you are. Every opportunity to copy edit someone’s grant or paper. Every chance to be on an interview panel, or review committee. All of it will enable you to see how other people communicate and find new ideas for things you like, or get you to put your research dissemination in a new way to a different audience, and therefore be able to see it in a new light. The only way you get better at any of this stuff is by putting in the hours, there are no short cuts.
I’m not the best writer, but it’s not about skill, it’s about putting in the time and practicing. I write every week, and hope that I get better by doing so. Some people may have an initial talent, but even they need to do the work. So take every opportunity you can to develop your skills early so that you can maximise the benefit during your career.
Don’t be tempted by rabbit holes
Coming out of something, like a PhD, where the your focus has had to be on a single very defined goal, it can be tempting to approach the next phase of your career in the same way. I don’t think it hurts to have focus, to have your list of gaps to address, and the things you’ve identified that you want to include and prioritise. I also want to state here that unlike your PhD phase, you might want to consciously keep the next phase broad and ensure that you maximise your opportunities to try and experience a breadth of options. Not just to help inform future decision making, but also because, as I’ve posted linked to making professor, you can’t progress on the basis of one area of interest alone. You may be an amazing researcher, but you also need to know how to communicate your research. You may be a wonderful teacher, but you also need to develop your strategic awareness skills in order to understand how best to navigate the system you find yourself in. Be aware of your future career needs and make sure you don’t close doors without realising it by failing to maintain and grow across development areas, and know how much these areas cross support each other to make you the best scientist you can be.
Be prepared to be flexible
I’ve discovered that pathways are never as direct as I once believed them to be, and I have previously struggled to be kind to myself in understanding that the most direct path is not always the correct one for me. I failed to see the joy in the diversions for a long time. Looking back on it though, this diversions and deviations have frequently ended up in giving me the experiences and opportunities where I’ve learnt most about myself or gained most in terms of career progression. Being open to the less travelled path can reap unexpected rewards. Being open minded when presented with choices, and sometimes over looking short term gain, can have great career benefits in the long term.
Sometimes this flexibility is also about allowing yourself to choose to prioritise your personal priorities at times over career ones. It can feel like, if you are making a choice, it is a permanent closing of a door but more often than not it is a choice you are making for right now based on what works for you. Being mindful of when choices are permanent or for ‘right now’ can be really helpful in evaluating next moves. Also, knowing that your choices are about you and what’s right for your life, and not listening too much to outside distractions can be helpful. It may be right for you to move into industry, to step back from clinical, to move into strategy or policy, only you can judge. There can be perceived judgement linked to leaving a standard academic path, but career paths are so much more diverse and flexible than they used to be, and so we should not just accept but embrace the freedom that creates.
Define yourself, don’t let others do it for you
The truth is, if you don’t define yourself you will be defined by other people. It is natural for human beings to want to put each other into boxes, that’s how we process and see the world, but you need to step up and choose which boxes are right for you and not be scared if they are perceived as different or unusual. Knowing how to communicate who you are, your unique selling points, and almost developing your own brand, can also help others understand and support you.
If others start to define you it can be easy to become a passenger in the early stages of your career, and then once you’ve established yourself enough to know who you are you’ve travelled down a path that takes time to re-set. Being able to communicate your values, beliefs and core vision, is essential in so many different interactions, be they in your personal or professional life. Doing this well means you are less likely to swayed or worse mis-labelled, leading you to end up somewhere that is out of alignment with who you are and where you want to be. This path leads to unhappiness and real issues with career satisfaction and fulfilment. Don’t be a passenger in someone else’s story, or an imitation of someone else’s aspirations, work hard to ensure you are the leading character in your own life. That is the path to real satisfaction in your career and supports you finding the happiness you deserve in your day to day life.
All opinions in this blog are my own
If you would like more tips and advice linked to your PhD journey then the first every Girlymicrobiologist book is here to help!
This book goes beyond the typical academic handbook, acknowledging the unique challenges and triumphs faced by PhD students and offering relatable, real-world advice to help you:
Master the art of effective research and time management to stay organized and on track.
Build a supportive network of peers, mentors, and supervisors to overcome challenges and foster collaboration.
Maintain a healthy work-life balance by prioritizing self-care and avoiding burnout.
Embrace the unexpected and view setbacks as opportunities for growth and innovation.
Navigate the complexities of academia with confidence and build a strong professional network
This book starts at the very beginning, with why you might want to do a PhD, how you might decide what route to PhD is right for you, and what a successful application might look like.
It then takes you through your PhD journey, year by year, with tips about how to approach and succeed during significant moments, such as attending your first conference, or writing your first academic paper.
Finally, you will discover what other skills you need to develop during your PhD to give you the best route to success after your viva. All of this supported by links to activities on The Girlymicrobiologist blog, to help you with practical exercises in order to apply what you have learned.
Back in the mists of time, before she really knew what microbiology was, there was a girl who just knew that she liked science. Now, this girl had a father who liked physics, a sister who liked chemistry, and a brother that liked both. This girl was not particularly found of mathematics however, and chemistry was a foreign language, and so she starred in the lab and wondered,’What kind of science is right for me?’.
I have previously posted about having missed so much school and not really being prepared to go to university. I didn’t, therefore, have exactly the most normal build-up to uni as I didn’t think it would happen. In a rather spectacular science irony, when it suddenly turned out I might be able to go, I just hadn’t done my research. I didn’t have much of a clue what my options or routes to a scientific career might be. Hopefully if past me found my how to be a scientist blog it would be a useful starter for 10. In my defence, at least I acknowledged this, and so I chose a degree that allowed me to specialise after my 1st year, when I would have had time to try out a few potential options.
One of the other things I should probably admit at this point, is that lab work terrified me. I hadn’t been in the class room when people were shown how to use microscopes or pipettes, and I was just too embarrassed to ask as I already felt both stupid and so behind everyone else. I’d done very little lab work as I’d missed most of my 5th year at school, and during my A-levels I had to undertake condensed study to make sure I had enough points to go to uni. So the idea of spending a lot of time outside a traditional lab space definitely held appeal, as it felt like I was finally starting at the same point as everyone else.
So this girl finally chose her specialty and worked super hard to be accepted onto the zoology course.
All of this feels like a different world at this point, over 20 years on. As some of my team love to point out, I started uni when they were still at primary school (1999). These years were so formative however for how I developed as both a scientist and a person, I was so excited to be able to revisit the subject when I spent a night at ZSL London Zoo with Mr and mummy Girlymicro and remind myself of days of science past.
What is zoology anyway?
When you say Zoology, I suppose the first thing that springs to mind are zoos. Now, you may find quite a lot of zoologists in and around zoos, but this is actually just one place place where the study of Zoology happens. In fact, zoology is so much more than the study of animals in zoos. It is, in fact:
The scientific study of the behaviour, structure, physiology, classification, and distribution of animals
I was aware that the area of animal behaviour really interested me. It was something that I’d touched on during psychology A-Level, and that then extended into human behavioural modelling with things like group decision making. Comparison of group behaviour between primates and other animals and how attachment develops between adults and infants was something that I found fascinating. This was, for me, the gateway that made me think about choosing Zoology, but there was so very much more to it than I knew at that point.
Because of this, when we arrived to spend the night at London Zoo, I was particularly excited as the lion enclosure had just welcomed three cubs, one girl and two boys. Mali and Syanii and girl Shanti were born at London Zoo on 13 March 2024 to seven-year-old mum, Arya, and 14-year-old dad Bhanu. The first thing we got to do was to spend some time after the zoo had closed watching them at their most active, as it was evening, in a small group with one of their keepers. We got to drink prosecco, take all the photographs we wished, hear a talk, and pepper them with questions. It was a truly wonderful way to kick off the evening. It was also as far away from my old zoology field trips as you can imagine, where as a student I would find the most comfortable spot on the ground I could in order settle in for the next eight hours, with a pile of stationary and a timer, nursing a bottle of water and a sandwich so I didn’t have to leave my space until I was done.
What was the degree like?
One of the great things about the degree was that, as long as you took the correct modules for your target specialism, you could try all kinds of science topics, especially early on. So, as well as modules on invertebrates and ecology, I also took modules on psychology and microbiology. In my first year, although I feel it disliked me as much I disliked it, I also took mandatory modules, which included Biochemistry. That first year was a whirl wind of things I was unfamiliar with. It was also the year that, although I thought I liked human genetics, I discovered that it really wasn’t the field for me. I learnt a lot about how I think and what kinds of topics align better with how that process works for me. A version of the course exists even now if anyone is interested, although I suspect it has moved on somewhat:
Now, I was still terrifed of lab work and so the fact that some modules came with weekend field trips rather than traditional lab work made me very happy. There were also other kinds of ‘labs’ which involved a lot of drawing of skulls and anatomy, where I discovered I hadn’t missed my calling as an artist.
There were also some super super fun exercises that I remember fondly even now. At one point we were sent out to learn how to capture and undertake population statistics by recording taxi cab license plates (as they link to age) and working on the population stats of births and deaths using this. I found a lovely window in a McDonalds and stared at a taxi rank for a day chatting with my friends, and it was great. These moments really taught me that science was not all about lab work, as I had previously thought, but it could be undertaken anywhere and in a way that was not only interesting but also enjoyable and fun.
One of the other things this course taught me about myself was that I like to take the less trodden path. For my final year dissertation, I could have taken a lab based project, but I still wasn’t that confident. Instead, I chose to do a library based project with a twist. The library was the British Library (https://www.bl.uk/), and the project was based in evolutionary psychology looking at The Demographics of Witchcraft Accusations (1625 – 1720). I got to go through every documented witchcraft trial in England and then look at the legal changes that drove resource competition and compare it with the US and Europe, where the drivers were different. This exercise stays with me, as it showed that no matter what the outward appearance, you always need to understand the underlying drivers to fully investigate a situation.
Moments that stay with you
I’ve already said that my aim was always to choose Zoology because of my interest in animal behaviour, but it was a pretty competitive selection process. Places were allocated to specialisms on the basis of a combination of choice and grade. So the top person in the year was guaranteed their choice of degree, if you were 300th, not so much. I believe my 1st year had over 1000 combined students, and the bottom 50% were dropped every year, so the year group size got smaller but was still competitive. Dissertation topics were given out in the same way. So there was an ever-present motivation to work hard, not just so you didn’t get booted, but so you could have the best chance to influence your future. I suspect it’s all very different these days with tuition fees, but it was pretty brutal for some people.
If you secured the grades you progressed and specialised. This meant we got to do some zoo visits and start exploring topics like animal behaviour and undertake behavioural observation studies. Several of these were zoo based and included observing primates, but also Giant Tortoises. We also did a fair amount of non-zoo based observational studies, including undertaken observations in the uni canteen looking into group and sentinel behaviour.
I loved this mix. I love the fact that it really embedded science for me as a team sport, as so much of it you couldn’t accomplish on your own. It also taught me how much I value both collaboration and variety in what I do, a valuable lesson in choosing my future career.
In all honesty, over time, despite loving the science I grew to believe that sitting in fields in the lake district wearing water proofs for weeks at a time was less aligned with my future life choices, but at least it gave me fun memories that years later I could turn into a comedy sketch as part of public engagement work.
How did all of this help with the day job?
This was all very fun, but how does any of that help me now?
Well, I obviously covered a certain amount of animal related infection, which is still useful, but I think it was the wider stuff that gave me such a good foundation for every day working life as a scientist.
Firstly, there was always a strong focus on group communication. You just couldn’t succeed on the course without developing your group work and collaboration skills. Almost everything we did required multiple people to support. You can’t observe a group for 8 hours on your own, at least not efficiently. This meant the planning and analysis stages also involved a lot of group discussion. Being young and enthusiastic, there were lots of strong and differing opinions. Learning to manage in those environments has been a crucial skill that has supported working in healthcare and multi-disciplinary environments later on.
Due to the variety of different types of work, I also got used to needing to access information from all kinds of different resources and from a lot of different disciplines. One day, I would be accessing psychology or physiology papers, and the next, I would be in a field reading ecology guides or in the British Library accessing centuries old court records. This also taught me the value of being a generalist with a solid supporting skill set. I don’t feel like I will ever be a real ‘expert’ in anything, but I learnt to take things from 1st principles and rationalise my way through. This is an approach I will be forever grateful for as so much of what I see in my day job I haven’t experienced previously. Getting back to 1st principles is something I have to do often and this training enabled me to do that without fear of the unknown.
Finally, the whole process of struggling to get to uni when it was generally considered to be ‘not for me’ and spending a lot of my time there feeling behind and playing catch up taught me a lot of things that are so valuable in my day today. It taught me to see science as a puzzle, and that to solve something you sometimes have to give it space and come at problems from different angles. During these periods it also taught me to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, and knowing that uncertainty is OK, in fact it is often essential. The very way the course was structured also gave me permission to mix up my science and follow routes that interested me, not some pre prescribed path. I think keeping to this principle has been key to me ending up where I am career wise. Follow your passion and the rest will work out, has become a guiding principle when I’m undertaking decision making.
What is a zoonosis?
Speaking of things that help the day job, I spent plenty of time in my third year studying infections related to animals and animal to human interaction. One of the other great benefits of a background in Zoology is the fact that, having learnt things from the animal side, I can combine that learning with the info I now have from the human side. Zoonosis are an increasingly important part of health based conversations, especially in light of increased travel, climate change, and urban expansion. So, what is a zoonosis?
A zoonosis is an infectious disease that can spread from animals to humans, or vice versa. Zoonotic diseases can be caused by a variety of pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa, and prions.
There have been multiple occasions during my career where zoonosis have been flagged as causing wider public health implications, and some of the big hitters are listed below:
One of the other reasons why zoonoses and a background in Zoology are increasingly important is linked to the One Health approach to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This requires us not to look at AMR from a purely human or animal perspective, but that we need to look at food production/agriculture, human and animal, as a holistic whole. I’ve recently been involved with a podcast series that involved discussing One Health issues with a vet, Simon Doherty, called going Macro on Micro, and hearing the veterinary perspective has been really helpful and eye opening.
Embedding public engagement
One of the things that I loved about staying overnight at London Zoo, apart from it reminding me of a joy for science and of fond memories, was the way that science and science engagement was embedded wherever you went, from the toilets to the canteen. Not only was information wherever you looked, but it was done in such a fun variety of ways, including an entire focus on poo, which was brilliant to see. It was science delivered in an accessible, engaging way that didn’t feel like you were being ‘taught’ but that you learnt through play and exploration.
This is such a great lesson for all of us involved in teaching and education, in both formal and non-formal settings. Learning can be achieved without it being arduous and by enabling those visiting to understand that science can be fun without it feeling ‘other’ or out of reach. It is the best way to introduce a generation of future scientists to the subject. Work such as this, also goes a long way to break down stereotypes of what science is (often considered to only be lab based) and what a scientist looks like (often considered to be the realm of older white men). In reality, science is for everyone, undertaken by everyone, and takes place everywhere. Embedding this concept early is the best way to change how science will be perceived in the future.
A peaceful escape
To end, I just wanted to quickly talk about what a delightful experience staying over night was. I am not a camper, and I am barely a glamper. I want an en-suite bathroom and a proper bed, with the ability to have tea whenever I want it. Fortunately, the cabins at London Zoo provide all of these things.
They are set in a zone of tranquillity, that whilst surrounded by the zoo, do not in any way feel impacted by the hustle and bustle of those visiting. That said, you are also in the centre of the zoo, so all of the walking tours around do not feel like you are walking miles im order to explore. You also get to undertake some activities that you simply wouldn’t be able to do any other way, including preparing enrichment activities for the animals and feeding some of the nocturnal species.
Whilst staying over you get full access to the zoo the day before, and on the following day. You also get to have dinner together after the zoo closes and breakfast together before the zoo opens. There are two different groups of bookings, one that includes kids of all ages, and one that is targeted at older kids and adults. This enables some of the tour content to be targeted, and for our tour, the group consisted entirely of adults. It was such fun, I can’t recommend it enough, and it was great to share it with mummy and Mr Girlymicro. It books up fast though, so if you want a chance at this unique insight, it’s worth booking several months ahead.
I’m off to the Federation of Infection Societies (FIS) conference this week. I’m involved in 3 sessions over 2 days, and in many ways, these types of events are a complete highlight for me. I get to be inspired by hearing new science, I get to catch up with wonderful colleagues who I don’t get time to see very often, and I get to immerse myself in all things microbiology without the distraction.
There is another side to this coin, however, and that is both the anxiety that builds before I go, and that can last throughout the whole event. The ever-present spirals of ‘do I know anything?’, ‘will I say something stupid?’, ‘will I know anyone?’, and the classic ‘do any of these people actually like me?’.
The combination of this social anxiety with the, sometimes long, very peopley days, can mean that I hit spirals pretty easily and the lack of solo recovery time means that I can find it pretty exhausting by the end.
Now, I’m obviously not talking about extreme cases of social anxiety that may require informed medical or long-term support. I’m talking about situational anxiety that most of us may find ourselves in from time to time.
Just in case there is anyone out there in a similar boat, I thought I might put together some things I’ve learnt along the way that help manage some of my anxiety traits and enable me to actually enjoy the experience rather than dreading it.
Do your prep work ahead of time
The first thing I’ve had to learn is that I can’t just pretend that doesn’t happen. I can’t wish it away. What I can do is be prepared and make sure that I have made the process as trigger free as possible.
For me, this is about simple things, like getting a hotel as close to the venue as possible. It means that if I just need a 30-minute alone break, I can take one. It removes anxiety about getting lost or forgetting something crucial and not having time to go back for it, which, although minor, can be the final straw. It’s also about making sure that I have pre-found all the rooms I need to locate ahead of time, so I know where I’m going, and that ahead of multi-day meetings I have a plan for which sessions I’m going to before I even travel to the event.
Know your triggers
I know that I have a few things that really lead to anxiety, but perhaps more unique to me, is the fear that I was have an auto immune attack and won’t be with people who understand what is needed. I learnt early that the best way to cover this one off is that I very rarely travel alone, especially over seas. I often travel with my mum or one of a very small list of truly trusted people, who I know would understand how to get me help if required.
Something that is more likely to strike a cord with others, is that I am also the girl who has walked into conference rooms, spent 15 minutes and walked out, as I knew no one and was just overwhelmed. I’m not proud of these moments, but I think it’s important to acknowledge that they have occurred. Although, to be honest, when they’ve happened, I mostly felt invisible, so I doubt anyone noticed.
I have discovered that I need to know that the space is one where I feel welcome for me to perform at my best. This sense of welcome can be either intellectual, because of the topics covered, or because of feeling a sense of community, as the room contains people within my field or in strong alignment with my values. I’ve found the overwhelming feeling hits most strongly when I’ve been in very large political or strategic sessions, where I felt out of my comfort zone on both intellectual and community counts.
That said, I’m not too bad in the sessions themselves, I’m there to learn something new, and learning excites me even now. It’s the breaks that are my nemesis, especially when large groups all surge into a space at the same time, and the weight of expectation that you must now network lands. The seconds that feel like hours of desperately searching for faces you recognise and being forced to face the fact that yes, you really should go up and speak to that absolute stranger, as it’s the right thing to do. It’s these moments that can cause me to bolt for the nearest bathroom.
Carve out time for yourself
One of the key mechanisms I’ve identified to help with my triggers is that I make sure I have enough time to myself, be that eating food away from the venue so I feel more certain what it contains and less at risk, to making sure I have evenings to myself to process and unwind.
I usually come over as really social, and really into spending time with people, and I am both of those things. I also only have a limited amount of social battery, and so in order to maintain that extrovert part of myself I have to have recharge time. I love talking to people about this blog, I love hearing about and responding to other peoples work, but at a certain point I need to sit down with an audio book and a cup of tea in order to do it well. This means that when I go through the brochure ahead of time, and plan my sessions, I make sure that I have enough blocks of time to enable me to be my best self when I’m in the space with others. Sometimes all you need is a walk to a local coffee shop and back to give you the perspective you need.
The wonderful thing about having hit my 20th year as a Healthcare Scientist, is that I now also know quite a few people, some of whom I’ve known for well over a decade. This means that at most events, there are also people who I count not only as colleagues but as friends. People that I can just go and spend time with that doesn’t include social commitment. Those friends you have that you can just be in the same space without any demands being made. If I’m at an event where these people are also attending, then I know that I have someone I can just excuse myself to catch up with if I’m having a moment. It’s also the great thing about ensuring that you have a hotel room nearby. Your safe bolt hole is only minutes away.
Make an agreement with yourself about how much is enough
The fact that you have social anxiety does not provide a free pass to escape one of the fundamental purposes of attending conferences, networking. It’s key to your career, it’s key to your development, it needs to happen. The thing is that there are varying degrees of what networking can be, and before you’re in the space, you need to decide what level you are aiming for and will therefore achieve. For me, my deal is that I will, on each day, speak to one person I don’t know. I am not allowed to finish my day without this happening, but once I have had that one daily interaction, then any further moments are a bonus. Once that one challenging moment is over with the pressure is off, and then I almost always over achieve on my goal.
Be realistic about how much you can expect of yourself
The key thing I’ve learnt is that I have to realistic when I’m making that deal with myself and deciding on achievable targets. For me, there is not point is saying I will speak to five people I haven’t met before, as I’ll just be setting myself up for failure. You will also find that I rarely sign up for conference dinners, as I have over the years found that if I’m in a space with other people from 08:00 – 18:00 I will really struggle to then spend yet more time with other people, no matter how lovely or interesting those people are. All I will want at that point is room service, tea, and a movie in my room.
Everyone will have their own tolerances and lines. The important thing is to have enough self reflection to know what yours are. Otherwise, you just add guilt into the anxiety mix, which is not much fun for anyone.
Learn how to work a room using tools you are comfortable with
One of the other things that I’ve learnt about myself, is that although I get super anxious standing in a room trying to approach someone at the coffee table, I am much much more comfortable moving around the exhibitor stands. The guys at the exhibitor stands are motivated to speak to those who approach, and there are usually science based discussions that I am eager to have. This, for me, is a match made in heaven, as it breaks me into the speaking to people I don’t know in a very gentle way. If I’m lucky, I will also meet others when I’m wandering around, which will allow me to tick my ‘speak to one stranger box’ as exhibitors do not count on that front. The added bonus is that I also often manage to find cool new stuff I’m interested in or develop collaborations whilst this is happening, so it’s a no lose scenario for me.
The other thing that having worked for 20 years has given me is the opportunity to be asked to be involved with sessions. For this girl with social anxiety, this is actually a great thing, despite the fact that it sounds like it should be stressful. I’ve never minded public speaking in the same way as I worry about 1:1 interactions. When I speak, all I can do is put my best foot forward and hope that others will be interested in what I have to say. For the most part, if people don’t engage they will just leave and not give it another thought. On the positive side though, if people find what you say interesting enough to want to speak to you afterwards, this a great way to tick the ‘speak to one person you don’t know box’ and as they are approaching you all you have to do is respond. I find this so rewarding, but I also appreciate how fortunate I am to have this type of opportunity and how much it helps me manage to get the most out of events.
Prepare your exit strategy
One of the important things to bear in mind, and which I often forget, is that others do not necessarily feel the same way about social requirements. I struggle when people arrange evening meals at meetings when you’re already booked to spend a full day together. I understand the purpose, it’s lovely to build bonds and memories, and logistically it’s easier. I rarely, if ever, hit the end of the meeting day and wish to spend the few hours downtime I have with others, over reading in the bath however. There are frequently times I can’t opt out of these moments, but where I can, I will often have a pre planned reason to excuse myself. Often, this is work related, as I will always genuinely need to do some email catch up, and doing this after dinner means working till midnight. I don’t lie but I may pre-plan my rationale for not being available to support both my work load and my mental well being. I will never not pre-inform, as that is rude. People will have budgeted and made arrangements, so I will never last minute drop, but if the option arises I may flag unavailability at the planning stage.
Don’t succumb to expectations and pressure
People are amazing and much more welcoming than you expect. I’m always counting myself as so fortunate is be asked to unexpected drinks, meals and catch ups at conferences. I have learnt that I need to not get caught up in the moment and end up crossing the carefully curated boundaries I have put together, in order to ensure that I can last the social distance of the conference. I’m a planner for a reason and I don’t riff off the plan well. I also struggle with saying no. This means that there have been multiple times when I’ve said yes to that dinner, or those drinks, and have then suffered the consequences afterwards. Now, I work hard to keep to my boundaries so that I don’t make life harder for myself. This can be surprisingly difficult as all these invites are inclusive and well intended, I just have to remind myself to make the sensible choice to enjoy the entire event, rather than burning out after a single evening.
Know that this is an essential part of the job, so invest in coping strategies early in your career
The truth is that networking and attending these kinds of events is essential. They are a fundamental way of hearing the latest science and expanding your knowledge. They are also key for collaboration and building your networks, as well as dissemination of your work. No matter what anyone says, I have found that science fields tend not to be meritocracies, there’s plenty of ‘who you know’ involved, and the only way to address that is to get yourself out there. So you will need to learn how to navigate these settings, and the earlier in your career you manage that, the more rewards you will reap.
I’ve talked about some of my own pitfalls and things that I’ve implemented to help me, but you will have your own triggers, and each response will need to be customised to yoi and your needs. What is true for all of us is that you are not alone, and if you are in need of someone to speak to during the horror of a break, then I am always happy to be your person. This is what I look like and I will never turn you away.
Know that it gets easier
The longer you hang on in there, the easier it gets, honestly. I haven’t walked out on an event in a decade, although the toilet hiding is still a little more frequent 🤣
Pre manage your expectations of yourself and make sure they are reasonable
Book with a group or a friend if you can to take the edge of socialising with strangers
Join a social network, as you can use it to find like-minded people, and it can give you a virtual introduction rather than the cold approach
Similarly, join a society. Societies often have small meet-ups either before events or at meetings, and so you can make connections in a smaller, less intimidating space
Submit work. It’s much less intimidating if people come and speak to you rather than the other way around
Know it’s absolutely OK to need to tap out and have your own space, but make sure this is pre-planned so you don’t miss the reason you came to the event
Right, well, having talked about the need to be prepared. I haven’t even packed yet, so I’d better get on that. If any of you are Liverpool bound, make sure you come and say hi. I’m there Wednesday and Thursday.
All opinions in this blog are my own
If you would like more tips and advice linked to your PhD journey then the first every Girlymicrobiologist book is here to help!
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Master the art of effective research and time management to stay organized and on track.
Build a supportive network of peers, mentors, and supervisors to overcome challenges and foster collaboration.
Maintain a healthy work-life balance by prioritizing self-care and avoiding burnout.
Embrace the unexpected and view setbacks as opportunities for growth and innovation.
Navigate the complexities of academia with confidence and build a strong professional network
This book starts at the very beginning, with why you might want to do a PhD, how you might decide what route to PhD is right for you, and what a successful application might look like.
It then takes you through your PhD journey, year by year, with tips about how to approach and succeed during significant moments, such as attending your first conference, or writing your first academic paper.
Finally, you will discover what other skills you need to develop during your PhD to give you the best route to success after your viva. All of this supported by links to activities on The Girlymicrobiologist blog, to help you with practical exercises in order to apply what you have learned.
I posted a couple of weeks ago about application tips when applying for a PhD. In that post, I talked a bit about researching the supervisors in order to be able to talk about their work and department. In all honesty, though, there is a much stronger reason to start early on understanding your supervisor. They can make or break your experience during your PhD.
It’s no secret that I did not have the best supervisory experience during my own PhD, and there are plenty of reasons for that, but one of the main ones was that I didn’t start off understanding enough that there is a requirement to curate and nurture the supervisor – student relationship. I didn’t know what questions to ask, what clarity to seek, or frankly even what was normal. The relationship therefore broke down, and I retrospectively had to unpick why. Having learnt the hard way, and now having sat on both sides of the table, I thought I would share some thoughts about how to get the most out of your relationship with any academic/educational supervisor, PhD or not.
Do your research
As I’ve said, doing your research should probably start before you even have the post. It’s worth reaching out and speaking to previous and current students so you can to get an idea of what their experience has been. If you are already in post, it’s still worth speaking to people to find out as much as you can about what kind of supervision style they’ve experienced. Every supervisor is different, just like every leader is different. The more you know, the better placed you are to understand what the dynamics of your relationship might look like, and importantly whether there are any possible pitfalls which you could then address early, preventing then becoming something more. In this one, knowledge really is power. So get as much knowledge as you can as early as you can.
Expectations matter
We all enter relationships and situations with expectations, but too often, these are internalised and therefore opaque to both ourselves and others. Not getting these into the open where they can be discussed and expectations clarified can be a key reason for relationship breakdown, at least it was for mine. One of the reasons I think this happens is because, as students, we are often entering a completely new arena, and so we just don’t know the unwritten rules. I’d like to think that most supervisors know this and will therefore spend time at the starting point of the relationship to talk through what their expectations are. I’ve previously written about the use of learning agreements to help this process. Sadly, I’m all too aware that this is often not the case, and supervisors, who live in this different world, often forget that others don’t come with all the information they may need to deliver what is expected.
Get to know their work and working patterns
My inbox is the place where emails go to die, and my diary is a horror show. These are facts. No matter how much I try to keep up, I get hundreds of emails every day, and to be honest, I can’t. If you only send me a single email, it will get lost. If you try to get a same day meeting with me, you will fail. I therefore ask that, if it is important, you email me three times and make it high priority. This vastly increases the chance that I will see it. If you want to see me every 2 weeks, then let’s get a regular slot in, which will move, but at least it’s there. All of this is not because I don’t care, it’s just the only way I can manage multiple competing priorities. Everyone is different. You will have your own way of working, as will your supervisor. There is no point in being passive in the process and miserable about the outcome. If you have needs, you have to actively work to find the best way that they can be met.
Be aware that you are the one driving your work
One of the largest changes when you start a PhD is that it is YOUR PhD. You are in the driving seat. A PhD is effectively a job, and the switch up to the responsibility sitting with you can be a challenging shift. No one is policing deadlines, and in fact, you are the one that should be setting them. No one is prioritising your workload. You need to work out, with support, what needs to come first at any given time. The lesson about not being passive is important across all aspects of your PhD. You are no longer in a taught process. A PhD is effectively an apprenticeship in research, and like in any job, there are expectations placed on the employee in terms of delivery and performance. The earlier you can come to terms with this the easier your pathway will be.
Identify peer support
All of this change can make the start of any PhD stressful, and you will need to find sources of support outside of your supervisor. Even if you have a great relationship with your supervisor, even if everything is going well, there will be times when you dislike them or part of your PhD. In these circumstances, you need to have safe spaces to vent and seek support alongside benchmarking from others. It’s important to invest some time early on to build wider relationships with your peers and, if in a small lab, potentially seek out groups or networks. These will stand you in good stead during your PhD, but also in your future career, as learning to build networks is a key skill to be invested in.
Know your benchmarks
Everyone enters a PhD at a different place. The same is also true for PhD projects, some are more developed on day one than others. It can be hard therefore to work out how you are doing, especially if you haven’t established supervisor expectations. There are some useful tools out there to help. Every University should have some form of pathway which lays out the dates and timelines that PhD students need to deliver on, from reporting and upgrade to final submission. These are invaluable in making sure that you are on track and on target for your work. Projects will often have individual timelines, if they are grant funded, that you need to maintain. Grant funded projects will usually have milestones, reporting, and dissemination deadlines, which need to be kept to. It is worth noting that some of these things mean that it is not always so meaningful to benchmark against your peers. I would always advocate using them as a source of support rather than self judgement, as you may not be comparing like with like.
Manage your relationship
All relationships require work. All relationships, especially ones that last years, will go through peaks and troughs. Your relationship with your supervisor is no different, and because of this, communication is key. This sounds easy enough, but sadly, it is often not. Finding the balance between being that student who needs supervisor input into ever thought/decision, meaning you don’t find independence, and being that student who never speaks up and therefore ostriches on issues, meaning that issues don’t get addressed, is not an easy one. It requires the pair of you to build trust, and that is a gradual process. A lot of this is helped by laying the groundwork and having open discussions about expectations. Being open to supportive feedback, asking questions, and owning your work by doing things like reading and coming prepared to meetings goes a long way towards making these relationships flourish. Also, being transparent about challenges and identifying issues early can mean that both sides are facilitated in addressing issues. Your supervisor can’t help if they don’t know.
Friendly is not the same as friends
I’m going to say this here, being friendly is not the same as being friends. We all hear great tales of supervisors and students being best friends. I’m sure that happens after the PhD is over, but I’ve never known it happen during. I’d like to say I get on really well with most of students. I’m invested in them. I care about them. I will happily buy them a beer in the pub. We are however not friends. My wellbeing is not on them. It is not an even relationship. I am there to support them, but I am also their boss. In a friendship, if we went to the pub, my friends and I would take turns buying in rounds and discussing our problems. I’m pretty open about my work based challenges, but I don’t expect my students to take them onboard. I don’t ever expect them to buy me a drink. I personally don’t think that’s how these things should work. When they are done being my students, when I no longer have responsibility for them, then the relationship can become more bi-directional. Until then I have a duty of care which means I should put them first.
Know the rules
These next few ones are for if, like mine, your relationship takes on a less healthy trajectory. The first thing I learnt was that I really needed to understand the rules. That’s both the formal written rules and the informal social academic rules. It’s only by knowing these that you can judge whether the breakdown is precipitated by a valid breach. If you don’t know the rules, how can you tell if you’ve broken them? If you have broken them, then we all need to act like adults, hold up our hands, and seek forgiveness whilst taking corrective action. The other reason to know the rules is that you may need the information. My primary supervisor refused to sign off on allowing me to submit my thesis. As I’d done my research, I knew that I didn’t need supervisor sign off, it just meant I couldn’t sue the University if I failed. Hopefully, you will never get to a similar point, but knowing your parameters will never do you any harm. This one is back to knowledge is power, and so gain as much of it as you can.
Keep up your end of the bargain
It takes two to tango, and knowing the rules won’t help if you don’t keep up your end of the bargain. Grant deadlines, if you are externally funded, are often immovable, and so if you are required to get data or reports out by a certain date it can hold ramifications, not just for you, if you don’t deliver. Even if you are not grant funded, you need to deliver on the agreed timelines you made with your supervisor. This may all sound really simple, but you would be shocked at the number of students who don’t seem to grasp this fairly straightforward concept. PhDs are not like undergraduate work where you can ask for an extension on every piece of work or merely have an assignment capped. This is your first job in research, and like any job, if you keep missing deadlines, then eventually you will get fired. I had one PhD student who kept missing all deadlines because they believed no one would ever be allowed to fail a PhD or would be removed from the course. I had to explain to them that this was not true and show the mechanisms that existed to do just those things. After which we got on much better and they re-focussed on the task in hand. It’s obviously better if things don’t reach that point before being addressed, and so it is key both sides bear in mind the social contract they have made.
Have a plan B
If academic life has taught me anything, it’s that you should always have a plan B, and I think it’s a sensible approach no matter what stage you’re at. Hopefully, you will never need it, but strategic thinking is a good skill to develop regardless. You should always have more than one supervisor, even if the others have variable involvement. If you can, it’s always worth trying to include them and investing in developing relationships with them as well. They can provide a counterpoint view on your work, and they can help with benchmarking your relationship and expectations with your primary. Your secondary supervisor is also likely to be involved at times, such as your upgrade viva, and so understanding their expectations can be really helpful. In the unlikely event that your relationship with your primary is not great, they can also take on a mediation role to help both sides gain clarity and hopefully move forward. If you hope for the best and plan for the worst, you should have all sides covered and hopefully have the most fulfilling experience possible during you PhD.
Finally, it’s worth remembering that supervisors are people too. They have good days and bad days. They have personal stuff going on that can impact their mood and decision-making. They will make mistakes and hopefully apologise for them. They will aim for perfection and always fall short. What I hope more than anything is that you will find a supervisor who wants and drives for you to reach your potential and who always has your best interests at heart. Sometimes, that means that there will be hard conversations, and sometimes that means they will push you, as they have faith in your ability to improve. I want all of my students to grow to be better than I am. I want them to know that I have faith in them even when they feel lost and can’t find faith in themselves. So do your research and find a supervisor who works for you and the way you work. Find that supervisor who will make you better than you could be on your own.
All opinions on this blog are my own
If you would like more tips and advice linked to your PhD journey then the first every Girlymicrobiologist book is here to help!
This book goes beyond the typical academic handbook, acknowledging the unique challenges and triumphs faced by PhD students and offering relatable, real-world advice to help you:
Master the art of effective research and time management to stay organized and on track.
Build a supportive network of peers, mentors, and supervisors to overcome challenges and foster collaboration.
Maintain a healthy work-life balance by prioritizing self-care and avoiding burnout.
Embrace the unexpected and view setbacks as opportunities for growth and innovation.
Navigate the complexities of academia with confidence and build a strong professional network
This book starts at the very beginning, with why you might want to do a PhD, how you might decide what route to PhD is right for you, and what a successful application might look like.
It then takes you through your PhD journey, year by year, with tips about how to approach and succeed during significant moments, such as attending your first conference, or writing your first academic paper.
Finally, you will discover what other skills you need to develop during your PhD to give you the best route to success after your viva. All of this supported by links to activities on The Girlymicrobiologist blog, to help you with practical exercises in order to apply what you have learned.
Someone said to me a few weeks ago that the story of my career is to ‘have good ideas and then to have them taken’. This was an interesting comment made spontaneously, and to be honest, I’ve never really thought about it in that way. So I’ve taken a few days to reflect on it as it obviously resonated enough with me to stick in my mind, and this is what I’ve landed on. We don’t own anything, at least when it comes to concepts and innovations at work, and I’d rather see any transition as a gifting than anything negative.
There will always be competing circles, hierarchies, or priorities, which means that things you developed sitting within one may be better placed or coveted by somewhere else. Workplaces are dynamic, and there is always flux. Denying that will just result in additional stress and tension. Sometimes, you just have to have a little faith. Faith that handing something off is the right thing to do, and faith in yourself that you will always have another idea or innovation, nothing is ending, this is an opportunity for new beginnings. Despite having come to terms with it now I found this very challenging early on in my career and so I thought it was worth exploring more, in case the journey I’ve been on is helpful to others in developing their own coping mechanisms for dealing with this reality.
The academic challenge
Academia is a strange and unusual world and, although I love it, it can be baffling and difficult to understand how it works, especially when you first join. When working clinically, you are generally in a scenario where you are responsible, and therefore in some way ‘own’, the results you are working with, even if you are not the one giving actionable advice. The same is often not true in an academic context. When you are starting out, your Primary Investigator (PI) has a lot of control over the work, and owns both the risk linked to any given project and the data. As a result, I think many of us have experienced a scenario where a PI has taken either our data or our ideas and utilised them without our inclusion or consent. I once found a paper that had a bunch of my data in it, interpreted incorrectly, that had been published by a Professor in my department without my knowledge. I’ve also popped in whilst I was on leave to find a different Professor going through my lab books to see my data when they were nothing to do with me.
These are extreme examples of not great behaviour, but the principle is still present. You don’t own what you produce in academia until you get to the point where you are the one who is bringing in the money that pays for the production, and even then your funder could be considered the owner. There are lots of ways to improve this, and there are plenty of people who behave better despite this scenario. It is important to understand the dynamics and drivers in order to be able to come to terms with some of the unwritten rules however. Once you have understanding, you are in a position where you can learn to navigate the challenges.
It’s less about seniority than you’d think
I used to think that the more senior I became the more I would have the freedom to own my initiatives. That I would no longer set things up to have them taken once the majority of the work had been done or the risk managed. This is true in some ways but not in quite a lot more. The last 20 years have shown me that the difference is less about seniority and more about advocacy. If you have people in the room who will challenge and speak up for you that is more important than status alone. For instance, if a project is being discussed then the meeting will hand designated responsibility for it to someone in the room. If you are not in that room, you need someone who is to go ‘Elaine has been doing a great job on this, I’ll feedback on how it’s going right now and make sure I continue support. Elaine will have more details so how about we invite her to the next meeting in order to give us an update?’. One of the problems with working between worlds (in my case scientific, clinical and academic) is that you have fewer people invested in this kind of exchange, as you don’t sit with any particular group in a way that feels like you are a full member. You therefore have less people who are prepared to take those steps to advocate for you and your work without significant prior campaigning. I now sit in a lot more meetings, and have a much closer team, and that advocacy pathway is easier, so seniority plays in, but is not always the main driver.
Be prepared to have hard conversations with yourself
It can be tempting to play the victim. It can be tempting to see the world as unfair and that things should be different. I hate to break it to you, and I am often forced to remind myself, it’s not about you. Very few things that happen in a professional context are truly personal. We work within systems, and those systems have rules, some of which are obvious and some of which are less so. If something works, if an idea is good, and it serves the system, sometimes people will just take it. If the idea is to benefit patients, or to serve a change, then maybe we can’t ‘own’ anything, as it belongs to the system we are working within. It can feel really tough whilst you’re in it. It can feel pretty dreadful to have something you’re invested in taken away.
Sadly, ideas are not toys, and we are not in nursery, rarely is someone going to sweep in and return things to us. So you need to be able to take a reflective step back and decide how important this particular moment is. When I sit in meetings, and yet again someone is claiming ownership of a research idea, or I feel pushed out, I consciously ask myself will this matter? Will this matter tomorrow? Will this matter next week? Will this matter in six months? Will this matter next year? I do it in precisely this order, almost as a mantra, and I often find that the answer is no to at least one of these questions. This calms me in the moment and enables me to react in a logical mind set rather than an emotional one. You need to find a way to get into the right mind set to serve you, not be the servant of an emotion in that moment. Otherwise you won’t get the outcome that you are striving for.
Battles inhibit creativity
One of the reasons I try to get myself to a space where I can rationalise and move on is because it helps me. I’m not doing it for anyone else. If you are spending time fighting every battle, I find, that it means I have less band width for creativity, for new ideas, to be inspired. Frankly, I’m not interested in giving other people enough space in my head to mean that I can’t be the best version of me. There are definitely times that you need to suit up and go into battle, but most of the time it isn’t worth the impact. Keeping yourself focused on why it is that you decided to do what you are doing, and making sure you can do it in the best way possible is the best version of success. You have to let go of the fear and the protectionism in order to enable you to succeed in the long term, rather than always having a short term focus.
Assess whether you are still the right person
One of the other reasons to move to a rational space is to enable you to make balanced assessments. One of these assessments is to evaluate whether you are clinging to things for the right reasons. Sometimes we have invested so much of ourselves, of our energy, into a project that it is hard to let it go. That doesn’t mean that we are always the right person to continue. There are plenty of times when the right decision for the work is for it to pass to someone else or another group. You may have too many other projects to give it the focus it needs, or you may have upcoming work which means it will have less investment in the future. It may be that the project now needs to be advocated for at a different level, and therefore expansion requires it to be taken over by a senior leader. A really common one is that you don’t have the CV or track record to be able to be PI on the grant that is needed to take it to the next level, and therefore you need to hand over primary responsibility in order for it to succeed. Not all handing over is linked with loss, sometimes you have to let go of control of an idea or piece of work to enable it to flourish. In these moments it’s important to recognise that the handing over is something to be celebrated, rather than mourned, and seen as a sign of how far it’s come.
Know what matters to you
If, when you ask yourself the does this matter questions, you answer yes, then you need to decide if the potential costs are worth it. There are definitely times that you will recognise that something does truly matter, and when that happens you need to be able to come up with a logical plan of response. Who can you speak to? Where can you build support? How much impact can you have and will that be enough? I’m very lucky to have a great team around me who will not only advocate when I’m not in the room, but will also offer peer support. If you are not in the place to influence and you decide that it matters, you have to maneuver yourself into a position where you can. This takes time, it takes investment, it requires the expansion of social and other capital. You can’t do this for everything and so you have to be selective. The other thing that you may learn, is that during the early stages of a project that is significant to you, you can take proactive steps in order to determine the future pathway and therefore reduce any challenges before they become insurmountable.
Keep the faith
Not matter how bad it can feel in the moment, know this. You will have a new idea. You will find a new challenge. You will be inspired again. This is not the end, this is a window to a different beginning. Be honest with yourself about your personal drivers, why is this so important? Take these moments and challenges as learning opportunities. I have found people that I am over the moon to collaborate and work with long term, but they can be counted on the fingers of one hand. I have collaborated and worked with vastly more, where I have completed the work, taken the learning, but know that I would prefer not to repeat the experience. All of that is OK. Building trust takes time. Sometimes you need to work with people that have different values and drivers to you, and often once you understand those you can deliver, but every now and again it doesn’t work. You have to have the courage to keep going, the courage to keep trying, and the courage to let go of failures and difficult experiences. You have what it takes to come out of this particular crucible so much stronger. So keep the faith in yourself and you will climb mountains!
All opinions in this blog are my own
If you would like more tips and advice linked to your PhD journey then the first every Girlymicrobiologist book is here to help!
This book goes beyond the typical academic handbook, acknowledging the unique challenges and triumphs faced by PhD students and offering relatable, real-world advice to help you:
Master the art of effective research and time management to stay organized and on track.
Build a supportive network of peers, mentors, and supervisors to overcome challenges and foster collaboration.
Maintain a healthy work-life balance by prioritizing self-care and avoiding burnout.
Embrace the unexpected and view setbacks as opportunities for growth and innovation.
Navigate the complexities of academia with confidence and build a strong professional network
This book starts at the very beginning, with why you might want to do a PhD, how you might decide what route to PhD is right for you, and what a successful application might look like.
It then takes you through your PhD journey, year by year, with tips about how to approach and succeed during significant moments, such as attending your first conference, or writing your first academic paper.
Finally, you will discover what other skills you need to develop during your PhD to give you the best route to success after your viva. All of this supported by links to activities on The Girlymicrobiologist blog, to help you with practical exercises in order to apply what you have learned.
Spring has sprung and that means academic application time has also begun. I’ve already had a number of queries about what it is that I look for when I receive PhD applications. Selfishly, I therefore thought I might write this post so that I can refer people here to read it. Don’t worry if you’re not applying for a PhD though. I’ve just interviewed for a senior role and had to go through a LOT of applications when shortlisting. It’s probably obvious, but worth stating, that a lot of these tips are also relevant to when you are pulling together any personal statement or piece where you need to sell yourself. So, good luck, and I hope these help.
Understand what’s being asked of you
The first thing is to really understand what is being asked of you. A PhD application, although in many ways a job application, is also much more than that. It’s less about where you are at right now and more about where you could be at the end. There’s a lot more in the assessment about being able to demonstrate the way you think, your aspirations, and your passion, therefore, than the box ticking against a job spec that is often required for other posts. Your cover letter is therefore critical in order to help you stand out from the crowd and a generic letter that you’ve sent to 20+ options just won’t cut it, if like me you’re are getting tens to hundreds of applications to shortlist. Your generic version just won’t pass the skim test. Below are the kinds of things I want to see if I’m glancing over your application in order to put it in the consider pile.
Be specific, details matter
Having looked at a LOT of applications over the years for PhDs and other roles, my first big tip is that details matter. Making statements like ‘I have good communication skills’ won’t tick any of my boxes. I need to have it followed up by a concrete example such as ‘this was shown by me winning X poster prize at X conference’ or ‘me being asked to lead our group presentation on X, where received a distinction’. Your examples don’t have to be revolutionary, but you do need to back up your statement with something concrete. You are applying for a science post after all, so evidence matters.
Show what got you here
It’s easy to think you have to be exceptional to succeed, but the truth is most of us aren’t exceptional. We just have a passion, interest, or tenacity that gets us somewhere. My father recently referred to me as ‘an academic late bloomer’, and I’ve written before that we are all more than the sum of our grades. Because of this, when I’m looking at applications, I’m most interested in the person behind the grades and the details. Some people will be exceptional undergraduates but will hit a ceiling when it comes to postgraduate study. Some of us dealt less well with the thought constrictions at that level and only really grew into our potential when the safety wheels were removed. I’m looking for your application to show me what makes you tick, how you think and approach challenges, and how you ended up sitting in front of a computer writing this application.
Be clear about where you want to go
I’ve talked in previous posts about the need for you to show me your why when discussing undertaking a PhD. There are lots of reasons why you might decide that a PhD is the right next move for you, and it doesn’t just have to be that you want a future career in academia. In some ways, the reason doesn’t matter as long as it’s thought out. What does matter is that you’ve taken the time to do that thinking and have the skills to be able to communicate it. PhDs are not a walk in the park. There will be hard days and challenging periods where you question whether this was the right move. Your motivation, whatever it is, has to be strong enough to get you through those dark days. It’s also important, that if you get the role, I understand how to support you in your future goals, and I can’t do that if you don’t know what they are.
Why this PhD
There are PhDs advertised all the time. One of the top things I want to have jump out of your letter is why you think this particular PhD is the one you want to do. What is it about the topic that interests you? How does this fit in as a logical next step from what you’ve been doing so far? Where is your passion or interest in this particular topic? PhDs with me will always have a clinical aspect, so what is it about this rather than primary science PhD that speaks to you. I want to know that you have considered, in my case, what it will be like to do research in healthcare and the benefits and challenges of the setting. I also want to know how it fits in with your goals as described above. This needs to be done in enough detail that I know you have thought about it and that it’s specific to the PhD I have advertised. Anything generic is a real turn-off at this point.
Why this supervisor
Supervisors make or break your PhD. It’s the honest truth. Demonstrating you have awareness of how important this relationship is to your PhD goes a long way to show that you understand the challenge you are choosing to take on. I would always recommend reaching out to the primary supervisor ahead of applying therefore. You can then make an informed choice about whether this person will be the right support for you. Every supervisor has different styles and you as a learner have different needs. Understanding whether those 2 things will mesh is so important. You can then address why the supervisory team on offer is the right choice for you in your application.
Why this university
The other thing that is worth including is why the university you’re applying for is the right choice for you. Each university has a slightly different ethos or feel, and so why does the one you are applying to match your requirements? Is is because it has an associated medical school or strong pre-existing links to local hospitals? Is it because you really like the structure of the PhD programme? Is that they have a doctoral school or other funding that links into a research council you are particularly interested in working with? It’s always worth looking up what the PhD structure is actually like, some will require you to submit regular essays, others will just have an ongoing log, each is likely to have different upgrade windows and structures. State why this university works for you and your learning style. This not only makes it clear that you’ve done additional reading to understand the programme, but that you’ve also done the reflective thinking to see how you would fit into what is being offered.
What skills do you have
Let me be clear, no one expects you to have all the skills to do a PhD when you apply, otherwise you wouldn’t be doing a PhD you’d be doing a post doc. That said, on the advert there will be some skill requirements that you will be expected to meet or be on the pathway to meeting. It’s key that you cover these off in your application, either in the covering letter or CV. One of the key errors I find people make when putting together their applications is that they think all of the skills and experience listed have to come from their scientific or academic backgrounds. This really isn’t true, especially for an early career post. Leadership skills can be demonstrated from volunteer or other work experience, such as helping out at Scouts, Guides or Duke of Edinburgh. Conflict resolution skills can include things like bar work on a Saturday night. Time management could include how you helped your parents manage your 6 younger siblings when it came to after school activities. As part of you bringing your entire self to the post you should feel free to include all of the skills developed as part of the route that brought you to making the application.
What experience do you have
It can be challenging to split out skills from experience, but if you have any, experiences can go a big way to demonstrating your commitment to the career you are hoping to embark upon. Have you attended seminars or other voluntary activities as part of your time at university? Have you arranged to shadow or undertake placements within a laboratory to gain extra experience? Did you engage in weekend or other field trips? These help demonstrate interest, but they can also help to round out some of the short listers’ understanding of what you may be bringing in terms of scientific experience, and how that might benefit the initial phases of your PhD. I also always appreciate the way that applicants introduce items like these into the application, as it also helps me start to get a feel for how they think and approach challenges, which is one of the things I’m looking for to help an application stand out from the rest.
Ensure you use the literature
Another way you can show what you thought process is and how you might develop as a scientist is by making sure you use the scientific literature in developing your application. I want applicants to reference a couple of key pieces of literature when they talk about why this PhD interests them. It also makes the application stand out if you reference published literature from the group or supervisors when you talk about why you are interested in working with them. Finally, if the PhD is funded by a particular funder, or through a particularly funded centre then I would also expect the application to reference what the funders remit is and what they aim to achieve. Demonstrating that you’ve taken the time to understand the context in which your research will be undertaken shows, to me, that you have the beginnings of the strategic awareness you will need to develop future funding applications during an academic career.
Demonstrate your added extra
I hate it sounding like I’m saying that everyone has to go above and beyond, because that’s not really what I’m saying. What I think you need to do is embed something that makes your application stand out. That can be by including a lot of reading and referencing in your application, if that’s the kind of thing you enjoy. It can also be about sharing a story about why you have always wanted to work in this kind of research. One application I recently reviewed, focussed on the applicant talking about how much they wanted to engage with dementia research as their grandmother had been in a care home linked to dementia, and they they had spent a lot of time therefore getting to know individuals with dementia and had personally witnessed the impacts on their families. They then followed it up with information linked to dementia UK, showing they had both the drive and ability to find information. There are many different ways to make an impression. Your application is a blank slate but making sure that it has enough detail to show that you have thought through what might help you stand out is key. How you do that is completely up to you. Think of it as getting a head start on developing your scientific elevator pitch!
Follow the rules
Having said that PhDs are different, in terms of not being so tightly tied to a person specification, there were still be boxes you need to tick that are listed on the advert details. Please please therefore make sure that you do maintain enough focus to be certain to cover off the stated requirements. You want to weave in the other aspects that will make you stand out linked into what is being asked for. One thing it is always worth asking, is for someone else to read your application against the requirements, preferably a none expert, to get a neutral assessment of whether you have clearly covered off everything that is needed.
I do have one personal plea linked to this though. Please do not send a 90 page attachment with all of the certificates you have ever achieved and every paper you have ever written in full. It is possible to go too far the other way and send too much. I will tell you honestly, if your combined letter and CV for a starting level post is more than 5 pages I will start to become less and less engaged with the application. If you send me more than 10 pages, I will not consider it for shortlisting. A key skill as a scientist is being able to engage with a question, shift information to identify what is relevant, and build an evidence based response. If you send more than 10 pages it signals, to me, that you are unable to manage at least one of these steps in an efficient manner, and therefore cannot meet the person specification.
Have a little faith in yourself
My final tip is this, have some faith in who you are and your ability to succeed. If you write your application from a position of confidence rather than imposter syndrome, you will use words like ‘will’ and ‘can’, rather than using works ‘like’ and ‘attempt’. It seems a small change but there is a subconscious difference that is detected by the reader when someone writes in a definitive style that inspires confidence. It will not be the only thing that gets you across the finishing line, but it can definitely help. You have achieved so much to get you to the point where you are qualified to apply for a PhD. You deserve to give yourself the same self belief and encouragement that you would offer friends and family if they were in same situation. Remember. You are braver than you know, and so much stronger and more able than you believe, so take that leap and fly.
All opinions in this blog are my own
If you would like more tips and advice linked to your PhD journey then the first every Girlymicrobiologist book is here to help!
This book goes beyond the typical academic handbook, acknowledging the unique challenges and triumphs faced by PhD students and offering relatable, real-world advice to help you:
Master the art of effective research and time management to stay organized and on track.
Build a supportive network of peers, mentors, and supervisors to overcome challenges and foster collaboration.
Maintain a healthy work-life balance by prioritizing self-care and avoiding burnout.
Embrace the unexpected and view setbacks as opportunities for growth and innovation.
Navigate the complexities of academia with confidence and build a strong professional network
This book starts at the very beginning, with why you might want to do a PhD, how you might decide what route to PhD is right for you, and what a successful application might look like.
It then takes you through your PhD journey, year by year, with tips about how to approach and succeed during significant moments, such as attending your first conference, or writing your first academic paper.
Finally, you will discover what other skills you need to develop during your PhD to give you the best route to success after your viva. All of this supported by links to activities on The Girlymicrobiologist blog, to help you with practical exercises in order to apply what you have learned.
I’ve been fortunate enough to win a few awards in my time, but I count myself even more fortunate to have seen the great work and inspirational people in my science and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) communities get recognised. Seeing the joy and the difference it has made to individuals and projects has really made me an awards convert.
I haven’t always been so supportive of them, as it some times feels like the same people, or groups, get recognised all the time. Now, having been on judging panels, I realise the reason for this is that they are the ones who are actively involved in nominating each other. So it’s less awards bias, more nomination limitations. So, for this weeks post, I wanted to try and persuade you all to remove some of that limitation by talking through both why and how you should nominate others, not only to show your appreciation but to enhance our communities.
Raises awareness
There are really three components to this one, linked to individuals, work, and the community. I think we often think of the person or project when people win awards and the benefit it provides to them. I think this misses out on what may be a cumulative, even larger, benefit. That is raising awareness of the community in which they sit. One example of this that I’ve experienced personally was last year when I was the first woman and scientist to be awarded the HIS Early Career Award. I was given a platform to be able to talk about my work at a national conference. As part of that session, I spent time talking about career paths in Healthcare Science. I got so many messages afterwards where people talked about how much that meant to them. It helped them feel seen and raised the profile of what scientists can bring to the world of microbiology and IPC. I’ve felt the same way when I’ve seen other IPC professionals win at mixed discipline awards. Any time a Healthcare Scientist or IPC professional is up for anything, no matter how well I know them, I will always be screaming at the top of my lungs if they even get nominated. Their visibility increases all of ours, and so by working together and supporting each other, we all flourish.
Acknowledges good work
Everyone works hard, I get that, so why should some people get awards for it and others not? Well, actually, in my ideal world, we would all get nominating for lots of different things and that hard work would be recognised more widely. It’s not just hard work that we are acknowledging in awards categories though. There are awards for those people who are not just great scientists but are also great leaders/educators/advocates/engagers/mentors, or even for bloggers. Sometimes, it’s an opportunity for us to express gratitude for that person who always throws themselves in to help or who we recognise is always there to support their peers. There are limited ways we can do this is a way that is visible or concrete in the NHS. Yes, we should always acknowledge and thank on a 1:1 basis, but sometimes it’s nice to go above and beyond as part of recognising others, just like the people we are celebrating.
Provides encouragement
I’m writing this as someone who weekly writes blogs and throws them out into the world and hopes that they make the tiniest bit of difference to a single person, acknowledgement is the most amazing encouragement to keep doing what you are doing. When I’m so tired or stressed out that I don’t have the energy to pull this weeks blog out of my brain, seeing previous comments/DMs/emails can be the thing that helps me get it done.
It’s the same with my projects, science related or not. Every project will go through challenging times, with trouble shooting, funding, or one of another 100 issues. If that project has been recognised, especially if recognised for the science or making a difference to patients, then that can be the pick me up required in order to persevere and take it to the next level, where that impact could be even greater. So if you see a project you admire, instead of saying, ‘I wish I’d thought of that’ say ‘I WISH I HAD THOUGHT OF THAT!!!’, and celebrate that joy by nominating it so others can have the same reaction.
Aids prospects
There is no getting away from it, money and positions can be difficult to find. Project funding especially is not as easy to come by, not matter how great the idea. Everyone says the average grant success rate is only 20% after all. Combine that with the fact that very few business cases are approved on a pure quality basis these days, and the landscape is pretty rough. Projects often need a something extra to stand out from the pack, especially when reviewers are often looking at a pile of papers and skim reading for initial comparison. Winning a national award can make the project, or those involved with it, stand out from the others. So nomination doesn’t just recognise current work, but can really help to ensure projects can get taken to the next level.
Supports individuals so they are seen
The principle of standing out works not just for projects but for people too. There’s a lot about who you know and your connections in health. It shouldn’t be the case, but it definitely is. Networks mean you hear about opportunities, can reach out for coaching and mentorship, or have your name recognised when it’s mentioned by others in the room. All of these things are really helpful when developing careers. One of the things that winning any award gives people is visibility. Those who win are often asked back to be judges, which enables you to spend one on one time with others. It may also mean your Trust decides to celebrate the win. At a minimum, it can be a talking point on your CV and helps open doors you didn’t even know existed. These are things that should be open to everyone, but unless we get our nomination heads on, it will continue to be the realm of the few.
Enables continuation
This may sound a little odd, but without nominees awards just doesn’t exist. I’ve held roles in numerous societies and sometimes it has been so hard to get any nominations submitted for some awards. Everyone thinks they are not good enough or that it will be too competitive, and frankly talk themselves out of nominating. What doesn’t seem to be so well understood is that awards have to be seen to add value by Trustees and other members of governance committees, and if no one is being nominated they will invest that resource elsewhere. This is even more true for awards, such as the AHAwards, which are not linked to charitable societies. There aren’t that many awards that recognise the small worlds I inhabit as a Healthcare Scientist in IPC. If I don’t nominate, there will be even fewer opportunities to raise the profile of both of these professions. I suspect the same will be true for many of the people reading this blog and your specialisms. If we don’t nominate, these opportunities will decrease, so if we want to continue to have the option, we have to seize the day no matter how competitive we believe it might be.
Practice makes perfect
I always worry when I nominate someone that I won’t do them justice and that my lack of skill at writing the piece will be the reason they don’t get recognised. I’ve written some top tips at the bottom of this blog, which I hope will help, but the bottom line is that practice makes perfect. Like everything in this life, you get better by doing, and the best way to learn is to start. From a purely selfish point of view, getting good at writing nominations will also have other benefits for your general working life. It will mean that you get better at the art of pitching, which helps with business cases and influencing skills in general. So really it’s a win win that we should all embrace.
Don’t be scared to self nominate
There are some awards that you have to self nominate for, and others that actively encourage it. There are also some that don’t permit self nomination. It is, in many ways, perfectly acceptable to nominate yourself. That said, I tend to find it a pretty uncomfortable process as it’s hard to shout about yourself the same way you’d shout about others. For this reason it certainly doesn’t give me the same pleasure as when I’m doing it for someone else. In contrast I’m happy to provide extra info about myself, if asked, as this is almost always necessary for someone else to be able to write in sufficient detail to do the nomination justice.
One of the main reasons why being able to self nominate is important is that we are not always networked enough, or in the lucky position where people think of us to nominate, or to even have people around us who know about the wide variety of awards out there to consider. It is sometimes the most sensible option, and I don’t think there is any shame in that. I would however always suggest a rule, and that is you always nominate others more than you nominate yourself. See it as a deliberate act of giving back to your community and building those networks that were lacking and meant you needed to self nominate in the first place.
If you get nominated, pay it forward
One of the more unanticipated consequences of being nominated for an award is that you are often then able to glimpse behind the curtain, as it were, to gain a greater insight into how that award works. If you have to attend an award interview, you gain insight into what kinds of questions they ask, which can in turn help you understand what they are looking for. If you are fortunate enough to win, you may get an even greater insight by being invited to become a judge, or have the opportunities to speak to the judges afterwards about what struck them about your nomination. All of these moments can really help increase your chances of success. This is your time to seize the moment and make sure that you capitalise on those insights to support others and make your own nominations. Someone nominated you after all, time to pay it forward.
Bring a little more joy into the world
Finally, I’d just like to be clear that this is not about the winning, it’s about finding joy in process of supporting and recognising others. Just being considered by someone else as worthy of nomination should make the nominees day a little bit brighter. If they get shortlisted, that is amazing! Winning is great, but all of the other parts are probably more important, winning is just the cherry on top of a pretty amazing cake. I also have one note of caution here, if you nominate and that person does well, feel good for them, enjoy the joy you have helped bring about, but try and not make their success about you. I have been to a few ceremonies where the nominators acted like they themselves had won the award. I think being able to write a good nomination is a skill, and I don’t want to take anything away from that. The nominee however usually did a lot of work to be worthy enough of being nominated, shortlisted and then possibly winning the award. Let’s make sure that we keep the focus on the brilliant nominee and keep the moment about raising them into the spotlight and recognising all they have done.
Here are some good examples of annual awards that you might want to consider (they’ll update links annually, and not all will be open right now, but these should sign post you in the right direction):
Please link to any others you know in the comments
Top tips for completing award nominations
Read the guidance – it will usually tell you how they are scoring
Check eligibility – both for you nominating and the nominee, sometimes you need membership
Take the time to choose the best category – there’s little point nominating a Clinical Scientist for an award sponsored by the IBMS for instance, or a scientist for the Nursing Times awards, even if they were in theory eligible it’s probably not the best choice
Don’t be worried about asking the nominee for more details – you’ll probably need more detail than you have to write something that does them justice
Be prepared – always look up the sections needed ahead of time and the word counts required
Spread the love – see if you can find some nomination buddies
Do you research – if you can look up previous winners, the details may help you focus the details of your nomination
So please please do me a tiny favour. Pick one award, any one, and ensure that some time this year you support someone or a great project by throwing their name into the pot! It won’t take long and you won’t regret it.
I woke up at 5 this morning, the alarm wasn’t set to go off until 6:15. I am desperately tired and in need of more sleep. Instead of allowing me this simple luxury my brain decided to a) run through an experimental protocol, b) draft a paper I need to write, and c) plan a conference presentation. Sadly, my body wasn’t in alignment with this and so none of it has been written down or recorded anywhere. I am therefore exhausted still and have no concrete outputs to balance it out. I’d like to state this was a one off, but it is in fact my life and daily existence.
People often ask me how I manage to ‘do’ so much. The sad fact is that I really don’t think I manage to ‘do’ very much at all. I’m always a chapter behind on my ‘to do’ list. That combined with the fact that I only manage to get as much done as I do because Mr Girlymicro keeps our lives together by making everything happen at home, means that I thought I’d write something that talks openly about what the reality of having a mind that just doesn’t stop looks like.
I only have 2 speeds
I think those people who think I achieve a lot only see me in ‘doing’ phase. Running around spinning multiple plates at the same time and being totally ‘eyes on the prize’ focused. The other side to this is that when this Duracell bunny phase is over, I become the sloth girl who inhabits the sofa and doesn’t contribute to house work or the want to leave the house. The challenge is that work generally gets the Duracell bunny which means there is very little left over for real life. Hence Mr Girlymicro deserving the husband of the year award 15 years running, and the fact that I need to find a way to split my energy better.
My mind can’t switch off
One of the reasons for the enormous to do list, is that although my body switches off, my mind really doesn’t. I would really love it if it did. Today is Easter Monday, it’s before 9am, and I would really love to be able to sit and chill out. Instead I’m writing this blog as my mind is so full of stuff that this is my equivalent of relaxing as it enables me to focus, and thus relax a little. I don’t know if this is how everyone lives? I really don’t. I have so many thoughts, I remember so many things I should have done, things I should be doing. My mind can make my life a less than relaxing existence. Lovely Mr Girlymicro has brought me some Lego for later though so that I can use it to help, as the process of doing something whilst watching a movie or listening to an audio book, is basically my relaxed happy place. It’s important to have a strategy when my head is spinning out of control.
I find it very uncomfortable to only do 1 thing at a time
This leads me onto another thing. I need to be doing at least 2 things at once to feel comfortable. I’m writing this blog whilst watching CSI on Netflix, later I’ll be putting together Lego whilst enjoying a movie, I even need an audio book to sleep. One of the reasons I’m so happy to have my little bathroom office is that I find it really challenging to work in silence and so it means I can have music or a book running as background audio. I really find it helps me focus. The advantage to this way of living life is that does it enable me to plan talks in my head whilst doing other things, or to plan a text book or blog outline whilst writing a policy. This adds to my ‘to do’ list but also helps keep my head above water when I’ve made too many commitments.
I’m physically lazy and don’t pull my weight
For all that my mind is active I am physically lazy. I always joke that I was born to lounge on a chaise lounge with a book in my hand surrounded by my library with someone to bring me Darjeeling on request. I know that I must be challenging to live with. I get so focused on things, that without adult supervision, I have a tendency to forget to eat or drink, one reason that I am much healthier when I work from home. When I work on-site I tend to come home in a ball of flames, exhausted by my working life and physically broken, and therefore contribute negligibly to doing any form of physical chores. I’m working on it, but saying that, whilst Mr Girlymicro is working upstairs here I am writing this blog instead of tidying the kitchen. I did say he deserves awards, and I am a work in progress.
My mind doesn’t let me rest
One of the other factors that contributes to my physical laziness is that I am so tired all the time. I rarely get a decent nights sleep. If I wake up between one and three to go to the bathroom, my brain kicks in as I’ve had just enough sleep. It’s then fully engaged, whilst my body remains sleepy, with things I should be doing or random thoughts. The same is true even if I get back to sleep, I rarely if ever manage to sleep to the alarm. I do all the tips that everyone talks about, I keep a notebook by the side of my bed, I make notes into this blog so get things out of my mind, but I find switching off really hard. Some of this is because I should probably just take some painkillers/antihistamines, to manage other things, but some of it is definitely the fact that my brain just doesn’t want to play normal.
I am a starter not a finisher
Another side effect of having a mind that is constantly full of ideas, is that it can be challenging to bring any of them to completion. I am very much a starter not a finisher. Finishing anything requires a lot of active effort, otherwise I have a tendency to get distracted by the next good idea that comes along. I think it’s one of the reasons that over the years I’ve become slightly obsessed about keeping my promises and deadlines if I’m given them, even if it means I work weekends and evenings, as I’m hyper aware of my natural tendency to drift. If I make a commitment I can be pretty over the top and harsh with myself about delivering on time. As a people pleaser, this has gotten me into trouble in the past due to over committing to too many things. There have been a lot of very late nights and lost weekends. These days I’m trying to not over commit, whilst using this particular fear of failure to ensure that I still finish things on occasion.
I find focusing on being in the moment incredibly challenging
I am aware that some people are able to really ‘be’ in the moment. When they achieve something, when they have successes, they are able to really be fully present in the moment and enjoy the depth of emotions that that presence achieves. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the moment, but my brain is always onto the next thing. I’m always planning and looking forward. In many ways this is a really useful trait, but it means that I’m pretty rubbish at stopping and smelling the roses. I think this is another contributor to why I find it so hard to relax, as even when I’m having a lovely time I’m planning for the next thing. When I’m on holiday, I find it hard not to be planning for how I need to address work when I get back. When I’m at work, it’s always about how to keep us moving forward, and what needs to happen next. I need to make more run for tea 🙂
I spend my day being reactive when I would love to be visionary
My tendency to plan is one of the reasons that I find the current state of the NHS and my role within it so stressful. I want to be planning how to make us better, but because we are still recovering from the pandemic, even if the outside world has moved on, I spend a lot of my time still in reaction mode. It’s one of the reasons that research is so very important to me. In that aspect of my role, as well as in education, I feel like I can be focused on how to make things better and move things forward, whereas that can be more challenging clinically. It is why I love and value the different aspects of my role, education, research and clinical, as they balance each other off for the different needs that I have personality wise. It’s why my role is perfect for me and I’m so grateful that I have been able to develop it the way I have.
I feel I should be doing so so much more
All of this leaves me with a continuous general underlying feeling that I should be doing so much more, that there is so much more to do, and that I need to be better. There’s a lot about this which is good, especially when I was training and it could be channeled into ticking off the necessary boxes. Frankly, it was also easier to work full force and recover when I was in my 20’s and 30’s. I don’t think I had the self awareness, or self reflection skills I have now to understand my drivers in the same way back then. I also don’t think I had the self forgiveness to handle my lack of perfection and therefore be open to change. Now, although looking in the mirror and seeing my flaws can be challenging, it also inspires me to be better and I try to treat myself with the kindness I would offer to others. All traits have a light side and a dark side. My brain means that I am more physically broken and can make the lives of those around me harder by not contributing as much as I should. It also enables me to create change and make the lives of others better. It has been the enabler and the driver to allow me to reach where I am today, and to do things like start this blog. Although peculiar, it is of more benefit than it is harm, and after 44 years in each others company, we have finally reached an en tant cordial, where we still strive for improvement but also live in acceptance of the reality of what the day to day looks like. So my advice, learn to love yourself for who you, whilst striving to be better.
It’s the Easter weekend and I haven’t posted a book review in forever, so I thought I would post a review of something that not only I think all scientists should read, as a tale of when science goes wrong, but also because it’s been dramatised and so you could also spend some of your weekend enjoying it in multiple media forms.
I didn’t really know much about the Theranos company before I read this book. I had seen a couple of news articles and video clips of Elizabeth Holmes, but I don’t think it made quite the same coverage in the UK as in the states. I do remember a video of her talking about being able to do several hundred tests from a drop of blood and rolling my eyes and being dismissive as it struck me as scientific nonsense. I didn’t realise this was a system that had been rolled out for actual patient testing and as the basis for clinical decision-making, which to me is incomprehensible. I’m getting ahead of myself however, here is what the book is about.
Bad blood is written by the journalist John Carreyrou, who broke the story at the Wall Street Journal. It is a chronological re-telling of the rise and eventual fall of the Theranos company and its founder, Elizabeth Holmes. It is based on interviews and fact finding that were collected for the articles and runs up until the start of criminal prosecutions.
Elizabeth Holmes is a self-proclaimed Stanford dropout who left university to pursue a bio tech start-up. She claimed to be terrified of needles, so established a company that would enable the avoidance of venopuncture blood draws by using point of care testing using a finger prick to provide the same level of diagnostic information. The end vision sold to investors was that this could all be done by a small microwave sized machine that could, eventually, be sold for home use as a form of self monitoring. The platform was rolled out into patient use at Walgreens chemists, as the first step in a national roll out. Testing patient samples and providing clinical results in Phoenix, Arizona. Interestingly, to me, as this was a private biotech company, there appears to have been little to no oversight of this diagnostic roll out, despite producing a medical device.
The book covers how investment was attracted and rapid growth attained because of the strength of this vision and the charisma of the woman selling it. It also covers how, despite scientists not being able to deliver this vision, it continued to be sold and how the very negative company culture allowed this to happen. All company employees were made to sign non-disclosure agreements, they were prevented from talking outside their teams, their emails were monitored, and threats of legal action appear to have been common. This meant that many of those working on development were unaware of the significant flaws with what was being sold, and those that were and considered or tried to whistle blow were taken down legal routes, where Theranos had considerable more financial capability to attain a positive outcome.
This was all compounded by a lack of oversight and, as there were no regulatory affairs staff employed, allowed governance processes to be manipulated. The company had two laboratories, one to develop their new technology known as Normandy, and one which was disclosed and Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) accredited which containing more standard technology platforms known as Jurassic Park.
Eventually, after the death by suicide of one of the employees and increasing press coverage seen by external scientists who questioned how this was possible, as well as clinical alarm bells, enough momentum was gained to put together a story that shone the light on why this approach was disastrous for the patients who were relying on it.
The story is already available in many different forms, including a TV series that is currently available BBC iPlayer and Disney+
Listening to the audio book of this book whilst I write this blog post it makes me think that are a lot of points that shock me as a English scientist working in such a highly regulated environment, both for NHS services but also for me as a state registered individual. It has also made me reflect on how crucial support for escalation and whistle blowing is to ensure that scenarios also get flagged when those services are not providing the quality of service required. I’ve briefly outlined some of my reflections below:
Governance
I spend a lot of time in governance meetings, both local and national. I even sit on a number of grant, research and ethics panels. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered the kind of lack of governance and accountability described in this book. That said, I’ve never worked in private industry or a start up. Just going through this book has made me have a new recognition for how important it is that boards and other oversight structures, ask the difficult questions and undertake constructive challenge in order to identify problems early and reduce risk.
Responding to No
At every stage in this re-telling smart people tried to raise concerns. When concerns were raised those people raising them were either isolated or asked to leave. Those who played the game and did not rock the boat were promoted, ending up in a scenario where the entire of the senior leadership were either the ones who didn’t want to hear or were people that didn’t want to challenge. In other words Elizabeth deliberately surrounded herself with yes men and thus created her own echo chamber. You can see, to an extent, how this can happen in other settings and where unacknowledged risk could therefore be introduced, and so ensuring that challenge is encouraged and not victimised is key to success.
Female leadership
Being a female leader is challenging, being a female leader in the technology and science sectors is both challenging and unusual. I can’t help thinking when reading this book how much of a back lash will occur and impact other female innovators. Elizabeth was heralded as unique and special for being a female in this area, I feel it’s likely that her actions have significantly set back other women in this space trying to make room for themselves. In addition to the patient harm caused, this is one of the things that upsets me the most.
Authentic leadership
To succeed, Elizabeth crafted a new image of herself. She changed the way she dressed to look more like Steve Jobs, whom she admired. She even changed her voice to use a lower octave, as she felt it made her more unique, memorable and aided success. I’m rather struck by the fact that she changed the way she dressed to look and even sound more like her male compatriots. If she changed these external factors, I can’t help but think what else she changed, and how much she went against all the principles of authentic leadership. She shared little of the real her, and I wonder how much that facade enabled her to distance herself from the reality of what she was doing. For me, it’s a reminder of why authentic leadership is so important, to put yourself out there and also to be held to account, rather than introducing a facade which distances you from your actions.
Quality assurance
Quality assurance, ensuring you get the right result on the right patient in the right time frame, seems to have features little if at all in the Theranos story. They utilised out of date reagents, the way they undertook validation testing is like nothing I’ve ever encountered, and they topped it off by actually lying about how and where results were produced. It’s easy to think that we would never act in the same way, and I doubt any of us would to the same extent, but there are aspects of laboratory life which I think would be open to monitoring challenges. The expansion and use of home testing, and even point of care testing (POCT) presents a lot of quality control and assurance challenges. These tests are conducted outside of standard laboratory settings, often by individuals with less knowledge about the processes. How do we increase access whilst maintaining quality in these circumstances? I think it’s something many of us are wrestling with.
Research and innovation
Innovation has risk associated with it, research wouldn’t be research if there were not unknowns. The patient impacts of this work however have given me a chance to reflect on how import ethics and governance reviews are to controlling these risks. As the testing was not rolled out during a trial, there was no consenting of patients to those risks. The people who ran the institutions in which they were rolled out were also not informed that they were effectively partaking in a research experiment. This means that all those involved are less likely to engage in research based processes in the future, as trust has been broken, even if it were to happen with different more established individuals. Thus the behaviour of a few impacts us all, and therefore as scientists we have a responsibility to flag this bad behaviour as and when we see it.
Listening to the scientist in the room
The scientists in the room were not heard. The company was led by people who lacked technical skill. Rather than understanding their limitations, they actively denied any lack of knowledge. They therefore didn’t listen when those best placed tried to flag issues. There was also no route for whistle blowing, either to the board, or to external organisations, partly due to the NDAs and threats of litigation. As a leader, this has made me reflect on both how important it is to listen to those skilled individuals you have working for you, but also how much there needs to be processes in place that bypass me in the case of a need for escalation. No one is perfect, and it is so important that concerns are heard and acted upon.
Silos limit productivity and communication
One reason that Theranos not only manage to hide its failings, but also probably failed in the first place, was that everyone was kept in silos and isolated from each other. There were no multi-disciplinary collaborations, sharing was actively forbidden, and there were no cross department routes of communication. Everything was linear, up and down. This can easily be seen as a failing in other large institutions, not because of an active plan, but because we don’t encourage enough cross organisational working. Collaboration is key to innovation, trouble shooting, but also to fault finding and improvement. It takes effort to do well, but is worth investing the time and energy into for improved results.
Vision alone is not enough
Vision without follow through is always going to fail. Vision without working pragmatically on turning it into reality will not succeed. Once you move from vision into implementation or delivery, it cannot be enough that you alone own the vision. It has to be shared, it can no longer be owned by an individual. By sharing it, you also have to take onboard the input of those others, and if you cling to the original too tightly then you are setting it up to be a disappointment.
People are the ones who suffer
People were actively hurt by this poor use of science and innovation. The scientists themselves suffered when they tried to raise the alarm, emotionally and through litigation. Most of all though, the patients who placed their faith in a diagnostic that could never deliver suffered, either through over or under treatment. Because this tale occurred in the states, those failings also came with a financial burden, as well as a physical one. This book makes me so grateful for the NHS and our regulatory structure for the governance and protection it provides. Nothing is perfect, but an imperfect something is so so much better than the alternatives. I hope you find the book as eye opening as I did.
One of my brilliant PhD students had his first experience of responding to reviewers comments last week, and as we sat and talked it through I thought that it might actually be a useful topic to write a blog about. Now, Sam was responding to reviewers comments on a review, but I think a lot of the principles stand no matter the response is linked to. I feel the same way about responding to comments and reviews on any piece of work I’ve poured my heart and soul into, be that manuscripts, grants, a piece of guidance, a policy or a business case, or my current horror – book submission. It might be that I need to remind myself of this advice as much as I wanted to share it with you 🤣.
Getting the opportunity to respond to reviewers is a success in itself
No matter how rough it feels in the moment when you first open the email/attachment and read all those comments where the reviewers have blatantly failed to read your carefully crafted wording in the way it was intended remember this. Being able to respond to reviewers is itself worthy of celebration. It means you haven’t got a full on NO. It means that the people see there is value in what you have done, even if they believe that it could be improved with some tweaking. Anything that isn’t a rejection is worthy of allowing yourself a mini celebration, chocolate bar, glass of wine, cup of tea, before you tackle the trauma of starting to make the changes.
Put on your positive specs
Whilst I drink my celebratory cup of tea I always take a moment to remind myself that this is actually an opportunity, an opportunity to make something I care about better than it would be without this process, that it’s an opportunity for improvement, and that this opportunity is something to be seized and embraced. Who doesn’t want to deliver the best thing they possibly can?
Always be polite
Now, it can also be said that sometimes recognising that opportunity for improvement can be challenging. Sometimes, those responding can have missed something that you clearly stated in both paragraphs X and Y. The thing is, they won’t have spent hours and hours reading your writing, and they are unlikely to have come to know it in the exquisite detail that you do. I tell you this as the person who blocks out only an hour to review your precious creation as that is all my diary allows. The thing is, most reviewers are doing it for the good of the community/trust/committee. They are, in essence, doing us all a favour. Therefore, when responding to what they have said its important to recognise that, and always always be polite in your response that you write. You are a professional after all.
The moral high ground gives combat bonuses
I have, on occasion, seen reviewers’ comments that shouldn’t have gotten by the editor or panel. Comments that could be considered racist or sexist, or to be honest, blatantly are. I’ve also seen responses where editors return those comments and just added a comment of their own to say ignore them and don’t respond in the review. This later one is interesting to me, I feel editors shouldn’t return these comments and should really respond to the submitter to say they are not acceptable. When responding to these, I think it’s even more important to respond with grace. I separate out the science and deliberately respond to these with my science head. I then flag and escalate the rest of it, as if it’s a completely separate incident.
Don’t respond immediately
This is my top tip, my one thing if you only take one thing from this blog post. Never ever respond immediately. Open the email, read it once, maybe twice, to really ascertain what’s been said and see the response deadline, then close it and walk away. Nothing good ever comes from responding in the moment. I personally have a 48 hour rule. I will leave that email closed for at least 48 hours before I open it again, during which time I will drink that celebratory cup of tea and try not to dwell. After 48 hours, I’m allowed to re-open and read it again. If at that point I can read it without an overt emotional response I’m ready to respond. If not, I will give it another 48 hours. Almost always, after 48 hours, I open it and it’s nowhere near as bad as I had originally perceived with my emotional goggles on and I can just get on with a response.
Bite the bullet and get on with it
I know, I know. I just told you you need space to switch from emotional to logical response and to read what’s there in an analytical way, but you also can’t wait too long to respond. This is for a number of reasons. One, there will be a deadline for you to accept or reject what you’ve been asked to do, and you have already invested a LOT of time to get to this point. Two, you want to draft your response when the original submission is still relatively fresh in your mind as it helps with rebuttals and references. Finally, if you need more than two 48 hour breaks to get your head in the right space it’s likely that this is feeding into something bigger and you probably need to find a coping mechanism and to start processing what that is, and responding is a good way to start unpicking and reflecting on what’s driving how you feel.
Decide on the structure of your response
You’ve finally got to the point where you are going to sit down and start drafting your response. There are lots of ways that you can do this, everyone is different, but in case you haven’t had the opportunity before, I thought I’d share how I do it in case it helps.
There are two main pieces that I would work on in parallel, the response to reviewers document and the in-text changes.
Response to reviewers:
I do this in Word and always have my paper title as the header.
I open with a paragraph where I thank my reviewers for their helpful comments (whether you truly feel it or not, this goes back to always being polite, but in all honesty there’s usually a lot of good to be thankful for)
I then break my responses down by reviewer, so I will have a section headed reviewer 1, another headed reviewer 2 etc, also a general one for the editors comments if there are any
Within each section for each reviewer, I will copy and paste over the comments I have received. I then break down these comments. Some reviewers give you a lovely bullet pointed list, sometimes with line numbers, and so this is easy. Some will give you paragraphs of text where you then have to extract each point and effectively make a bullet pointed list out of it.
At this stage, I tend to remove commentary, things where they is no change requested. This gives me a working list to work from, and I will colour code this text so it stands out from my responses, which I will write under each bullet point. I tend to make the reviewers comments red, I don’t know why I just do. Then, when I start writing my responses, I do these in black.
You can also, at this point, identify whether several reviewers have given similar comments, and then you can cluster those changes.
It’s only really at this point that I can see the wood for the trees, and generally, it’s much less bad than I had initially thought.
In-text changes:
This one is pretty straight forward. You may not have this if you are responding to a business case or grant review as they will want all the information contained in the response document. This additional document is mainly for manuscripts and contains the changes that you make in response to the review in your original paper. I tend to highlight changes to the text in yellow and then make sure I cross reference back in my response to reviewers with line numbers, as well as any commentary, so they are easy to find. The main thing to remember here is, once you’ve completed your response, save off a ‘clean’ copy without the highlights as well as the highlighted version as some places will want you to upload both.
Read what is there not what you think is there
So, the above information is about how you prepare to respond, but how do you actually respond? The first thing, and I think this is key, is to read what they have actually said, not what you think they have said. This is where I find splitting the points to be addressed up really helps, as it enables you to read them in a different way.
Common features that reviewers want added/addressed include:
addition of references
spelling mistakes
improvements in unclear sentence structure
other nuance changes
For all of these the action is fairly straight forward, you just make the changes within the original document and write a comment in your response to reviewers stating ‘changed in text – line XX and YY’. If you get similar comments from more than one reviewer, I would address them in the order in which they occur. So reviewer 1 has a similar comment to reviewer 3, I’d respond in the reviewer 1 section and in the reviewer 3 section state, for instance, ‘already addressed under reviewer 1 in line XX’.
Decide where you line is
It’s actually quite lovely if you just get quick responses as described above, sometimes however the comments require a little more. Sometimes the reviewers will want new points addressed, or occasionally fresh data included. At this point you need to decide how much the paper in it’s current format is important to you to maintain. This has happened to me a few times. Normally the additional points made actually really strengthen the paper and I am more than happy to spend the few extra hours to add in, especially as they tend to be points I already had in drafts but was forced to lose due to word count. There have however been occasions where I disagreed with the reviewer on either the fact that certain points should be included or the way they had suggested that they be done. On these occasions you are entitled, and I have done, to include commentary under the reviewers’ comment where you state why you don’t feel that it would be a suitable edit. You will need to be polite and clear, and ideally evidence, why you don’t agree. The decision will then lie with the editor as to whether they agree or not.
Get a second opinion
Once you’ve completed your response, or earlier if you are deciding to rebut points, it’s valuable to get a second opinion. You should send your response documents to your other authors for sign off, but if you are a sole author you should still find someone to sense check. This process is important, both to help ensure that you have actually addressed all the points raised, but also to help ensure that your arguments are robust where needed. I have been on papers where the first author has returned the response to reviewers without showing it to the other authors, and on reading it I have seen the response hasn’t fully addressed the reviewers which has then led to another round delaying paper submission. Some papers have loads of authors and you, with their support, may not need all of them to comment, but they should have sight prior to submission and at least the 1st and senior authors should have fully reviewed.
Learn lessons for when you are reviewing in the future
My final point is that this is a great learning opportunity, not just on the subject matter, but on what and what not to do when you are reviewing papers, grants etc. I always try to review and write comments in a way that is clear and actionable for those receiving the comments, in a way that I would like to receive them if the submission was mine. I also think it is so important to consider what should and should not be included in your review. Most journals, for instance, want to know whether the level of writing is good enough for publication but I would never cross the line into making comments about the English skills of the authors, I personally don’t feel that’s appropriate, for me, I’m there to comment on the science. It’s crucial to consider what it constructive and what is not as part of this process. When writing a review it is so important to think ‘is it helpful?’ ‘is it kind?’.
I hope all of this helps you when you are thinking about the best way to take onboard comments as they come in. I would also plea that you aim to see them as an opportunity to improve and learn rather than something that puts you into a spiral and causes you distress. Just getting the opportunity to respond is a success after all!
All opinions in this blog are my own
If you would like more tips and advice linked to your PhD journey then the first every Girlymicrobiologist book is here to help!
This book goes beyond the typical academic handbook, acknowledging the unique challenges and triumphs faced by PhD students and offering relatable, real-world advice to help you:
Master the art of effective research and time management to stay organized and on track.
Build a supportive network of peers, mentors, and supervisors to overcome challenges and foster collaboration.
Maintain a healthy work-life balance by prioritizing self-care and avoiding burnout.
Embrace the unexpected and view setbacks as opportunities for growth and innovation.
Navigate the complexities of academia with confidence and build a strong professional network
This book starts at the very beginning, with why you might want to do a PhD, how you might decide what route to PhD is right for you, and what a successful application might look like.
It then takes you through your PhD journey, year by year, with tips about how to approach and succeed during significant moments, such as attending your first conference, or writing your first academic paper.
Finally, you will discover what other skills you need to develop during your PhD to give you the best route to success after your viva. All of this supported by links to activities on The Girlymicrobiologist blog, to help you with practical exercises in order to apply what you have learned.
It’s been just over a year since it was confirmed that I’d been made an Honourary Professor at UCL. It’s such an odd and yet brilliant thing to achieve the thing you never really believed would happen. Also, because I had dreamed but never thought it would be a reality, I don’t think I’d ever thought about what difference, if any, it would actually make. I thought I would, therefore, write this blog post to help all the dreamers, like me, who might benefit from some details about what it feels like after you’ve finally crossed the finish line.
Everything and nothing
I suppose the first thing to say is both that everything has changed, but in many ways nothing has. My job for all intents and purposes is exactly the same as it was, do clinical work and try to embed research along the way.
The biggest change is probably the level of respect you get from some people based on title alone. This happened to me when I made Consultant as well. You still get dismissed, or challenged (which isn’t a bad thing), but it happens less and somehow is generally done in a nicer way. This isn’t universally true of course, but the majority of interactions are smoother. In some ways this fascinates me, as I’m the same person. The social interplay linked to this hierarchy is something I’d love to go into more at some, but as much as it’s nice I’m not sure it’s how we should work.
The other thing has made my heart full on multiple occasions. I’ve had a number of people come up and tell me spontaneously how happy they are for me, which is lovely, but they’ve followed up with ‘you making professor makes me think it’s something that I can aspire for’, which is even better! I’ve had other people say I can’t be a professor because of my age, background, or gender, but not in a bad way, in a way where their eyes were opened as I didn’t fit the image they had in their mind. Frankly, I think this in itself is brilliant, being able to hold this space whilst being who I am and changing expectations is one of the reasons I fought so hard to get here. So thank you, thank you for helping me get here. In case you are fighting your own fight, and in case it helps, whatever happens next, the fight was worth it.
A world of unexpected opportunities
There are a few key ways that change has happened that I thought it would be worth talking about. Most of these are internal, but this first one is not. I do feel like I get offered more opportunities now. Now, I don’t know for definite that this is a consequence of me making professor, but the timing feels coincidental.
Within weeks of it being official, I received my first requests for commissioned articles from journals. I’ve never had these before, and it was so exciting I accepted the first three without realising that this wasn’t a one-off and that they’d all result in a heap of extra work. I’m glad I did. It’s been nice to spread the opportunity by picking awesome co-authors who haven’t had paper writing opportunities previously or where it benefits most, like my PhD students. The ones I’ve done have been brilliant learning and fun, but to be honest, are too much on top of an already full-on job. Writing them on top of this blog has been fairly challenging as I don’t get a lot of time at home as it is.
I also get a lot of invites to attend events and sit on committees, etc. These have always happened, but they happen much more frequently now. The same is also true with paper and grant reviews for organisations. The irony of some of this is that many of these opportunities are probably much more needed for those who are working to get established or still ticking the essential boxes rather than being wasted on me. I’m honoured, and I still get a lot out of them and feel I can contribute, but I’m not sure we should focus so much on defaulting to including the already embedded, maybe we should be opening those doors wider? That said, I’m frequently the only woman or scientist in those rooms, and so maybe these invites are just that? Still, I will try to pay it forward and spread the inclusion if I can by sending others and stepping back.
A certain kind of freedom
Most of the changes, as I said above, have been in how I feel and see myself. There is a freedom in feeling you’ve achieved something that felt out of reach. It validates the dream, and the sheer act of achieving one means that it inspires you to dream more and dream bigger. It also provides a level of freedom in terms of academic thought and process. I feel there is less justifying my research interests, removing some of the early hurdles you have to get over when starting any project.
There is also freedom to have a voice and express your opinions. Now, I’ve never been exactly meek about this. You read this blog after all. Being called a disrupter and boat rocker in the past is one of the reasons I didn’t think making professor would happen. Now I’m on the other side of the line, I feel even more empowered to stand tall as it would have been easier to not give it to me than it is to take it away. I think secretly everyone loves a little bit of disruption to the status quo.
A need to change my automatic yes
One of the things I still need to get better at and embrace more is the art of saying no. Interestingly, becoming a professor has really helped with this. All of the reasons why are touched on in the following sections, but this sits as an aspect within all of them. It’s changed my thinking about saying no as a negative thing, which I need to justify and flagelate myself over. Saying no to things I’ve come to realise can be an incredibly positive choice, both for myself and others. I’m embracing the power of no, and I would encourage you to do the same.
A need to change my mindset
One of the things that I wrote about in the original post when I made professor was about the fact that you have to demonstrate that you have achieved and ticked a fairly large number of boxes, from publications and grant funding to teaching and public engagement. In all honesty, some of these boxes will appeal to each person more than others. Many of them I love, and some of them are just key parts of the job. There are others however that I can now be more selective about.
I’ve always struggled with feeling like I have to cover all bases, as I didn’t have certainty about where I would end up. Career pathways in Healthcare Science were not very obvious when I started, and so you had to maintain and develop all aspects in case that’s where the job or opportunity would be. There is so much joy in knowing where that path has led, but also in having certainty about the fact that I have the power to now make informed choices about my next steps, as I know where I’ve ended up. Nothing in life is guaranteed, but being the master of your own destiny gives you the ability to choose steps that serve your purpose rather than trying to be everything to everyone. It provides freedom from the constant striving to please.
A redefinition of identity
Something that has been a challenge for me over the last few years has been linked to whether I’m still a scientist. This may sound odd, as of course, I still do a lot of scientific activities: writing papers, reviewing grants, sorting protocols etc, but I don’t DO science any more. I’m not in the lab wearing a lab coat processing specimens, I’m also not often there undertaking experiments. It’s taken me a while to come to terms with the fact that all of the activities that don’t take place in a lab are still part of what makes me a scientist. I find this one fascinating, as it took me ages to ‘feel’ like I was a scientist, and I went through a complete panic at the thought of no longer being considered one. The process of redefining my identity to include these new aspects has been been important, but not always straight forward.
A stronger sense of self
Titles shouldn’t change how you feel about yourself, they shouldn’t, your sense of self should not be dependent on labels. The thing is though, those labels sometimes make life easier. I’m still the same person I was before I became a consultant or a professor. I’ve not morphed overnight into someone different. It does however remove some of that constant need I have to prove myself and show to others I’m good enough, whatever that means. When I’m questioned and challenged, which of course does and should happen, it enables me to have slightly less self doubt. I’m not saying that questioning yourself is not a useful reflective tool, everything is good in moderation, but sometimes I can lean too far into that questioning. I feel like having gone through the external review process, by people who have never met me, and been assessed as reaching this level of knowledge and experience does give me a baseline level of confidence that I didn’t have before. This confidence translates itself into an improved sense of self assurance which is really helpful across my professional practice.
An increased sense of responsibility
Now, I’m not old and dead yet, but crossing this milestone has really made me think about what I want next, and what the next phase looks like. Over the last year I’ve come to realise that the crucial thing for me is about opening doors for others. I want others to be able to progress in a more defined way than I did, and to find some of the doors already ajar. They will face different obstacles, but I feel like that is how we move forward. I really feel that increased sense of responsibility to help those who will come after to me, and to pay forward the support that I have had along the way to others. Having ticked my boxes it’s time to help others tick theirs.
A new sense of direction
All of this has given me a sense of direction, one that involves not being afraid to be seen, and of embracing sticking my head above the parapet for the sake of change and for the sake of others. For the first time in my career I have a stable permanent post which means that I can afford to take risks in a way that I couldn’t have really contemplated before. I have privilege, that I recognise, own, and want to harness for the benefit of others.
I want to be in this position and still be me. I want to wave my geek flag, hold my head high as an obstinate head strong girl, and show that you don’t have to fit the mould in order to be successful. It’s one reason that this blog continues to be important to me. I want to show you can have self doubt and still progress. That you can make mistakes and learn from them, and that that’s OK. I want to stand tall and embrace being ‘Too Much’ to show you don’t have to compromise who you are to make things happen. That you can aspire and achieve more than you dreamed possible by being entirely, authentically you. I want to use the platform I’ve been given and hope that you will all join me along the way,
All opinions in this blog are my own
If you would like more tips and advice linked to your PhD journey then the first every Girlymicrobiologist book is here to help!
This book goes beyond the typical academic handbook, acknowledging the unique challenges and triumphs faced by PhD students and offering relatable, real-world advice to help you:
Master the art of effective research and time management to stay organized and on track.
Build a supportive network of peers, mentors, and supervisors to overcome challenges and foster collaboration.
Maintain a healthy work-life balance by prioritizing self-care and avoiding burnout.
Embrace the unexpected and view setbacks as opportunities for growth and innovation.
Navigate the complexities of academia with confidence and build a strong professional network
This book starts at the very beginning, with why you might want to do a PhD, how you might decide what route to PhD is right for you, and what a successful application might look like.
It then takes you through your PhD journey, year by year, with tips about how to approach and succeed during significant moments, such as attending your first conference, or writing your first academic paper.
Finally, you will discover what other skills you need to develop during your PhD to give you the best route to success after your viva. All of this supported by links to activities on The Girlymicrobiologist blog, to help you with practical exercises in order to apply what you have learned.
Last week I was part of a careers day for Queen Mary University of London, where I did my second Masters degree and where I currently act as an external examiner for the same Masters 15+ years later. I used to do these kinds of events all the time pre-pandemic but it’s been the first one I’ve done for some time. I know that many of the people who read this blog are already working scientists, but there are definitely some of you who are just starting out on your journey and so I thought I would share some thoughts in relation to some of the questions I was asked.
What is a day in the life of Clinical Scientist like?
I’ve blogged before about what a Clinical Scientist job is like as a Clinical Microbiologist. I think the main defining characterisation of Clinical Scientist jobs is that they are all quite different from each other. If you look at the NHS website it gives the following fairly generic description:
Clinical scientists research and develop techniques and equipment to help prevent, diagnose and treat illness.
Clinical scientists are healthcare and medical experts who support clinical staff in their work with patients. Their work is very wide ranging and can include laboratory work and testing, basic and applied research, management and teaching.
There are 4 main areas of Healthcare Science, each of which will have sub disciplines:
The day is a life for each is therefore pretty different. I work as a Consultant Clinical Scientist, and my training was within Microbiology. My Consultant post is even more specialised however, as my main area of practice is within Infection Prevention and Control. I love this as it means that I still maintain my practice within virology, mycology and bacteriology, whereas otherwise I would have had to choose a specific route.
These days I don’t get to spend so much time in the lab. My day to day involves supporting clinical decision making, managing outbreaks and infection risks, as well as supporting PhD students and research activity. I basically act as a hospital detective, trying to work out what is going on and solving cases of infection. I also sit on a number of national and international committees to try and translate some of the learning I experience and research into clinical practice. One of the things I love is that I run something called the Environment Network, that came out of my PhD.
What was my pathway into Healthcare Science?
My pathway into Healthcare Science was probably not that similar to most of you applying today, mostly because it wasn’t really something that was discussed when I was at uni and there were really quite restricted ways into the profession – things like T-Levels and apprenticeships just didn’t exist back then. My undergraduate degree was in Zoology, and although I loved it there were no real jobs in it. When I was an undergraduate I knew I didn’t really want to be your typical academic, where I thought you would spend your whole career looking at a single pathway in a lab, and that it wouldn’t really impact on the ‘real world’. I always knew I wanted to do something that changed things, that made life better for people, I just didn’t know how to do it.
When I graduated doing a master wasn’t really an option. I wasn’t in a position to pay for ongoing education – I needed to work. I then lucked out and was approached because the uni where I did my degree was looking for biologists to start on a new trial MRes that was focused on developing an interdisciplinary approach. They were developing a course called the Physics of Biological Interactions at Surfaces, and they wanted biologists to take it in conjunction with physicists, not only that but they were paying £10,000 tax free to anyone who would do it. I jumped at the chance, who wouldn’t.
During this MRes I discovered clinical research, research that was aimed at change and at making life better for patients. All of a sudden a new world opened up to me, I knew this was the kind of science I wanted to do. My best friend, who was a microbiologist, handed me an advert for a trainee Clinical Scientist job in London in Microbiology. Now, my project had included micro during my MRes, and I’d done one module of micro during my undergrad, but I was far from being a microbiologist. Despite that I took a leap of faith and applied for the job. There 240 applicants and 4 posts. I cried when I left the interview as I really wanted the job and I felt the interview was a disaster. Next day they called and offered me the job. I was shocked, so shocked I asked them why. The interview had been a bunch of scenarios, they replied that that they could teach me facts but they couldn’t teach someone how to think, and they liked the way my mind worked. That has stuck with me, and I bear it in mind as I interview to this day. The rest, as they say, is history.
What are the common routes available to people trying to enter into Healthcare Science today?
There are multiple points into Healthcare Science careers, which is great because no matter what stage of your career you discover them there is a route that will be appropriate for you!
College level entry
Discovering Healthcare Science careers early is great as it maximises your ability to choose your path forward and the amount of time that you can spend developing in this particular careers path. The main way to enter at this point is via T-Levels (I’ve written a separate blog post on these), as they enable you to build a good base and explore the different specialisms to help you make an informed choice.
Degree level entry
Degree level entry can look different depending on whether you are looking at going down the physiological sciences or life sciences route. For physiological science there are accredited degrees that enable you to access the Practitioner Training Programme, or PTP. This enables you to get work experience and training during your degree. There are also two different types of programme that in life sciences will support entry into the field as a Biomedical Scientist (BMS). Both of these include selecting Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS) accredited degrees, but one includes choosing a degree that has a placement year so that you come out ready for registration, whereas the other will require you to do a registration year as part of work when you graduate (see post graduate entry).
Post graduate level entry
Once you have a life science (or other acceptable degree depending on specialism) the there are multiple routes into Healthcare Science:
Direct entry training posts – these include trainee BMS posts for those who have undertaken an accredited degree but still need the year in post to complete their portfolio.
Centrally recruited training post – these posts are traditionally either Scientific Training posts (STP), or Higher Specialist Scientific Training posts (HSST). STP posts involve training over three years to be a Clinical Scientists, and HSST posts involve training for 5 years (once already registered as a Clinical Scientist) to become a Consultant Clinical Scientist. STP posts involve further academic training to get an MSc, whereas HSST posts require working towards clinical exams and a taught doctorate.
In-post development and training, there are frequently opportunities to develop via informal routes when you are in post. If you have taken an accredited degree some posts will support you in completing your portfolio to get state registration whilst working as an associate practitioner (AP), or if your degree was not accredited, your employer may support you in taking top up modules that would then enable you to move onto the next stage of portfolio completion.
Finally, there are routes in via something known as equivalence or route 2 registration, especially for Clinical and Biomedical Science routes. These routes mean that you might do something like apply for a post when you have gained an appropriate PhD and over a period of years gain enough clinical experience to be able to complete a portfolio that demonstrates a similar level of knowledge and experience to someone whose gone through a formal training route. This is what I need for my HSST registration, as I already had a PhD and several years of clinical and academic experience.
Apprenticeships
I’ve put apprenticeships separately here as these are applicable to every level, although the Clinical Scientist one is not yet formalised. This means there are routes where you can be training and earning qualifications that support your career progress, as well as gaining valuable experience. These change periodically and different Trusts will support different ones, so I’m not going to list them in detail but I would encourage you to look at the .Gov website I’ve listed below so you can find the latest information and entry requirements:
Healthcare science assistant (level 2) Carrying out routine technical and scientific procedures and support within hospitals, doctor surgeries and other healthcare settings for a wide range of people. Apprenticeship category: Health and science
Healthcare science associate (level 4) Working in hospitals, primary care and other healthcare settings, carrying out routine technical and scientific procedures. Supporting healthcare science (HCS) practitioners and clinical scientists. Apprenticeship category: Health and science
Healthcare Science is obviously not the only way to become as a scientist as a career, there are a world of different types of way to work in science. Starting in one does not mean that you cannot transfer to another, and different career options may be appropriate at different stages of your life. What I’m really saying is don’t worry too much about feeling like you are committing to a certain pathway if you get offered an entry level job in one area when your idea may be in another. Gain learning and experience and don’t be afraid to move between if that’s the decision that is right for you. Here are a few I can think of off the top of my head:
Industry – pharmaceutical, manufacturing, medical writing and so so many others
Academia – university based, but there are plenty of different pathways within, including specialising in teaching or research
Public sector – this can include jobs such as Healthcare Science, but could also include other routes such as public health, food science, environmental science, and options such as science policy
Clinical – there are other routes that enable you to work with a clinical aspect to your role, such as clinical trails, without entering into Healthcare Science
Charity sector – there are numerous charities, such as cancer research, Wellcome etc, that employ scientists and really value scientific input, whether that’s in their grant structure, policy development or science governance
Communication – science communication and public engagement is a really important area, from writing for news papers to developing content for employers such as the BBC, there are a lot of options in this area
What are my top tips for science applications?
I’ve previously written about this is more detail in 2 blog posts, application tips and interview tips, which I hope will be useful. Below are some more general tips that might help:
Don’t be afraid to use non-science examples. Have you worked in retail and dealt with money or conflicts? Have you been a guide or a school council member, both of which show leadership potential? You don’t have to have spent a year in a lab to be able to complete the form
Be prepared to talk about your why? Why science? Why this job? Why this place?
Know how to complete the application form. If you are applying for an NHS job you will need to explicitly state how you match each point with examples. Do avoid recruitment bias it’s all done on a point based system. You can’t get points if you aren’t writing against the JD, so don’t waste word count on items that are unlinked
Make sure you tailor your application to the job. Generic CVs won’t get you very far and a generic NHS application form will not get you the points you need. It takes time but it will pay dividends
If you get an interview make sure you visit before hand. It will give you pointers as to what they are looking for and ensure that it also feels like the kind of place you want to work
Practice common interview question answers ahead of time
If you are interested in them supporting further development, like supporting portfolio completion, use your opportunity at the end of the interview to raise it. An interview is as much you interviewing them as them interviewing you. If something is important to you make sure that you raise it, then you can make a fully informed decision about whether the role is right for you
What are my top tips for career planning?
I’ve blogged before about the fact that I’ve not had the smoothest academic pathway and that I really believe that academic success does not have to define who you are. I really believe there are so many many ways to end up in a place and a career that is right for you. There is not one way to do something, but here are some principles that I hope might help:
Don’t think you have to have it all figured out – follow what inspires you and supports your passions and everything will work out
You don’t have to be the smartest person in the room – being tenacious gets you far further than being talented alone, just keep going
Do your research – if you want something invest the time to learn about it, if there is a specific job reach out and speak to the people advertising it to get to know them, the workplace and more about the job
It’s OK to try a number of different ways to get into the field, don’t focus too much on it being on the ‘right’ pathway, as long as it enables you to be gaining experience, and in an ideal world training, you are still moving forward even if you need to move horizontally later
Keep an open mind about training routes in, don’t rule out apprenticeships and vocational routes, even if you consider yourself to be more academic, they will let you gain experience at the same time as earning money and studying
Be open to the fact that you are likely to have to invest your own time. Working in science has enormous opportunities, but if you sign up to a Healthcare Science pathway you are also signing up to continuous professional development, some of which will likely need to happen in your own time if you want the best possible outcomes
Maintain a growth mindset – no matter what the stage of your career be open to still developing, be open to opportunities and next steps, and be prepared to keep driving yourself to be better
Take a chance on yourself – sometimes we are our own biggest barriers and the most important thing is to get out of our own way. Don’t talk yourself out of taking chances, don’t tell yourself you can’t or that things won’t work out so you won’t try. Be brave, take your chances and leap!
How can I get work experience?
Work experience in Healthcare Science can be difficult to acquire, don’t be disheartened though there are still plenty of ways forward:
See if you can gain experience within industry or academia as these both tend to have specific work experience programmes that you can tap into
Some professional bodies, such as Applied Microbiology International, Microbiology Society and the Royal Society of Biology all have studentship and placement grants. I’m sure there are many others. Consider becoming a student member if you can afford it, or reach out to someone you would like to have a placement with and see whether they could apply or support you to do so. These mean that you can have some living allowance, if like me you couldn’t do it without, and bring some money with you to do a short project. They also look good on your CV as demonstrate both commitment and application/grant writing skills
Ask one of your current lecturers if they have any project opportunities with them
Gain an entry level post and use that to gain the experience you need to support your next steps
Consider apprenticeships to gain some exposure alongside your qualifications
Consider volunteering in adjacent roles, most hospitals and care facilities have volunteer programmes where you can gain experience, but also give back
Remember, you don’t need extensive experience to support your application for an entry level role, even a cup of tea with someone who does the job will enable you have a better understanding of the role. A couple of days to a couple of weeks is an advantage but not essential.
Useful places to find more information
Below are some links that might be helpful in getting some further information and reading up about possible next steps. These are great jumping off points, but you should also reach out to mentors and people doing the different types of jobs you are interested in to get deeper information not listed on the websites. There will be an option that works for you, but not every option works for everyone, so the more research you do the better fit you are likely to find.
I was presenting at my first conference of the year last week, which is a sign that conference season is soon to well and truly kick off. I know that this often puts many of us in a state of anxiety. We know that conference presentations are important for both getting our work out there and also for personal and career development. Presenting however, can feel like quite a high stakes manoeuvre, especially if you are not comfortable with public speaking. With this in mind I thought it might be useful to share some tips that I have learnt, in the hopes that it might help with your next upcoming session.
1 – Know your audience
The first thing to realise is that we often make presentations about us, when actually they aren’t really about us at all, they are about the audience and what we are trying to achieve on their behalf. We are often given a fairly generic topic to speak on, or have submitted an abstract of what we wish to present. That’s great but actually probably doesn’t have enough clarity to start putting together the session. My first step whenever I’m asked to speak is to think about the learning objectives for the session. What might benefit the audience most? What are they expecting? Learning objectives act as a guidepost, and I will usually include them with the blurb I’m asked to write for the agenda. This means that people selecting their sessions will be able to make an informed decision about whether your session will work for them. Are you pitching an introduction level session or an update on the latest research that assumes pre-existing knowledge? You want to match your pitch to the audience that you are expecting.
It is also worth thinking about what kind of atmosphere is likely to be present? Is it a fairly informal setting where the session will be more discursive or is it a formal conference session where you may need to prepare for possible confrontational questions? Prepare for questions and queries whilst you’re preparing your session, try to think about the rabbit holes that the audience might want to go down and for any potential pitfalls where you will need to have a pre-prepared strategic response. If you’ve been clear about what the session covers and audience pitch this should be less of an issue, but it’s always worth being prepared.
2 – Be prepared to bring your authentic self
One of the things I’ve come to truly believe is that, no matter how formal the session, you should bring your whole self to it. I’ve written previously about how we should feel free to wear clothes that empower us, and conference sessions are no different. This can be something as simple as wearing your favourite colour, but whatever it is, delivering talks is easier when you feel good and empowered so do whatever you need to feel that way. My top tip is that whatever you decide to wear, ensure that it’s comfortable. I used to wear heels to speak but now I always wear flats, as I’ve decided that the pain isn’t worth it for me, especially when you consider how long you will be networking after your session.
The other place were I try to ensure that I also include something that is a little bit me, is within the presentation itself. Again, this can be levelled dependent on setting, sometimes I just choose a colour scheme or icon that speaks to me. Other things you can include are quotes or images that are meaningful to you. Again, it doesn’t have to be something big or in the face of your audience, but something that centres you and makes you feel more like you own the space you are presenting in. Sometimes however going big is the way forward, sometimes making something memorable is the right approach, it all depends on your confidence level and the setting.
3 – Judge your session
I’ve talked up above about thinking about how informal/formal the setting you are presenting in and how this can impact on your content. There are however other things that are beneficial to think about in terms of expectations for your setting. The type of session will dictate a number of things, as will time slot and room allocation. If you know the venue you are going to you may be able to predict numbers of attendees for instance, if you are allocated a room you may be able to find out whether its for 15 people versus 1500. High numbers of attendees will limit your options for interactions, as will being given a 15 minute time slot.
Common types of sessions include:
Debates
Research presentations
Topic presentations
Workshop
Plenary or keynote
Speed presenting
Poster presentation
Careers presentations
Panel sessions
There are obviously others but these are the main ones that spring to mind. Just from looking at the list you’ll be able to see how different ones will attract people with different levels of pre-existing knowledge or interest. There are some key questions that are worth asking to help you support judging your session when the email comes in. First, always confirm length of session and whether or not this will include time for questions. Second, ask about number and types of attendees both for your session and the target audience for the conference/meeting itself. Finally, as this will impact your options for engagement with large audiences, will there be free Wi-Fi available for attendees so they can access voting apps? Don’t feel like this information should confine your creativity and what you want to undertake but build any limitations into your thinking in order find solutions ahead of time. Finally, please please please never be the person that delivers a 40+ minute talk despite being given a 30 minute slot.
4 – Use the agenda to guide you
Once the agenda is released and you’ve starting to build the content of your session you can also use it to help in your preparation. Your timing and position on the agenda can influence the build of your talk. If you are directly after lunch, you might want to think harder about the engagement side to wake everyone up and get them back into the flow. If you are just pre lunch, you might want to stack some of your more exciting parts towards the end and build towards them to ensure you keep the audiences attention. If you are going first or last you probably need to start and finish with a bang.
The other area where the agenda can really help you is to see what others are covering, especially if they’ve listed any focuses or learning objectives in their descriptions. This may mean you can get valuable slides back if someone is talking on a similar topic ahead of you, and will therefore have given a lot of similar introductory slides, thus giving you more time to build on the subject in your slot. It can also give you ideas of areas to avoid, so that you don’t give too much overlap. One of the things to not do is be intimidated by anyone else on the agenda. If you are speaking/presenting you have earned the right to do so, it doesn’t matter if the person before you is Dame X or Professor Y, acknowledge what that might do to the atmosphere in the room (i.e. may mean you have a larger audience) and then plan as if they were any other speaker.
5 – Have a plan on how to engage attendees
Engagement can start before the event even begins. If you have a poster session for instance, you might want to share a picture of your poster and it’s location on social media. Sometimes I also find running polls can help with working out pitching your session, and also in building engagement so that you are more likely to get an audience. This can be especially important if your session is at an event where there are multiple sessions running at the same time and therefore you almost need to sell why someone should comes to yours when there is so much choice available. Taking some time to raise awareness via social media using the event # can be really beneficial under these circumstances.
Depending on the availability of Wi-Fi and session details you may also want to consider using tools or apps to support interaction with the audience during your session. You can use tools such as Mentimeter and Slido to build voting or other forms of interaction into your session. This approach is especially important if you are asked to do a workshop session. It’s also worth asking additional questions during the prep phase, such as the type of seating, to see whether it would support group discussions.
Even if you are giving a standard presentation without interactive tools you still need to think about how to engage your audience. There obviously many different ways of doing this, starting from basics like pitching correctly so you bring your audience with you. If you can bringing yourself to your session by using framing such as story telling it can really help, alongside the use of humour. You can even think if there are props that would be appropriate to support what you’re talking about, although you also don’t want to make it gimmicky. Whatever tool you feel comfortable with, practice using it as it will make sure your session is more memorable.
6 – Make sure you have a plan B
Things go wrong, they do, despite your very best endeavours. Having a plan B in your pocket never hurts. This can be as simple as having a USB with your slides on it with you in case they haven’t managed to load it before you arrive. If I’ve included videos or anything else ‘fancy’ in my presentation I will always have a plan B and C. Plan B is an extra copy of my talk without the ‘fancy’ bit in it in case it doesn’t work when I test with the AV tech ahead of my talk. Plan C is a script in my head that I can use to describe the video in case it worked on test and suddenly fails during the real thing. If I’m doing a smaller session, I will also sometimes arrive with print outs of my slides so that I can approach it old school if needed.
Having a plan B is especially important if you are using voting or something tech related. If your entire session is going to be based on audience participation you need to have a plan if no one there can get signal or access to Wi-Fi. It’s worth building this flexibility in when you are developing the session so you will not need to entirely wing it if the unexpected happens to you.
7 – Be prepared to push yourself
I’m just throwing this out there. You should be prepared to push yourself into a space where you feel uncomfortable. Growing your skills is a never ending task, even if you feel like you are a pretty good public speaker, there are always things to learn, improve and do better. Sometimes the very act of speaking is a sufficient push because it’s not an area in which you feel comfortable. If you are comfortable talking ‘science’ maybe also stretch yourself by bringing more of yourself into the session. Embrace the creative possibilities and strive to have more impact, build better engagement, be more memorable. Read and research on the topic of how to present better in the same way that you would read and research your content and find inspiration about the next thing you could try.
8 – Facilitate a relaxed state of mind
Having just encouraged you to step out of your comfort zone by planning your presentation I also now want to encourage you to remove the stress that can be present outside of the speaking component itself. I speak from experience. I once agreed to speak at 2 conferences on the same day, on different topics and in different cities. This was beyond foolish. There simply wasn’t enough time to get from point A to point B and I arrived to land on stage for the second session with 1 minute to spare. I’ve also learnt that travelling up on the day of a session doesn’t work for me, it just makes me too stressed. I now will always travel up the night before, even if I arrive really late, because then I can go to sleep knowing that I’m where I need to be rather than lying awake all night stressing about whether an act of god will stop me making it to my session.
I also comfort myself by reading up on the areas that I have identified during my gap analysis that I might get questions linked to, or to reassure myself – even if it’s a topic I know really well – that I have up to date information and references. Feeling like you are walking up to a podium prepared is the best way I have to remove any of my stress linked to presenting.
9 – Plan to do your own timing
This is one I have learnt the hard way. I don’t like clocks present in the corner of a screen when I’m presenting as I want to be looking out at the audience and connecting when I’m speaking not constantly looking down at a monitor, probably slightly influenced by the fact that I don’t use notes as it enables me to feel more organic. I know some of you will feel differently. I’ve learnt to manage this by having a phone with a big clock (on silent) with me when I present so I can see it as I move around. I know that there will often be Chairs or speakers who will signal when you have 5 minutes left. I personally find that I need to pace my session throughout, as otherwise at 5 minutes I could be left with waaaay too much to cover, and so I like to time check myself. The final reason I do this is that I have been caught out. I’ve turned up and started a presentation and realised there was no clock or timing device visible anywhere. The panic, for me, at that point is real people, it’s a real stressor for me. You may have a different thing that triggers you, but once you identify what it is, do your best to have a plan to redress it so it doesn’t distract you from the moment you are in.
10 – Use the opportunity to build your networks
This last one I think is really important, if you are given the opportunity to have a platform use it! No matter how nerve racking it is, no matter how much you may not like presenting. In fact, if this is not your naturally comfort zone all the better, go out and seek opportunities that enable you to do it more. With practice comes familiarity and skill development. Don’t feel alone in your discomfort, but do know that there will be something in you that can inspire and give confidence to others. The world needs to see more people like you, whomever you are, especially if you have the courage to bring some of yourself to the podium. There is not enough diversity present on agendas and that is something that needs to change, and we need to have the courage to do that together as a collective.
The other thing to bear in mind is that so much within health and science is dependent on who you know. It’s probably not fair but it is true. Connections and networks are where you gain invites and opportunities, and presenting and meeting people is a big way to build these relationships. Whether you do this by following the hashtags for the event on social media, by speaking to those presenting or partaking in networking and social events at the meeting, networking is key. For those of you, who like me, find networking challenging I’ve previously written a post which I hope might help, but presenting is often an easy way to do it as people will come to you and you already have a shared interest through the topic. Whatever your level of networking comfort it’s worth putting in some time ahead of the event to think what your strategy might be, and who you might want to catch up with.
I really hope that this post will help support you, no matter how many presentations you’ve done, to bring a little bit more of who you are to the room you are presenting in and to be a little bit braver in some of the choices you make when developing sessions. I also hope that by sharing some of the learning I’ve gained by making mistakes, or making life harder for myself, that you won’t make the same ones. If you have any other top tips that you’ve gained to support presentation preparation then please do add them in the comments. See you at the podium!
All opinions in this blog are my own
If you would like more tips and advice linked to your PhD journey then the first every Girlymicrobiologist book is here to help!
This book goes beyond the typical academic handbook, acknowledging the unique challenges and triumphs faced by PhD students and offering relatable, real-world advice to help you:
Master the art of effective research and time management to stay organized and on track.
Build a supportive network of peers, mentors, and supervisors to overcome challenges and foster collaboration.
Maintain a healthy work-life balance by prioritizing self-care and avoiding burnout.
Embrace the unexpected and view setbacks as opportunities for growth and innovation.
Navigate the complexities of academia with confidence and build a strong professional network
This book starts at the very beginning, with why you might want to do a PhD, how you might decide what route to PhD is right for you, and what a successful application might look like.
It then takes you through your PhD journey, year by year, with tips about how to approach and succeed during significant moments, such as attending your first conference, or writing your first academic paper.
Finally, you will discover what other skills you need to develop during your PhD to give you the best route to success after your viva. All of this supported by links to activities on The Girlymicrobiologist blog, to help you with practical exercises in order to apply what you have learned.
Heading into 2024 is a slightly odd event for me. Let me tell me why. 2023 ticked boxes for me I had never imagined existed, let alone had on my list. I attended the King’s Coronation. I got to fulfil a lifelong dream and go to Eurovision. I even managed to tick off the last remaining thing on my professional wish list and made professor.
Coming hard on the back of 2022 and 2021, I just don’t really have words for how privileged I feel to have had the experiences I’ve had. This is all amazing and mind-blowing. When you take a moment to breathe and reflect on all of this, however, it leaves me with one over whelming thought. What next?
I’m 44 years old. This year will be my 20th as a Healthcare Scientist, my 20th year working in the NHS. I have at least another 10 years of service in me. But what does that look like? I could never imagine where I am now, so how do I envision what’s to come? How do I therefore make it happen? I, like many others, have always kind of joked about people having a mid-life crisis, but for the first time ever, I can see how people get there. I’m super fortunate that I love my job, and I don’t want a change. At the same point, I also don’t want to stagnate. I want to keep on pushing. I want to keep getting better as a person and moving things forward for others.
Recently, though I have to admit, I am recognising how much I also need to get some rest and recognise how far I’ve come. I went from finishing my PhD to making professor in 8 years. Things have happened at pace. Part of my brain screams its time to sit back and smell the roses for a while and mentally catch up with all thats happened. The other part is saying that I need a plan to climb the next mountain, whatever that might be. I enter 2024 therefore in somewhat of a no man’s land, trying to work out who I want to be as I turn 45 and enter the next phase of my career. I don’t have much of this figured out yet, but I thought I would start by talking about the few things I do know.
It’s about giving back
For me, tunnel vision was very much a thing during the early stages of my career. I knew where I was going and what I wanted to achieve. In the last year or so I’ve very much had a change of perspective. I’m lucky enough to be offered a lot of opportunities, previously when I would have said yes or thrown my hat into the ring I’ve had a change of heart. When these opportunities come up, quite a lot of the time, I actively decide to not take them up, or to pass them on. It’s hard to gain experience and make connections when you are early in your career. I never really had that person in my career who would push me into the limelight, or pass things my way. I am aware, from seeing this happen with medical colleagues, quite what a difference it can make to someone’s career progression. I want to be the person who makes conscious decisions to do that now, and to pay things forward. I also want to still be open to mentorship and coaching opportunities where I can support others to take these steps. I feel like it’s not about me anymore, it’s about growing the people who will replace me, and do the job I’m doing even better, who will grow the change even further.
It’s about inspiring others
It’s so much harder to become something if you don’t know it exists. How do you follow a road map to a destination that you don’t have a location for. Everyone has their own pathway, but it’s so much harder if you can’t make informed choices about what your options could be. I struggled with this so much for a very long time. I was lucky, in that I could picture what I wanted, but as there was no one I could find in that space I just didn’t know how to get there. It must be even harder if you dont have that strong sense of where you want to be. Now, I don’t know that I’m particularly inspirational, but what I can be is visible and work to be even more so. Visible enough so that people feel they can reach out and ask questions, visible enough that I can show possibility for those thinking about future destinations.
I still remember the scientist who came into my primary school classroom. I have so much love for all the people, like Ruth Thomsen and others, who are living embodiments of the possibilities that are available for scientific careers. I want to continue to ring fence time so that I can live up to those examples. Although I took a while to realise it, I think that visibility is another reason why this blog is so important to me and why I hope that it will continue to grow and be useful to others. So, every day I want to consciously be trying to do better and inspire more.
It’s about opening doors
I have been blessed to have a career that both challenges me and fulfils me. I have also been fairly successful and managed to tick my personal tick boxes, becoming a Consultant Clinical Scientist, maintaining a clinical academic career, and making Professor. That’s great for me, but I think that if I don’t make it so that others can achieve those things or make the pathway easier, I will actually have fundamentally failed in my goals. Now I’ve finally managed to get over the line I’ve realised that the goal was never just about me. It was about making sure that anyone who had those aspirations had a pathway that they could follow, rather than wandering in the darkness and making it up as they went alone, like I did. So that’s the job, sharing my mistakes and learning so others don’t have to repeat them and can start a bit further along the pathway.
It’s also my job to put a wedge in the door so that others don’t have to push anywhere near as hard to get it open as I did, and by using what level of influence and privilege I have to serve those who will follow. I am fortunate enough to have access to some resources that mean I can make practical contributions to this, not just work as a mentor or from an individual standpoint. I sit on national groups and run national meetings, which I really hope means that we can build networks and change things together. We are always stronger as a group. This is something that is really important to me, and a priority I want to continue to pursue.
It’s about trying new things
Now, when I say I’m passing on opportunities, it’s not that I don’t want to be challenged or to stagnate. I still want to take on new challenges, develop skills and take on new things. I’m just aware that there are experiences I’ve already had that could benefit others more. Some of the things I want to do are work adjacent, rather than purely work based skills. I’d like to get better at doing things like this, writing my blog, structuring it into something new, but also other things like science communication. I’d also like to be a better leader and communicator in general. I think, for me, it’s about moving from pure knowledge acquisition to pass exams etc, to skill/tool acquisition and application to help me implement change. I’m still passionate about my job and excited for the scope it gives me, I just want to gain the skills to do it better in the broadest possible sense.
It’s about knowing myself
All of this change has come from feeling like I’m growing into my own skin and learning to be unapologetically me. That doesn’t mean I’m a saint, I have so so many flaws, but it’s a growing acceptance that I’m a work in progress and that that is OK. Being open to that knowledge and that improvement is something I want to embrace. The more I get to know me, flaws and all, the more I can understand my drivers and responses. The more I do that the more I can reduce the noise, the more clarity I can have to embrace where I want to move towards. In my 20s and 30s I think I was scared to look and really see myself as I was clinging to ideas of perfection. Now in my 40s I just want to be the best authentic version of myself, and that’s the journey I’m on now.
It’s about finding time and balance
Part of that knowing myself is acknowledging that I use work as a way of feeling worthy and marking progression. There is so much more to me, and my sense of self worth cannot rely on numbers of papers published, or my professional reputation. Finding value in myself through work drives a fairly unhealthy relationship, where it’s difficult to step away and leads to working an excessive amount of hours. At one point prior to the pandemic I didn’t have a weekend off for 3 years, Weirdly I was OK with this, but now I have staff and students, I’m aware of how toxic an example this is to set. Also, as my health gets more challenging, I just can’t maintain it. I need rest and relaxation. I need to have periods where I completely step away, for both my physical and mental health. I want to learn to read books for fun again and take long bubble baths. To move away from my work being quite so core to my identity for the good of everybody, especially Mr Girlymicro.
It’s about allowing time for celebration and joy
The other part of allowing space to relax and enjoy life is finding time to celebrate. I’ve been very much ‘onto the next thing’ for so long that I’ve forgotten what it’s like to really sit back and smell the roses. I’ve always been the same. I never managed to celebrate GCSE results, degree results etc. By the time I finished the exam I was so burnt out and broken all I could do was crawl into my bed to recover. Having posted last year about the importance of celebration, I want to try to learn a new healthier habit where I do celebrate things, both large and small.
Again, this is something having students and teams has taught me. I want them to embrace their successes and take time to really recognise what they have achieved. It’s not therefore just about taking time to recognise my own progress but really ensure I put a focus on celebrating the progress of others. It’s so easy to put it off and say we will do it another time, then nothing ever happens, it’s time to prioritise joy.
It’s about staying brave
Finally, I want to make sure that I stay open to failure. I don’t want to avoid trying things or embracing experiences just because I fear I will fail or what others will think of me. I want to stay brave, I want to be fierce. Being fortunate enough to have reached a position of some privilege I want to also ensure I own that position and continue to speak my truth, even if that comes with risk or discomfort, for the benefit of others. I want, when needed, to know that I will always stick my head above the parapet, be seen, be part of the conversation, and use what voice I have for the benefit of people other than myself.
I may not know where this next phase will lead me, but there is joy in the not knowing as well as fear. I genuinely think that as long as I keep to the list of the things that I do know as a cornerstone of my decision making, it will all work out. I want to strive to be kind, I want to know myself better, and I want to leave this world a better place than I found it. I hope whatever part of the journey you are on you are able to find your own signposts to the life you want to lead. Welcome to the mid-life, it’s not so scary as it seemed!
I adore Christmas, it’s one of my favourite times of the year. I meant to get this one out before Christmas, but to be honest, I was too busy having family time. For those of us working or looking for some fun reading between Christmas and New Year I thought this one might still be of interest.
Every year the British Medical Journal have a wonderful tradition. They post some free to access journal article. Now, these aren’t just any journal articles. They apply serious scientific processes to brilliant topics, such as the disappearance rates hard vs soft centred chocolates in ward environments presented as an observational study.
These articles always bring a smile to my face, and if you’re looking at an entertaining way to learn more about scientific processes or scientific writing these are a great place to start. I hope you’ll feel the same when you have a read of some of the ones linked to below, and know that there are more out there if you want to journey down this particular rabbit hole.
Merry Christmas, and thank you so much for spending another year in the company of the Girlymicro blog!
Objectives To determine the overall rate of loss of workplace teaspoons and whether attrition and displacement are correlated with the relative value of the teaspoons or type of tearoom. Design Longitudinal cohort study. Setting Research institute employing about 140 people. Subjects 70 discreetly numbered teaspoons placed in tearooms around the institute and observed weekly over five months. Main outcome measures Incidence of teaspoon loss per 100 teaspoon years and teaspoon half life.
Results 56 (80%) of the 70 teaspoons disappeared during the study. The half life of the teaspoons was 81 days. The half life of teaspoons in communal tearooms (42 days) was significantly shorter than for those in rooms associated with particular research groups (77 days). The rate of loss was not influenced by the teaspoons’ value. The incidence of teaspoon loss over the period of observation was 360.62 per 100 teaspoon years. At this rate, an estimated 250 teaspoons would need to be purchased annually to maintain a practical institute-wide population of 70 teaspoons.
Conclusions The loss of workplace teaspoons was rapid, showing that their availability, and hence office culture in general, is constantly threatened.
Objective To investigate whether sleep deprived people are perceived as less healthy, less attractive, and more tired than after a normal night’s sleep. Design Experimental study. Setting Sleep laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden. Participants 23 healthy, sleep deprived adults (age 18-31) who were photographed and 65 untrained observers (age 18-61) who rated the photographs. Intervention Participants were photographed after a normal night’s sleep (eight hours) and after sleep deprivation (31 hours of wakefulness after a night of reduced sleep). The photographs were presented in a randomised order and rated by untrained observers. Main outcome measure Difference in observer ratings of perceived health, attractiveness, and tiredness between sleep deprived and well rested participants using a visual analogue scale (100 mm).
Results Sleep deprived people were rated as less healthy (visual analogue scale scores, mean 63 (SE 2) v 68 (SE 2), P<0.001), more tired (53 (SE 3) v 44 (SE 3), P<0.001), and less attractive (38 (SE 2) v 40 (SE 2), P<0.001) than after a normal night’s sleep. The decrease in rated health was associated with ratings of increased tiredness and decreased attractiveness.
Conclusion Our findings show that sleep deprived people appear less healthy, less attractive, and more tired compared with when they are well rested. This suggests that humans are sensitive to sleep related facial cues, with potential implications for social and clinical judgments and behaviour. Studies are warranted for understanding how these effects may affect clinical decision making and can add knowledge with direct implications in a medical context.
Objective To quantify the consumption of chocolates in a hospital ward environment. Design Multicentre, prospective, covert observational study. Setting Four wards at three hospitals (where the authors worked) within the United Kingdom. Participants Boxes of Quality Street (Nestlé) and Roses (Cadbury) on the ward and anyone eating these chocolates. Intervention Observers covertly placed two 350 g boxes of Quality Street and Roses chocolates on each ward (eight boxes were used in the study containing a total of 258 individual chocolates). These boxes were kept under continuous covert surveillance, with the time recorded when each chocolate was eaten. Main outcome measure Median survival time of a chocolate.
Results 191 out of 258 (74%) chocolates were observed being eaten. The mean total observation period was 254 minutes (95% confidence interval 179 to 329). The median survival time of a chocolate was 51 minutes (39 to 63). The model of chocolate consumption was non-linear, with an initial rapid rate of consumption that slowed with time. An exponential decay model best fitted these findings (model R2=0.844, P<0.001), with a survival half life (time taken for 50% of the chocolates to be eaten) of 99 minutes. The mean time taken to open a box of chocolates from first appearance on the ward was 12 minutes (95% confidence interval 0 to 24). Quality Street chocolates survived longer than Roses chocolates (hazard ratio for survival of Roses v Quality Street 0.70, 95% confidence interval 0.53 to 0.93, P=0.014). The highest percentages of chocolates were consumed by healthcare assistants (28%) and nurses (28%), followed by doctors (15%).
Conclusions From our observational study, chocolate survival in a hospital ward was relatively short, and was modelled well by an exponential decay model. Roses chocolates were preferentially consumed to Quality Street chocolates in a ward setting. Chocolates were consumed primarily by healthcare assistants and nurses, followed by doctors. Further practical studies are needed.
Objective To detect and localise the Christmas spirit in the human brain. Design Single blinded, cross cultural group study with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Setting Functional imaging unit and department of clinical physiology, nuclear medicine and PET in Denmark. Participants 10 healthy people from the Copenhagen area who routinely celebrate Christmas and 10 healthy people living in the same area who have no Christmas traditions. Main outcome measures Brain activation unique to the group with Christmas traditions during visual stimulation with images with a Christmas theme.
Methods Functional brain scans optimised for detection of the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response were performed while participants viewed a series of images with Christmas themes interleaved with neutral images having similar characteristics but containing nothing that symbolises Christmas. After scanning, participants answered a questionnaire about their Christmas traditions and the associations they have with Christmas. Brain activation maps from scanning were analysed for Christmas related activation in the “Christmas” and “non-Christmas” groups individually. Subsequently, differences between the two groups were calculated to determine Christmas specific brain activation.
Results Significant clusters of increased BOLD activation in the sensory motor cortex, the premotor and primary motor cortex, and the parietal lobule (inferior and superior) were found in scans of people who celebrate Christmas with positive associations compared with scans in a group having no Christmas traditions and neutral associations. These cerebral areas have been associated with spirituality, somatic senses, and recognition of facial emotion among many other functions.
Conclusions There is a “Christmas spirit network” in the human brain comprising several cortical areas. This network had a significantly higher activation in a people who celebrate Christmas with positive associations as opposed to a people who have no Christmas traditions and neutral associations. Further research is necessary to understand this and other potential holiday circuits in the brain. Although merry and intriguing, these findings should be interpreted with caution.
Objective To determine whether artificial intelligence (AI) can generate plausible and engaging titles for potential Christmas research articles in The BMJ. Design Observational study. Setting Europe, Australia, and Africa. Participants 1 AI technology (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3, GPT-3) and 25 humans. Main outcome measures Plausibility, attractiveness, enjoyability, and educational value of titles for potential Christmas research articles in The BMJ generated by GPT-3 compared with historical controls.
Results AI generated titles were rated at least as enjoyable (159/250 responses (64%) v 346/500 responses (69%); odds ratio 0.9, 95% confidence interval 0.7 to 1.2) and attractive (176/250 (70%) v 342/500 (68%); 1.1, 0.8 to 1.4) as real control titles, although the real titles were rated as more plausible (182/250 (73%) v 238/500 (48%); 3.1, 2.3 to 4.1). The AI generated titles overall were rated as having less scientific or educational merit than the real controls (146/250 (58%) v 193/500 (39%); 2.0, 1.5 to 2.6); this difference, however, became non-significant when humans curated the AI output (146/250 (58%) v 123/250 (49%); 1.3, 1.0 to 1.8). Of the AI generated titles, the most plausible was “The association between belief in conspiracy theories and the willingness to receive vaccinations,” and the highest rated was “The effects of free gourmet coffee on emergency department waiting times: an observational study.”
Conclusions AI can generate plausible, entertaining, and scientifically interesting titles for potential Christmas research articles in The BMJ; as in other areas of medicine, performance was enhanced by human intervention.
Objective To examine the effect of a (fictional) doctor working during the festive period on population health. Design Natural experiment. Setting England, Wales, and the UK.
Main outcome measures Age standardised annual mortality rates in England, Wales, and the UK from 1963, when the BBC first broadcast Doctor Who, a fictional programme with a character called the Doctor who fights villains and intervenes to save others while travelling through space and time. Mortality rates were modelled in a time series analysis accounting for non-linear trends over time, and associations were estimated in relation to a new Doctor Who episode broadcast during the previous festive period, 24 December to 1 January. An interrupted time series analysis modelled the shift in mortality rates from 2005, when festive episodes of Doctor Who could be classed as a yearly Christmas intervention.
Results 31 festive periods from 1963 have featured a new Doctor Who episode, including 14 broadcast on Christmas Day. In time series analyses, an association was found between broadcasts during the festive period and subsequent lower annual mortality rates. In particular, episodes shown on Christmas Day were associated with 0.60 fewer deaths per 1000 person years (95% confidence interval 0.21 to 0.99; P=0.003) in England and Wales and 0.40 fewer deaths per 1000 person years (0.08 to 0.73; P=0.02) in the UK. The interrupted time series analysis showed a strong shift (reduction) in mortality rates from 2005 onwards in association with the Doctor Who Christmas intervention, with a mean 0.73 fewer deaths per 1000 person years (0.21 to 1.26; P=0.01) in England and Wales and a mean 0.62 fewer deaths per 1000 person years (0.16 to 1.09; P=0.01) in the UK.
Conclusions A new Doctor Who episode shown every festive period, especially on Christmas Day, was associated with reduced mortality rates in England, Wales, and the UK, suggesting that a doctor working over the festive period could lower mortality rates. This finding reinforces why healthcare provision should not be taken for granted and may prompt the BBC and Disney+ to televise new episodes of Doctor Who every festive period, ideally on Christmas Day.
Objectives To identify Barbie brand dolls that had medicine and science themed professions in comparison with other career dolls and to determine their accuracy in meeting clinical and laboratory safety standards. Design Descriptive quantitative study. Setting Visual and data analysis of web searches.
Main outcome measures To identify the kinds of medical and scientific subspecialties that the Barbie dolls (and a comparison doll group) worked in; and to determine whether these medical professional and scientist dolls met laboratory and clinical safety standards. Additional data about doll demographics (ie, age, ethnic group, and sex) were also collected.
Participants 92 Barbie brand dolls were analyzed: doctor (n=53), scientist (n=10), science educator (n=2), nurse (n=15), dentist (n=11), and paramedic (n=1). 65 non-Barbie brand dolls were also analyzed for comparison purposes: doctor (n=26), scientist (n=27), nurse (n=7), dentist (n=2), engineer (n=2), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technician (n=1) dolls.
Results Barbie brand medical professional dolls (n=80) largely treated children (66%, n=53/80), with only three (4%) medical professional dolls being directly depicted working with adults. Of the 12 scientist Barbie brand dolls, none met all proper personal protective equipment requirements related to hair and clothing. Barbie brand dolls often came with items, such as laboratory coats, microscopes, stethoscopes, and glasses, that children stereotypically associate with doctors and scientists. While comparison dolls offered a wider range of age and ethnic groups than the Barbie doll group did, the dolls similarly struggled to portray a wide range of medical and scientific subfields and most comparison dolls did not wear proper personal protective equipment.
Conclusions Medicine and science themed dolls help to inspire tomorrow’s medical professionals and scientists. All toy companies should ensure that future medical professional and scientist dolls meet clinical and laboratory safety standards and diversify the types of medical and scientific professions represented (especially among male dominated fields). For young girls’ sakes as much as her own, Barbie must keep shattering glass ceilings.
I’m still laid up with COVID, and so today I’m missing out on a pretty great event. The London Healthcare Science Collaborative is running an event on the power of celebration (led by Betty Adamou) and women in leadership (led by Claire Walker and Ant De Souza). Whilst I’ve not been able to attend, it has caused me to reflect on the topic and some of the different thoughts and experiences I’ve had linked to opportunities for celebration.
I’ve gone through periods of my career where I’ve definitely not felt like I’ve been allowed to celebrate my successes. I’ve also gone through periods where the barrier to celebration has definitely been me rather than anyone else. Some days, I feel like I’m not allowed to even discuss or mention successes as it will be seen as ungracious or egotistical. In contrast, there have definitely been times, and other situations, where I’ve felt not only empowered to celebrate but that others fully engaged and amplified those celebrations. I’ve been thinking, therefore, why celebration is important and what factors can impact whether we choose to undertake it or not.
Marking your progress
One of the first reasons I think celebration is important and powerful is that it can be used to mark big transitions in life, whether work related or not. The challenge comes in deciding whether the event is ‘sufficient’ and worthy of celebration. It can be easy, at least work wise, to be so focused on an end goal or big picture that nothing is considered to be worthy of celebration along the way. The problem with this is that there is always another step, another target, and so if celebration is not prioritised, it may just never happen. My plea on this one is that we all support each other to celebrate the little things as well as the big things. Sometimes in life, merely getting out of bed is worth a celebratory cup of tea. At least that’s true right now in my COVID world.
Celebrating the journey, not just the destination
But why should celebration be prioritised anyway? One of the key reasons is that it is easy to forget how far you’ve come and to not sufficiently recognise your true progress if individual moments are not recognised. Ensuring that you take the time to celebrate is actually a key part of you recognising your progress and investing in some self care.
Recognising individual stages of progress can also help with the big stages. Sometimes, completing a task, such as writing a PhD thesis, can just seem unattainable. Breaking down the massive task into sections that feel more achievable and allowing yourself to recognise that progress can, mean the entire task feels more managble. It can also help maintain momentum and positive attitude during tasks that are particularly challenging or where it can be easy to become bogged down. After all, most of the learning, and therefore the reason to celebrate, occurs as part of the journey rather than just at the destination.
Owning your progress
We often talk about owning our failures and the learning that results from them. We don’t talk so much about owning our successes. Now, I suspect that some of this is down to imposter syndrome, and the stories we tell ourselves that our successes are down to luck and is ephemeral, whereas our failures are somehow much more real rooted in truth.
The thing is, if we are going to ‘own it’ we need to own ALL of it, the good and the bad. Your progress is yours alone, you are responsible for the things that don’t go well, but the flip side of that is that you also get to claim responsibility for the times when they do. Own it, celebrate it, for once let taking responsibility not be a burden but an act of celebration and joy. Otherwise, you may find that there are plenty of people out there who may take ownership of the good on your behalf.
Enjoy the moment
The other thing about taking ownership is that you should use it to buy you time to reflect and enjoy the moment. Trust me, if you rush through it, always onto the next thing, you’ll reach your destination, only to be aware that the journey has been a blur, and wishing you’d savoured it more. I was in such a rush to ‘get things done’ that I never stopped after one thing before leaping head first into another. In hindsight, that meant it took me longer to learn key lessons. It took me longer to see where I sat within the big picture. It meant I missed out on sharing my successes with those who had contributed or given up a lot to enable them to happen.
Celebrations are not just about you. They are an opportunity for you to give back and acknowledge the input and impact of others. By choosing not to celebrate, we also steal an opportunity away that could be used to thank and recognise colleagues, friends, and family, without whom none of this stuff would happen.
Extrinsic vs intrinsic recognition of success
One of the reasons I’ve written about owning my success is because this is a real work in progress area for me. Success and reasons to celebrate come in all shapes and sizes. I have gotten into the habit of needing external validation, prizes and the like, in order to measure how well I’m doing. These are lovely, but there are some problems with using this as a yardstick. Firstly, how many prizes and awards can you realistically actually win across your career, and are you suddenly worthless when they become unavailable? The other issue is that if we need others to tell us our value, rather than being able to see it in ourselves, you are are constantly in a vulnerable position, especially with people who would use that requirement against you. It is a necessary step in growth to be able to see that we have intrinsic value and to celebrate that, rather than relying on others to see our worth.
Integrate all the versions of yourself
One of the other big challenges I wrestle with is whether it is OK to be seen to celebrate. Is it boastful? Is it narcissistic? Does it end in arrogance? Here is where I have landed in my thinking. It is not a bad thing to share and celebrate your successes, as long as you also share and discuss the learning from your failures. Those people who only shout about the triumphs are within their rights to do so, but I think those shouts are much more meaningful if you’ve also journeyed with them through the failures it took to get to that success.
The other thing I’ve decided is that it is important to celebrate throughout all the aspects of who I am. I am a scientist, IPC professional, and academic, but I am also a wife, a daughter, an aspiring creative, and sister. Therefore, I want to show the depth of all of that when I celebrate and acknowledge the roles and importance of people across those aspects when the good things happen. It takes a village after all.
Understand the power of being seen
Having struggled with the whole celebration thing for some time, I have also come to realise something else. I celebrate not only to share success and say thank you to those who have helped but also to be visible to others that those attainments are possible. I know I say this a lot, but you can’t be what you can’t see. If you don’t know that a route is open to you, it is much harder to aspire to achieve it. If you only see medical colleagues winning a certain award, you may not think that you could get there as a scientist. We break new ground to make it easier for those who follow, but if no one knows about it, we are not fully completing the job. You never know who may see that tweet, read that blog post, or listen to a podcast. You may never meet or know the people you inspire, but by sharing and being visible, you will be inspiring someone, so don’t be afraid to be seen.
Let no one steal your joy
You will encounter people who will try to mute your celebrations, who attempt to steal your joy. I have been told my success makes other people feel uncomfortable. I know there is sometimes eye rolling at my social media presence. The thing is, that aspect will always be there, whether you celebrate or not. Whether you talk about it or not. Those comments and those people don’t go away. You do, however, have the power to decide how much they influence your decision-making. To decide how much power they have over you. How much right they have to stop the work you are doing or to dampen all the reasons I’ve written about that you should celebrate and be seen to do so. You can’t control the reactions of others, but you can control how they affect you.
Share and amplify the celebrations of others
Finally, celebration is not just about you. To really embrace the art of celebration, we need to see it as the gift it is. We need to amplify the celebration of others! When you hear of good things happening, buy that card or bottle of fizz to support the person who may be struggling to feel they can celebrate. When you see a social media post, share it and comment on it. Let the person know how happy you are for them and help to get the word out. Be genuinely happy, rather than challenged, by the success you see all around you. People are showing you what can be achieved, and you are inspiring others. Let’s truly be a community that values and celebrates success, not just our own but of everyone.
Girlymicro 