Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

Working on a research project related to the biochemistry of a particular set of (membrane) proteins involved in communication between cells. Main responsibilities: self-management of my project with reporting of results every so often to line manager, at laboratory meetings, departmental meetings; presentation of my results at external conferences; publication of my results in scientific journals; of new undergraduate students.

From my profile I filled out for June 2012 "I'm a Scientist, get me out of here":

In a typical day, if there is such a thing, I would start by setting up experiments as soon as I get in the lab to get things going, continuing with labwork until early to mid-afternoon, leaving the rest of the day for data analysis and planning for the next day(s)’ work, as well as going to seminars, writing up results, preparing presentations and posters, writing and reading journal articles, and much else.

It’s good to start with labwork as with setting up experiments there are often time periods where you need to wait with tubes at body temperature, films being exposed, gels having to run, so there is always plenty of time to do things such as checking emails, writing up your lab-book and preparing talks later.

I would say that my work is made up by about 60% practical work and 40% (a significant chunk!) of time involving data analysis, experimental design, write-up and keeping up with the literature – it’s important not to skimp on these bits! The most crucial is the data analysis – there is no point in doing your practical work if you can not say what the data means. And part of your duty as a scientist is to keep an accurate record of what you do, so I make sure that at the end of the day (or beginning of the next day if I run out of time) I write up my lab-book, which is a bit like a diary of all the experiments I’ve done.

When on the computer I check tables of contents of academic journals, which is where all science gets published, because it’s important to know what other groups have discovered. A crucial part of being a scientist is presenting your work to others, so I spend some time writing and giving presentations to colleagues both within my department and outside it at conferences. For presenting work at conferences, you need to submit an abstract, a short summary of your work, in advance so that also takes some time.

And of course then there are the little bits that you might forget but that are part of a researcher’s life. You order things for the lab, you wash up your glassware, you make up solutions, you check work-related blogs…and yes, you do occasionally check news sites and go for cups of tea with your colleagues to unwind!

When your experiment works and confirms your hypothesis! Working with great people and also getting to travel to conferences in interesting places.

More recently, juggling job around childcare. And in general for a research project, when things don't work in the lab, you keep repeating an experiment and it keeps going wrong. When you are simply stuck in a dead end piece of your project and can't get out. When you have to work long hours because equipment has been breaking and you cannot stop mid-experiment.

Learn new things about how a system under study works, interesting, challenging and work with great people.

Technical lab skills learnt during PhD. Communications skills, writing, presentations, time management and adherence to deadlines, independent thought and experimental design.

Learning about specific techniques informally from colleagues. Courses are available to attend if you wish to do them - eg. computing skills, presentation, teaching.

November 2016 - present: postdoctoral researcher at Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague.

January 2016 - October 2016: teaching (part-time) science clubs for Veda nas Bavi (Science is Fun), a Czech Republic-based company which runs after school science clubs for 5-12 year olds.

March 2014 - November 2016: career break for raising a family.

November 2013-February 2014: external work for Vitae researcher development (website reshuffle).

September 2013-September 2014: toddler group leader for Summertown United Reformed Church.

March 2012 - December 2012: maternity leave.

April 2009 - July 2013: postdoctoral researcher at University of Oxford.

January 2009 (thesis submitted) till April 2009 - applying for jobs, preparing for my viva.

Working in science communication rather than in lab science. Scientific translation may also be an option due to my language skills. As a parent I am now looking at any potential career moves/changes with the constraint that any job I do has to have a reasonable work/life balance.

PhD is useful for starting in academic science, but it can also be a good beginning for many non-academic careers as it shows that you can pull through an extensive self-motivated project. If you do want to find a job in academia, be prepared to look wide geographically.