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.

My main role is to deliver a variety of science shows to school groups and families, both at our facility and also on outreach. I also assist my team with administrative tasks and content development.

My job varies quite a bit day-to-day, but it often starts either one of two ways: setting up our shows and getting ready to receive visitors at Centre of the Cell, or getting up super early to travel to a school and deliver shows on outreach. Either way, most days involve delivering up to 3 science shows to school children and families alongside one of my colleagues, all about cells and the human body. We offer shows for a range of ages, right from year 1 to year 13, so this means I work with visitors of all ages. Often I'll also have some time in the office, where I might be doing some data entry for the feedback we collect from visitors, maintaining our social media presence, or researching demonstration ideas for a new show and sourcing props.

I love presenting, even though it's not something I thought I would end up doing as a job as I used to find it very scary! I really enjoy working with varied audiences and seeing people have fun while learning about Biology. I also enjoy the office work side of things as I feel I get to make useful contributions to my team and my organisation.

Presenting can be quite challenging when working with difficult audience. It can also sometimes be difficult balancing my responsibilities in the office with the delivery that needs to be done when we have busy periods with lots of visits booked.

I have always enjoyed working with children and young people, and while at university I also discovered that I love engaging people with science outside of the classroom. I also felt that I wanted to do a job that might help to change peoples perception of science, or even encourage them to study science themselves one day!

Communication/presentation skills, time management, attention to detail, teamwork, resilience.

June 2014 - January 2017: Explainer at the Science Museum London
March 2016 - present: Explainer at Centre of the Cell
The above overlap because I worked both jobs part-time for a while!

I would like to continue working in Science Communication, and ideally my next job would combine more content development with delivery.

Get experience! This doesn't have to be formal work experience, but anything that develops your communication skills and confidence in communicating with the public, and demonstrates an ability to think on your feet and deal with pressure - e.g. volunteering with your department outreach programme or at your local museums, working as a student ambassador etc.