I had enjoyed spending my final year in the lab as part of my MBiolSci course and wanted to continue developing my research skills. I knew I wanted to work on a cellular based project, to try and find new facts about signalling pathways and how they are manipulated in disease.

I graduated in June 2018 and started my PhD in October 2018, so I continued my part time summer job as a play assistant at a children's play scheme in the months between.

I love scientific research, pushing forward knowledge of current problems. Whether I stay at the bench my whole career I am unsure, but I will always want to be close to developing research.

Do as many summer placements as you can if you are interested in lab work. I was lucky to be a part of the Amgen Scholars scheme in Cambridge in the summer between 2nd and 3rd year, and the SURE scheme in Sheffield between 3rd and 4th year. These placements gave me plenty to talk about in PhD interviews, but it also allowed me to explore what field of research I wanted to commit to with a PhD.