So for various reasons, one of which was being unsure of whether a PhD was for me, I found myself asking to work as an Intern with the good people in the Zoology Department at TCD. To give you a bit of background, I am a Zoology graduate with an MSc in Marine Biology, so not just some random bloke who happens to like animals and fancied chancing his arm. Anyway, I approached Dr. Ian Donohue whose research group interested me and thus began a 9 month Internship as a Research Assistant.
With a little trepidation and a great deal of excitement I began my stint as a minion with a site inspection for a proposed project looking at community structure in a rocky shore ecosystem. (Note to anyone who is interested in rocky shore ecology, I would advise not severely spraining your ankle the day before, it’s incredibly frustrating trying to navigate a boulder field while being unable to walk). Over the following weeks, I assisted in the field work required to set the project up. I thoroughly enjoy being outdoors so this suited me perfectly, although I must admit how lucky we were weather wise, it rained on only one day of 9 or 10 days we had out there so perhaps my love of the outdoors will diminish as soon as I’ve encountered some proper Irish weather!! Since then I have been involved in a range of projects from pilot studies on coevolution and trophic complexity of bacterial communities to feeding and respiration rates in Mysid shrimp, encompassing a range of laboratory and field techniques.
The learning doesn’t stop at the practical side of science either, merely by being involved in a working department I have learned more in the last 7 or 8 months about the ways of forging a career in science than I have done in my entire career to date. Our weekly journal club, NERD club was a bit of a revelation if I’m honest. Seeing how a collective of brilliant minds can come together and interact to assist with, develop and fine tune current and future work was an eye opener. It’s also an extremely beneficial way of encompassing different working groups/departments. The sharing of ideas, new techniques and sometimes just a different perspective can lead to a well-rounded project and/or person and is something I would definitely recommend in any institution.
I’ve also begun to build a network, something crucial to succeeding in science (and any workplace I guess!), and definitely not one of my strongest attributes. I was fortunate enough to attend the BES Macroecology conference in Nottingham in July and to display our work to the public during the Discover Research event in September, both of which were thoroughly enjoyable and valuable to furthering my development. I am an avid supporter of outreach programmes so to participate in what was an extremely successful night was most rewarding.
To anyone who is in a similar position to the one I was I would highly recommend contacting a Professor or otherwise and asking is there a job you can do for them. If like me, you are willing to do it for nothing other than your own benefit then there is no reason why they would not accept the offer. I have learned so much during my time here, added considerably to my skill set and most of all I now know that a) I would like to continue to work in an academic environment and b) that I am fully capable of doing a PhD. Whether I do or not depends on a number of factors, but that is for another day.
Author: Alain Finn, alfinn@tcd.ie, @finchyirl
Image Credit: http://nassauso.com/internal-affairs/, https://twitter.com/DM_Minions