Hey Guys!
So today I thought I would tell you about my decision to go back to university to study for a masters degree.
After I finished my undergrad degree, I got job as a Medical Laboratory Assistant in an NHS clinical laboratory in Newcastle and had worked there for about a year when the managers asked if I would consider becoming a Biomedical Scientist.
To do this I would need to go back to uni in the evenings and take top up courses to get my undergraduate degree accredited which would take about 2 years. This would all be whilst still working a 24/7 shift rota in the lab. Once I had completed my top up courses, I would be given a Trainee Biomedical Scientist job and have to spend 1 year doing my “on the job” training and accreditation portfolio.
All in all I would basically spend three years training to become an accredited Biomedical Scientist. I did seriously think about this offer but I realised that it would be a lot of time, money and effort for a job and career that I wasn’t sure I wanted.
What I did realise is that I still loved science and that post-graduate study was something that I did want to do but the real question was what to study. I remembered that I had enjoyed studying both genetics and toxicology during my undergrad so I started looking at masters courses in these areas that I could study part-time. I needed a part-time course because I couldn’t afford to live on my own and pay my tuition fees without working at the same time.
Initially I was more interested in a genetics course but I couldn’t find any that I found interesting enough to study for two years. Then, I found the advert for the MSc Toxicology course at the University of Birmingham and I was hooked! I was excited to find out more about the course and really happy when I contacted the course leader and found that it was designed to be taken part-time. So I wrote the application, submitted it and then spent an agonising three months waiting to find out if I had gotten a place.
The day I found out I had been offered a place on the course, I was ecstatic! I couldn’t wait to get started but the reality of moving to Birmingham, finding a new job and leaving my friends set in. There were many days when I doubted my decision but I kept going, knowing that it would all be worth it in the end. I found another job as a medical laboratory assistant, found a house, got sorted out with the postgraduate loan, and moved my entire life down to Birmingham.
Once the course started I loved it! I might have been insanely busy working five days a week and being in lectures the other two but it was totally worth it! Toxicology is completely fascinating and involved so many different areas of science that were technically challenging and mentally stimulating that it didn’t matter how hard it was to juggle work and uni. I put as much energy into my studies as I could and loved (almost) every minute!
When I did my research project, I fell in love with scientific research and finally managed to figure out where I wanted my career to be. I finally figured out I wanted to study for a PhD and go into a career in scientific research. Much of my time at the moment is taken up with looking for PhDs, talking to supervisors and writing applications but hopefully I will find the right opportunity soon!
My decision to go back to uni and do a postgrad degree was made because I was given an opportunity that wasn’t the right one for me but it made me realise that I had to be proactive and go find the right one.
Postgrad study isn’t for everyone, just like uni isn’t for everyone but if you decide that it is something you might like to do, the best piece of advice I can give you is to study something you enjoy. If you do a postgrad degree based on what someone else thinks you should do or what you think will make you the most money it won’t work. You are highly unlikely to enjoy what you are doing and probably won’t put in as much effort as you could meaning that you are spending a lot of time, money and stress on something that you will probably never use. Why do that when you could do something you love? If you can turn something you enjoy as a hobby into something you can do as a job, the 9-5 grind doesn’t feel like such a grind any more.
At least that is what I have found and I am so much happier for it.
Thanks for reading!
Bex
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