Which internship is right for me?

Most people gravitate to jobs that a suitable for the skills they have, often people will like their job but often their working environment or the people they have to work with are what make people not enjoy their work.

It is worth thinking about the type of working relationships you would like to have perhaps it’s worth thinking about the way you have worked in groups and teams before. To see if that helps you work out what sort of working relationships you are most comfortable with.

TEAM WORK BINGO

Thinking about how you like to work with other people is an important aspect of the working environment you might wish to like to try. Larger organisations such as Civil Service, Government and Large Companies like Pharma will have a very structured way of working there will be expectations around time, dress code and authority. Smaller places have their own expectations they may not be as stringent but you might find the rules are unclear and it’s possible to find yourself unwittingly in the wrong.

What do you like and dislike about Research

In groups of 4 draw up a list of the 5 things you like most and dislike most about research in an academic environment. Put the positive things on a green post it and the negative things on a red post-it

Possible likes

  1. Freedom to come and go as you please
  2. Working on something you are very interested in
  3. The potential to make a difference to the world
  4. Reaching highest level of academic achievement
  5. Not having to wear a suit / smart cloths
  6. Not always having to communicate or share your thoughts
  7. A friendly working environment
  8. The possibility of international travel

Possible dislikes

  1. Career insecurity
  2. High failure rate of experiments
  3. Pressure to get out-puts
  4. Criticism
  5. Poor remuneration
  6. Constantly keeping up with the literature
  7. Competition with colleagues
  8. Having to move cities to keep a job

Now here are some places that our former interns have been, I’ve tried to link them attach your post-its to where you think you might find these things will be as good or better and stick the negative posts where you think these problems might be worse.

Discuss how what sort of working environments you have experienced in the past which places you might be interested in trying in the future, what you might expect to find there.