How to Become a Scientist? My Study/Career Path (PART 1/3).
How did I become a scientist? Did everything go as planned? Did I know since a young kid that I wanted to be a scientist?
Let's start from the latter: No, no I didn't know. My dream jobs have changed all the way from animal caretaker to photographer, and to brain surgeon. Moving on to the question of, if everything went as planned, the answer is no for this one as well. Or it depends if you look at only the end result it may look like so, but everything that happened in between indicates that the road hasn't been straightforward. And this takes us to the final question ''How did I become a scientist?'' - the story which I will tell you now.
After completing high school, which I did slightly later than people typically do, and while working at the grocery store, I dreamed of becoming either a medical doctor or a pharmacist. This I figured out during high school when I truly enjoyed biology and I was fairly good at it. However, due to my average grades in high school, I didn't believe I would get into studying either of these topics and wanted to come up with a more secure plan. My plan A was to go to study engineering in biotechnology and my plan B was to study to become laborant to strengthen my skills in chemistry and later on apply to medical school. My plan A put me into 16th place on the waiting list which is the reason I started my plan B. But soon after, 15 people hadn't taken their study place and I switched back to my plan A. As if the grades would tell about something (in my opinion they do not tell too much), but just if you think the starting point, I graduated with excellent grades with a Bachelor's in Biotech Engineering.
During my engineering studies, I landed the career path I'm now following, but with several turning points on the way. I started the whole journey by working at one of the biggest pharma companies' (in Finland) plastic factory. During that summer, I got the chance to do quality testing in addition to factory work. I would say that this job was my ''foot between the door'' - not exactly what I wanted to do but in the field. On the following summer, I joined for Red Cross Blood Service as a factory worker. After two summers in a row, I changed to a laborant -position. My aim was to make the change earlier, but at the time I was doing part of my studies in Hong Kong, and having a new team with a new supervisor would require an in-person interview (incredible how times have changed). I enjoyed the work, but my studies were coming to an end, and I needed to ensure I would have a job also after graduating, which wasn't guaranteed in that position. And so I randomly searched for jobs on the market and found a position at the University of Helsinki - to join a lab that studied breast cancer. I did not have too much knowledge about any cancer, but the position sounded interesting, and so I applied.
In that interview, it became extremely clear that I'm really lost when comes to cancer research and I remember thinking that circles in Finland (and in these fields) are so small, that it is just important to show how I am as a person in a working environment and wish that they would remember me. So basically I knew I would not get the position. And I didn't. But they remembered me, and I got hired to another position in the same lab. One thing I'm carrying with me from that second interview I had with them, are the values I learned from my supervisor. The things that mattered to her that were not visible in my CV. She highlighted that the person needs to have potential and enthusiasm to learn. And this is how I started to grow toward being a scientist.
But how did I become a neuroscientist if I worked in the field of breast cancer? The story continues in the next post - stay tuned!
