Microbiology: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Job Oliver Severn
C areers. Finding what you want to do can be a daunting challenge. It’s a journey that never really stops. Constant re-evaluation of what you like, and don’t like, is tiring. I aim in this article to give you three easy to apply tools to help guide your career journey. I don’t wear ties. That being said, there are a few exceptions: • As a joke. • When impersonating someone else. • Funerals… That is where that line gets drawn. Bowties are great, but not the dangly kind. This in some small way has shaped the journey I am on. I like being myself, and want to perform research on my own terms. You’ve probably now reached the stage where you are thinking; “Gosh… Microbiology Today is really clutching at straws to get this guy writing an article”. Stick with me. I hope to highlight three steps in this article that will help guide your career journey from start to finish.
Step one: experiment in increments, and keep moving the goalposts Currently, I sit as the head of Research & Development at Singer Instruments. A role I love. A radical departure for someone who was never moving to industry. I wanted to lecture, lost to the valley of tweed forever. What does that mean? I oversee three departments of engineers, software developers and scientists. I coordinate them and create our strategic direction. I have the absolute pleasure of working alongside brilliant people. I’m a microbiologist, not a developer, so they tolerate my eccentrism. In return, I hope their days are a little brighter. Thinking about our scientific direction means I work with the strategic team, a group of senior managers looking after all of Singer Instruments. Including Harry Singer, current owner of the whole gig – I’d recommend meeting him. I also serve on our Advisory Board; executives who challenge how we do business, adding experience and insight to our own.
20 Microbiology Today May 2023 | microbiologysociety.org
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