​How did we end up here?

"I fell into it"

If you ask the majority of recruiters how they ended up where they are, that's the usual response. Recruitment is an interesting industry where, unlike scientists, engineers or developers, there isn't an agreed pathway to take.

On the other hand, I'm here doing Omic recruitment by design rather than by accident. It could actually be said that my journey started back in 2003.

The keen-sighted of you will recognize that as the date the Human Genome Project (HGP) was completed. Though I was only a school student at the time, the HGP was the focus of the first real piece of work that I'd found interesting outside of the curriculum.

DNA being the building blocks of life has been an established fact for as long as I've been aware, but at the time it was also the foundation of the sci-fi content that I consumed regularly. Naturally, the idea of being able to look at a genome at the time seemed to only be a step away from being able to freely change what it meant to be human, diseases and all.

Of course, that was far from the truth. But, the interest and excitement that came with understanding the truth lead me on to completing a degree in Biomedical Sciences. One major reason for choosing the University of Manchester was the "Omic Technologies & Resources" unit, mentioned on their course details (which to my knowledge is still just as popular now in 2024 as it was in 2016).

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As I studied though, I realised that the novelty of pipetting, blotting and analysing data would fade quickly. Having millions of cells and antibodies as my only company in a lab, after hours, was not the revolutionary future I'd hoped for after all. Though I was still learning about some novel developments, with CRISPR being at the forefront of everyone's mind during my studies. In particular, 2018 came with the announcement of the first genetically edited babies which had me speaking more about ethics than I'd expected!

Leading up to graduation, I was definitely looking for routes out of the lab. I'd already explored copywriting, alongside a few others, but nothing seemed to stick.

That was when I heard about recruitment.

Being able to speak with people day-in and day-out seemed great, especially as given my reputation of talking more than the average university student completely unprompted. Unfortunately, before I could start looking into anything in more detail, I graduated into a pandemic.

Rather than speaking to scientists, there were more chances to get into recruitment through tech, as cloud and software developers were experiencing a boom in growth. Through an opportunity that came out of the blue, I started my recruitment journey in Manchester by speaking with software engineers in Germany. Not the start I'd expected, but it was a start nonetheless.

After 2 years away from the bench, I got the same feeling as a lot of the people I speak to. A lack of satisfaction or passion for my work. Though the day-to-day itself was fine, I missed the feeling when a concept made sense after puzzling over it for hours. The proverbial "eureka" moment just hadn't made its way to me at all after graduating.

And so came the transition from Manchester to Cambridge. With Manchester, independent music and sport came to mind. In contrast, Cambridge is the place to be when it comes to science. Whether it's splitting atoms, synthesis in flasks, or pushing our understanding of life on Earth; this is where you'll find experts around every other corner.

Though I'd expected some changes, adjusting actually came in the form of realizing that a bike is the default mode of transport, and that referring to locations by specific street names and local landmarks is the norm.

With this has come the opportunity to stay in the world of science, without going through the additional years of PhD thesis stress, and spending my nights trying to find the right papers to reference at any given time.

Instead, I get to stay on top of an industry that holds huge value, both commercially and academically, while hearing from those involved on projects that my graduate self would never have considered.

When it comes to speaking about work, I have and always will be a huge proponent for passion. Being in a position where we have large-scale views of the people around us, I have seen first-hand how genuine interest can tip the scale in someone's favour. If you're ever curious about your place in the working world, ask yourself one question - "How did I end up here?"

If you're happy with the answer and still passionate, keep going. If not...it's never too late to change.