Believe it or not, I wouldn’t necessarily say I was attracted to a career in the pharmaceutical industry. My original career path was headed toward veterinary medicine. I loved animals then, and still do now.
However, I ended up falling into a job in pharma after taking a job at TauRx as a Development Officer as a stop-gap while working through recruitment for another career. If you tried to define what that role actually means, you’d struggle! It was so non-descript. I had a PhD, a Post-Doc in oncology and when I started here I was making up ADAS-cog kits and putting together paper filing structures for a Trial Master File.
However, three months into the job I realised that I loved it; the variation, the travel, the teamwork… so I decided to stay. And I’m lucky to say I still love it today.
No two days are the same here. Last year marked my 20th with the company, and even on a ‘bad day’ it’s still what I enjoy. I’m a firm believer that you have to feel like what you do in life makes a difference and the hope is that one day TauRx will make a big difference to so many people. That’s what drives me, and many of my colleagues.
There have been many high points over the last 20 years, but conducting the Global Phase III studies from an origin of knowing nothing about clinical trials has been the highlight. Despite having spent the majority of my working life here, I am happy where I am and in what I do. If we were given the opportunity to repeat the process with a new compound that would be exciting as we could put all our learnings into practice. Making a difference is what we are all about.
Having a secondary school-age daughter myself, I often think about what can be done to attract more women and girls to careers in STEM. Targeting secondary schools to develop an understanding in the different career options open to them is crucial to this happening. Secondary schools are much more proactive now with work-related learning and hosting careers conventions, so it’s something that should be embraced. I’ve seen with my own experience that there is no defined route into any career, but if we want to make it as attractive as possible, we need to put the work in early.
As a society and industry we need to keep innovating and introducing new ideas to continue with the development of novel approaches to all different aspects of life impacted by STEM. This will come from the next generation. It has such a varied reach in terms of job opportunities and learning at a number of different levels.
If I was to travel back in time and give advice to my 14-year-old self, I’d tell her there are no wrong choices in life. They lead you down a path of discovery, whether that be what you enjoy doing, what you are good at, or who you want to be.
Never see a closed door as a failure or a weakness. Just try a different one that does open!
To find out more about International Day of Women and Girls in Science, visit womeninscienceday.org
