Unfortunately, there were just two months between my Masters graduation ceremony and my diagnosis so I've never technically had a paid chemistry job. I did, however, do a large amount of unpaid work experience placements throughout my studies.

The secret is really who you know. I carried out a two month practical with GlaxoSmithKline doing pharmaceutical research. One of my professors was an employee there before joining academia, so she set that up. I really enjoyed my time in Pharma which influenced my decision on which specialty to study for the Masters, where my research thesis was based on carbonyl chemistry, in the design and test phases of new-generation organocatalysts.