Can you have a career in science?
This short film will show you it’s possible.
This summer I worked with a research team, led by Meriem El Karoui at Edinburgh University, to make a film about career coaching for scientists. It left me reflecting that, if people like Meriem had existed when I was a jobbing scientist, things may have turned out very differently.
During my time in the lab, I never heard the word ‘career’ mentioned. At all. Surely science is a vocation, a passion, a compelling pursuit. But a career? There was no such thing as weekly 1-to-1s and annual appraisals were treated as an inconvenient, bureaucratic exercise. The line of progression, the true path to success, was evident by observing your peer group.
Upon entering the lab as a hopeful PhD student, I learnt from and listened to those more senior than me— seniority earned by merit of a PhD, of years at the bench, perfecting techniques, writing papers and grant applications. These were my role models.
And the environment of the lab was, in my experience, a largely utopian bubble. Nuclear worlds populated in equal measure by men and women who judged each other on their experience, knowledge and insights. Not on how many X or Y chromosomes resided in their makeup.
In this world, the pursuit of knowledge (read ‘papers’) was the foundation upon which everything else was built. With more scientific publications came higher standing within the academic community and your peers, greater support from one’s university and a slightly higher chance of receiving a coveted grant, providing more funding to continue this frenetic merry-go-round.
In this world, everything was right, until everything was wrong. I love science; some of the happiest years of my life were spent experimenting, trying to devise ever more cunning ways to unravel the truth of the brain. But, looking at my nuclear family, driven by the need to understand more about pathways and proteins, I couldn’t see a future that felt right for me — and there was no one to talk to about it.
Do another post-doc? I’d already done two and the pressure to start garnering one’s own funding was imminent. There was an unspoken sense that to be supported financially beyond the second post-doc was, somehow, unpalatable. And discussing the possibility of a career beyond science? Out of the question — in those days, revealing such a disposition was considered eccentric.
And while I love to write, nothing I’d seen had convinced me that the months spent researching and writing grant applications was a logical way forward. Too many very smart people had faced bitter disappointment in this respect. And even if a grant was awarded, then what — run my own lab? Not interested. So, staring into a parallel universe in which I saw myself writing grants I didn’t really want to write or running a lab I didn’t really want to run, the choice was obvious — become a filmmaker!
Having worked with Meriem before, on a series for films I made for Wellcome, she was kind enough to reach out to me about the possibility of making a short film all about career coaching for scientists. Her enthusiasm and straightforward approach hooked me in, plus her small team had a very clear idea of what they wanted the film to say — always incredibly helpful.
After a wonderful day of filming in Edinburgh, I came back to London and put this small film with a big heart together. Take a look. I often find that the world sends you what you need, just when you need it — maybe this is what you need to see right now.
Filmed on a Canon C200
