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Billy H

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:23:24 GMT

, Billy H

I’m a biologist doing research and academia, specialising in Embryology, which is the study of embryos from fertilization to development. The most recent work I’ve done is post-operative research in a biophysics lab in Kings College where they are developing a new form of microscopy (using microscopes) called ‘controlled light exposure microscopy’.

I work with genius physicists and mathematicians that are at the top of their field, but have no idea about biology; so I was employed for my expertise, to work together with them to do research into the embryo of a special worm called a C. Elegans.

All the genetics and embryology is done on this worm, and it’s my job to extract, dissect and mount the embryo and get it imaging within a ten-minute window, because once the cell starts to divide, you’ve missed the stage you need for the experiment. Being physicists, they didn’t have the training to be able to do it within the short space of time, so I was hired to help them, and it’s been an amazing job. We use lasers to conduct the experiments for the research we’re doing, so there’s a lot of laser training, wearing laser goggles, and it’s literally like what you see in the TV program The Big Bang Theory, so lots of technical terms, and working with intelligent, but odd geniuses, but it’s also tons of fun and really interesting.

Hong N

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:17:18 GMT

, Hong N

I work in the ‘development’ part of the graduate recruitment team at Teach First.

Teach First offers graduates coming out of university the opportunity to teach for two years before going onto do something else. The schools we work with are generally quite tough so we’re looking for really motivated and determined people who would be able to manage the pressure.

My team’s focus is about the whole recruitment process, for instance looking at how we can raise the numbers of people we bring on board without losing any quality in the process, or monitoring our diversity policies to make sure we’re reaching out to the whole of the UK. A lot of our work is about making contact with people who might be thinking about doing Teach First and advising them on what sorts of things they can do to at that point to help them do well in their application later. This year we’re looking to fill 1000 vacancies across seven UK regions.

My normal hours are 9am -5:30pm. Where I’m running events, I’ll be working until about 8 or 9 but that’s not too often and anyway I normally really enjoy them! As soon as I get to my desk, I’ll open my laptop and get going catching up on emails and checking on the admin for any of the projects we’re running to make sure everything’s going smoothly This could be anything from writing to speakers for any of our events or talking to some of our partner organisations.

Last November we had Krishnan Guru Murthy from Channel 4 News coming to speak at one of our events about diversity.

But otherwise day-to-day, my job really varies and that’s probably what I like most about it. One day I might be going to a conference about higher education and access to universities, the next day I might be delivering a field session for volunteers who are going to go into the classroom to work as mentors, and on another day, I might be running a panel event. There’ll always be meetings with teams across the company too – for instance, for any of our events, I’ll work with the press team to write a press release and do something for the website.

Tanveer C

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:16:43 GMT

, Tanveer C

At Cineworld, the company I work for, you have a General Manager who is in charge of everything. I’m the deputy general, so I’m second in charge. In the absence of the general manager I’ll be looking after the running of the cinema. I’ve got four operations managers, eight supervisors and fifty staff that work under me.

My job involves looking after the building itself, the businesses, attending meetings, conducting interviews and recruiting new staff.

Every day is different, yesterday I was doing interviews for new staff, today I’m doing second round of interviews. Next week I’ll be doing inductions and so on. I have to attend meetings, with regards to the property, meetings with the people who own the building, and marketing meetings.

Paul_R

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:08:36 GMT

, Future First

A head chef leads a team of chefs when preparing for a function or event. I oversee my team when cooking meals, train them on the job and have a big part in organising the hospitality arrangements for the events we provide catering at.

Vacherin is a contract company that supplies catering for music events at the EMI record label. We hold events in venues such as the famous Abbey Road Studios, where private mini concerts, champagne events and album launches are hosted for artists like Lady Gaga, Tinie Tempah, Tom Jones and Take That. I coordinate the chef teams for these events.

I cook from a number of different menus each day and train my team on the job. We have events to cater for every week. At Abbey Road private guests come in and have a meal before the show starts; room hire alone in £35k, so the food has to be of a high standard. I oversee the food content and presentation.

My job also includes operations and management; this part of the job focuses on research into food trends so that we can stay up to date with what’s happening and get more creative with the food we offer. I am also responsible for recruiting and training new staff, while keeping up with the professional development of the team and making sure they are learning new chef skills.