Post-Project Reflection
1.
I completed my STEP signature project by doing a twelve week internship with Forge Biologics located in Columbus Ohio, where I was part of the Analytical Development team. During my internship, I learned a number of assays, or tests that are completed on drug products as part of the manufacturing process on AAV gene therapeutics. I completed multiple projects, including a platform development project on two different serotypes, a project comparing efficacy of a primer probe set, and a project that included organizing and recording equipment in the Analytical Development lab.
2.
Before completing my internship I was unsure of my plans for post-graduation. I was, and honestly still am, considering a number of career paths, which could include working in science, in business, or pursing higher education. Before my STEP project, I thought that my major was too specific to be applicable to a lot of jobs, or that I wouldn’t be able to broaden my horizons out of a scientific field and into something like tech or business. This summer helped me to realize that in actuality, plenty of people don’t know what they want to do, and that’s okay. Part of finding a career you like is trying on lots of different jobs, and experiencing new companies and workplaces to see what you might be missing out on.
The most important thing I learned is that your major is never too narrow to find a job. Most employers don’t really care about your major, they are much more interested in your skills and ability to learn. Lots of the other interns in my company were from a variety of fields, and were interested in departments outside of their designated internship. While at Forge, I made efforts to explore outside of Analytical Development and connect with people working in Business Development, and sales. I really liked my department, but appreciated the ability to explore other areas of a business as well.
3.
The most valuable asset brought to me by my internship is the ability to not limit myself to what I have already experienced, and to push myself to try new things by not worrying about mistakes. Many times over the course of my internship I was running laboratory experiments, and many times these experiments failed. There was a two day span where I was doing experiments for my final project, and I had to repeat an experiment 3 times in order to achieve the outcome I needed. Instead of stepping in to instruct me on what was going wrong with the experiment, my mentor told me to keep repeating it, but figure out points where I could be making a mistake. He made suggestions like using a higher concentration of my solution, and letting the experiment incubate for a longer period of time to try and help me get it right. In the end, he refused to tell me exactly what was going wrong, but forced me to think about possible problems and design a solution on my own. This helped me to realize that one day I will be looking for a real job, and the most valuable asset I can bring to any table is the ability to solve problems on my own and in collaboration with others.
Another takeaway from my internship was that my field of study is never too narrow to be applicable to a job. Soft skills can be just as important as hard skills or the things I have learned in my major. I have learned that demonstrating a willingness to learn is one of the most important traits that an employee can display. Willingness to learn shows that an individual is not too set in their ways, and is open to uncomfortable change when necessary. By taking opportunities to take with employees at my company, I was pleasantly surprised to find out how diverse everyone’s education was. Though my knowledge is mostly in life sciences, I also have an interest in business development, project planning, and management. By initiating conversations with wonderful people that work in the Business Development department of Forge, as well as the Technical Sales department, I found genuine interest in careers I never knew existed. The people I talked to all told me that my knowledge of science is very valuable in the pharmaceutical field. But it is equally as valuable as the ability to learn new things in fields that I am not an expert in.
By having conversations with people in many different departments, I learned to accept that I don’t know my perfect “dream job” yet. It used to seriously stress me out that everyone else seemed to know exactly what they wanted to be in their careers, but I felt like I didn’t know, or my dream job doesn’t actually exist. What I discovered however is that tons of people feel exactly the same. People on my team in Analytical development told me that it is wise to jump around jobs and take as many career opportunities as possible. You never know you will love a certain job until you try it. By having these meaningful conversations, I learned that I am not alone in not knowing what I want to do with the rest of my life. I learned that not knowing is totally okay, as long as you keep trying new opportunities and never stop taking away from your experiences.
4.
I would say this transformation experience has given me much more confidence than I had before this experience. I had an incredible experience in my internship, and I learned that working hard, collaborating with your team, asking questions, and always being ready to learn will take you far. By doing those things, I was awarded an impact award at my internship, and nominated for others. Having this experience has built my confidence and taught me that hard work is appreciated and recognized in the right workplace. This transformation has taught me not to undervalue myself by saying my gpa is too low, or my experience isn’t enough, or I’m too dumb for a certain job. I won’t get every job I apply for, that is totally unrealistic. However I can set myself up for much greater success by refusing to not try. Even if I think I may be unqualified for a job, there are tons of other maybe even less qualified people also applying for the same job. It never hurts to try, so I refuse to let my own grievances with myself hold me back from taking a shot at an opportunity.
