My profession is in programming. Initially, my dad tried to teach me Javascript. It was a struggle and couldn’t get it.
A few years later, I took up computer science in college and that’s where it all clicked: I can imagine the end result. It’s a matter of being curious and finding (or I daresay… hacking) my way to that conclusion. Programming languages have a very funny way of allowing you to do just that. In studying computer science, I discovered the art of engineering all kinds of software-based solutions.
Because my way of solving problems is more deductive than inductive, I have to consciously build foundational knowledge and routines. Constant learning and insatiable curiosity is required for me to identify when my hunches are wrong and discard them accordingly.
Manager in the neuroscience lab where I did my PhD. Actually pretty nice because I know the lab and everyone so we’ll I can often do the management in a few hours and then just focus on my research (finishing my thesis because behavior plus in vivo neurophysiology takes more like 7 years instead of 4 lol). Although, there can be some very stressful moments, big grants or so (and my boss is one of those breathing-science profs that will msg on WhatsApp on the weekend or days off lol, but yeah fuck that). I learned that I’m not good enough/invested enough to actually become a PI or prof, so this management stuff is pretty nice on the edge. I don’t have the responsibilities but my opinion is often respected due to my research experience in the lab. Pay is shit tho.
I manage an infectious disease monitoring lab in industry. Pay’s a whole lot better out here, and my team is amazing and self-driven so I can do minimal people managing.
Oh that’s sounds nice. Not sure how to word it well, but: is that a bit interesting to do long term? Is it following the advancements in science in a nice tempo? Do you have room for innovation yourself?
What I do specifically is called wastewater based epidemiology. While the term has been around for a few decades, it really took off in concordance with COVID. Previous PCR techniques like qPCR are heavily inhibited by co-elutors from wastewater extract. We use digital PCR which is way more resistant to inhibition due to the partitioning. We are using cutting edge technology and our R&D dept is constantly looking into additional targets we can test for. As a company we also do some non-pcr-based wastewater testing (drugs of abuse by LC/MS is a big one).
Additionally we also do next gen sequencing to track the COVID variants in communities.