Work Experience?

Indiego

Im pretty sure this isnt the right thread, but i dont think i will get many replies in the TY thread, so might as well give it a shot..

So im currently sorting out my work experience for TY starting in september, and i have a strong interest in biology, and i was wondering if anybody knows any good places in the Tallaght/Dublin area (i have to commute from Blessington) that i could do my w/e that involves biology?
any help would be appreciated

IrishKnight

Well "biology" is a very big field, check Life Sciences wiki page to get an idea. You'll really need to narrow it down if you want your w/e to be of any use

Also, are you looking at industry or academic? So do you want to work in a factory lab or an academic lab? There are differences so it is important to know what road you hope to look at.

Once you have those two sorted you can start looking around for places. I'd say look to the universities, TCD, NUIM, UCD, DCU etc.

Indiego

IrishKnight wrote: »

Well "biology" is a very big field, check Life Sciences wiki page to get an idea. You'll really need to narrow it down if you want your w/e to be of any use

Also, are you looking at industry or academic? So do you want to work in a factory lab or an academic lab? There are differences so it is important to know what road you hope to look at.

Once you have those two sorted you can start looking around for places. I'd say look to the universities, TCD, NUIM, UCD, DCU etc.

well im intrested in the microbiology/genetics/immunology/cell biology side of things, and i would like to work in an academic lab

To be honest, I've a good few friends on my course (finishing up 2nd year science in college) who are finding it difficult to get what you're looking for. There's not a whole lot going at the moment, even just as work experience. As a TY student I'd be surprised if you got priority over college students.

That said, it never hurts to give it a go, and if I were you I'd look up staff pages on different universities and try emailing around (although emails very often go unnoticed so maybe find the name of a staff member you think could help you and then telephone the office asking for an appointment to see them). For example, I go to trinity, which has a leading centre for genetics, so I went to the genetics page on tcd.ie and looked up staff. There's a list of people and a telephone number for the institute. http://www.tcd.ie/Genetics/staff.php

Kensworld

I'm doing a PhD in Teagasc Moorepark, Fermoy and a few weeks ago we had some TY students here on work experience. You could try and get in contact with one of the research facilities based in Dublin. If the research they are carring out is anything like what goes on here, you'd find it very interesting and informative

http://www.teagasc.ie/contacts/office_locator.aspx

IrishKnight

true-or-false wrote: »

To be honest, I've a good few friends on my course (finishing up 2nd year science in college) who are finding it difficult to get what you're looking for. There's not a whole lot going at the moment, even just as work experience. As a TY student I'd be surprised if you got priority over college students.

Second years will find it hard to find paid summer work as they wouldn't have most of the core skills fully developed yet. But they won't have any trouble finding unpaid work...

OP don't take what true-or-false says as entirely true. It is hard to find paid work, but easy to find unpaid work! Also, again trust me, they will rely to emails, if say after a few days they don't email again. Often they meant to get back to you but it would have just slipped down the inbox. Having said that, I'm not saying a phone call isn't just as good!

microbiology/genetics/immunology/cell biology

Hmm, still a rather diverse group of topics, though one name springs to mind, Professor Stephen Gordon in UCD, he works on Mycobacterium tuberculosis. So he would be working in microbiology, genetics, cell biology and to an extend immunology. Professor Stephen Gordon

I should warn you about genetics that it is basically adding clear liquids to other clear liquids, hoping that there is DNA in there somewhere. I'm in final year Genetic in UCD, so if you have any questions PM me.

IrishKnight

IrishKnight wrote: »

Second years will find it hard to find paid summer work as they wouldn't have most of the core skills fully developed yet. But they won't have any trouble finding unpaid work...

OP don't take what true-or-false says as entirely true. It is hard to find paid work, but easy to find unpaid work! Also, again trust me, they will rely to emails, if say after a few days they don't email again. Often they meant to get back to you but it would have just slipped down the inbox. Having said that, I'm not saying a phone call isn't just as good!

Apologies, I was going off what friends had been telling me, and yeah when I said emails might not get replied to I only meant that very often the people you're emailing have a lot on their plate and you might get overlooked by accident. Sorry again!

IrishKnight

Ah no need to be sorry. We all do such things from time to time