What's your job title?
Scientist . The job is in the Supply Lab which deals with supply water samples. Ie: drinking water.
What is your educational background?
Degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from University of Bath
What were you doing previously?
I came straight from university into my current job.
How did you get into this industry?
The job was advertised in a local paper. I decided to stay in Bath after university so applied for the job! The job was advertised as microbiology which linked nicely to my degree.
What training/qualifications have you done with your job?
I have completed a couple of external training courses to improve my ability to do my job, although most training is provided in house. There are a variety of tasks that need to be performed daily and training is given as and when it is necessary. Most people that work here are trained to perform a couple of tasks and the longer you are here the more tasks you are trained to perform.
What do you do on a day to day basis?
The work is very varied. Each person is assigned a different task for the morning and the afternoon. The morning work mainly involves reading and reporting results from bacteriological tests and preparing for the samples that arrive in the afternoon. In the afternoon all the samples arrive at the lab, they are all registered and the bacteriological tests are set up. Bacteriological tests must be set up on the day that the sample is taken, so someone stays until all the work is completed! Samples also have basic chemistry tests including pH, conductivity, turbidity and all drinking water samples are tasted and smelt. These simple chemistry tests take a couple of minutes to complete and are a good indicator of quality and they flag up any problems straight away. Bacteriological tests take 24hours to complete so any problems take a little longer to be identified.
There has to be someone in every day of the year, including weekends, bank holidays and even Christmas Day! So we work a rota pattern. The hours are 8:30am to 6:30pm and we work 4 days a week, so our days off change depending on the rota.
What are your main responsibilities?
As well as performing the daily work I also have responsibility for training other analysts in various tasks as well as completing COSHH assessments and reviews of methods.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I particularly enjoy the variety of work that we do. It means that I can do something different every day of the week.
What do you like least?
Very occasionally, if there is an incident like a burst main or disruption to customer supply you have to work late to get samples completed. However, it is nice to know that what you do helps to get peoples water back on!
What advice would you give to someone who wants to work in this industry?
Get in touch with your local company who can advise you about any current vacancies. Or look at the website for any positions being advertised there. It's always worth sending your CV to HR who can keep your records in case an appropriate position comes up.
What do you like doing in your spare time/ do you have any hobbies?
Mainly sport! Playing rugby in particular, but also yoga, tennis and badminton.
