Ryan Kay

But, as soon as I set foot in the audiology clinic, I knew it was the field which I wanted to focus my career on.

Throughout college, I remember feeling lost in terms of what I wanted to do in the future. I knew I wanted to go to university, and I knew that I enjoyed biology and psychology. Other than that, I was clueless. Naively, I picked Neuroscience as my undergraduate degree because I liked the sound of the subject and I liked the sound of being a ‘Neuroscientist’. The realisation that I was not cut-out for lab work came very quickly into my first semester. But, I had no idea what else I might want to do and so stuck it out for the 3 years until I graduated.

I then took some time working out my next steps. I knew from my undergraduate degree that I wanted to work with people – it was safe to say that the idea of working in a lab did not excite me. But otherwise, I had no idea what I wanted to do. So, I took a year working an administrative role in the NHS before settling on a master’s degree in Experimental Psychology. Much like before, I went into this thinking I would finish the master’s and suddenly become a Clinical Psychologist. My rude awakening came quickly into the degree when I learned from my colleagues that it is a lengthy (and extremely competitive) process to become a Clinical Psychologist and it was not a career I was interested in pursuing. At the very least, I loved learning about human beings, what makes us tick, and what makes us behave the way we do.

After finishing my master’s degree, I was adrift once again with no career direction in sight. It was then that I spotted a job advert for the Certificate of Higher Education in Basic Audiological Practice at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. I’d never thought about a career in audiology but I knew what I wanted from a job. I wanted to work with colleagues and the public, tick, learn a new scientific discipline, tick, and have the opportunity to keep learning throughout my career, tick. So I put an application in, was fortunate enough to be offered an interview, and managed to secure a place on the training programme. What followed was three years of training at Swansea University followed by three more years of training on the Scientist Training Programme at the University of Manchester with countless opportunities to learning new things, meet new people, and develop my skills. And I haven’t looked back since!

As my mum likes to point out, I could have saved myself a lot of time – and student loans – if I had come to the realisation that a career in audiology is perfect for me sooner. And that is definitely true. But, I am a strong believer that the right time to change careers and try out audiology is now – regardless of what stage in your career you are at. One of the things I love about audiology is how many ways into the profession are available. And what I hope to do throughout my career is to help support new people finding their way to audiology, regardless of whether they’ve taken a meandering route like I did!

Ryan Kay

BAA Early Professionals Committee