Fourth time is the charm

If I’d have told my 22-year-old self that six years later I would be working in an audiology department, I probably would have been pretty confused.

Turn back to July 2018 and I’m graduating from the University of Manchester with a BSc in Biomedical Science. I had never done any clinical placements or even step foot into a hospital, other than as a patient. My working experience so far had consisted mainly of laboratory research work; western blots, cell lines, and dissecting flea brains smaller than a pin head at Stockholm University (yes, really).

As a graduate on that rainy day in July, the photos we took were all smiles. We had passed! Deep down however, I felt apprehension. I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to do with my life. Whilst my friends all had grad jobs set or further study organised, I just had a temp summer job in the bank and the hopes of taking a gap year to travel.

Fast forward to 2019 and I’ve done a couple of temp jobs and had some epic time away travelling. Brilliant.

Now time for panic mode again.

My new role became sitting at home from 9-5, applying for jobs. At this point I finally knew something at least; I wanted to work in the NHS.

Throughout my time applying for roles, I kept coming across the NHS Scientist Training Programme (STP). This programme looked absolutely epic; using science in a clinical setting, being able to study a fully funded masters course AND being paid a band 6 salary. What’s not to love?! Unfortunately however, the competition ratios kind of spoke for themselves. In my research I attended an STP open day in Manchester and listened in awe as current students spoke about their experience. During the day we were able to visit a department and get a tour. Still unsure of what to choose, I put a couple of options down knowing that I would get randomly selected to one of them. The tour that I was allocated to was of an audiology department. Knowing very little about audiology I was fascinated listening to the audiologists talk about the career and even more interested when we looked around the different rooms and saw all the equipment. This seemed like a really interesting career.

Fast forward to January 2023. I’ve been working in a pathology lab for 3 years and have worked my way up from being a lab assistant in the specimen reception to a HCPC registered haematology biomedical scientist.

During this time I had also applied for the STP every year, a total of 3 times. And also, been rejected a total of 3 times.

My hopes of getting onto the STP were very much fading away at this point.

I decided to apply one last time, just for the hell of it. The only difference between my application in 2023 compared to 2022 was that I was now HCPC registered. Could this make a difference? Probably not, I thought, but I’ll apply anyway.

The long drawn out application process (if you know, you know) culminated in the April when I got an email saying I was top pick for an interview in my first choice of location. No way! I’ve never prepped for an interview quite like I did for this one. Considering I hadn’t thought about how an ear even works since my university exams, I had to do lots of revision.

The interview came and went.

Then, finally, after four years of applying, one evening shift in the lab I went on my break to have some dinner, opened up my phone and nearly dropped it when I read the email. Congratulations, you have been accepted on to the NHS STP.

YAAY!

I’m now one year into the course and I’m loving it. In my opinion, audiology is the perfect combination of science and clinical time. I absolutely love being patient-facing, getting to chat to different people all day. I also love that I can use my science head to solve problems that arise and think of logical solutions. So far, I’ve been able to observe so many different types of appointments and have recently started doing the odd appointment myself which is really exciting.

I hope that prospective students or those wanting to get onto the STP will take hope from reading this. If you really want something, it is possible to do it. It’s never too late to try something new, even if it’s a complete U-turn on your current career. I worked really hard in the lab and always made sure I was trying to move up; completing extra study and doing my registration portfolio in my own time. Now this hard work has paid off and, at nearly 30, I’m super happy doing a career I love!

Megan Brooke-Jones
STP Trainee
Aston University