During my 4th year of my first degree, I did a project involving molecular biology and enzymology as well as the chemistry which my degree was in. This led me on to choose a PhD in Biological Chemistry which concentrated on cloning and expressing proteins, polyketide synthases in particular, for biochemical assay. After my PhD, I chose to work for the OPPF (now OPPF-UK) as this allowed me to work in a academic environment with an industrial feel ie we work as a team and all work on various projects. Over the years, the OPPF-UK has developped and is now a National Resource Centre which has allowed my job to change and develop and allowed me to meet many interesting people and work on their projects.

I like the variety of work from day-to-day and the practical work - I would not like to sit at a desk every day. The perks are an academic environment with the freedom to develop the science in a direction I'm interested in with the advantage of an industrial-like team. I get to travel to conferences and have been invited to talk in many European countries. We work as a small team and I manage both projects and people although the structural hierarchy is not very rigid.

If you enjoy science, then look at which areas interest you most and take those for A level. It is probably wise to take the standard science subjects (biology, chemistry, physics) and not specific subjects such as forensics etc as this gives you a wide base to work from.

Look at univeristy courses and decide which fits in both with your interests and keeping a broad base which can be sold to potential employers (and allows you to change your mind easily within the 3-4 year university course). Also look at finances as if you are wishing to follow your degree with a PhD you may be a student for a long time. Perhaps this will have to be broken up with some work, maybe as a research assistant?

One of the nice things about working for a university is the flexibility in hours (although this can lead to working more hours a week). This allows me plenty of time for going to the gym and dancing. As dancing seems to involve a lot of late nights, it's good that I don't have to be in work at 9 am on the dot. As I'm about to get married next year, my job also has a large quota of annual leave which is allowing me lots of time to look at venues and go wedding dress shopping - and hopefully lots of time for a honeymoon too.