Two months have past, and I am almost half way through the semester. So far I have only touched on some of the tasks that a lab technician conducts. I have spent several hours calibrating pipets, cleaning labs, setting up new instruments and transferring some samples from one container to another. I am quite familiar at the lab already, and that feels good. I am happy to have started the work, but feel I am lagging a bit behind schedule, since I want to be done with my workload by May 15th when the class ends. My lecture schedule and work schedule hasn`t match the schedule of my contact person so far, but I have asked for small tasks that I can do after hours on my own. I was told that the person who had the internship last year, didn`t have any other classes, so I feel it was expected that I should be more flexible with my work hours which is hard since I am also writing my thesis this semester. Time management has therefor been a bit of a challenge so far.
Doing the internship, I learnt a lot about myself, and what I should know when I apply for jobs later in life.
- When I cleaned the lab, I realized that I really like structure and things that are organized. I also like clean spaces and areas.
- With the pipets I learnt that I would prefer to look for work later where I have more people surrounding me, as working alone all day in an empty lab got a bit lonely.
- This week, we spent a lot of time starting to do stuff that we couldn’t finish. That way, I found out that I like things that I can do without having to wait for other people to help out or provide information. I like to do things right away and ticking off things on a list.
For now the internship has started a bit slow, but I think more efficient day will come. I also hope I will feel an increased sense of accomplishment as I learn more along the way.
