How my First Co-Op has Impacted my Professional Goals
I had the opportunity to co-op at Cincinnati Children's this past spring, and it was one of the most informative experiences I have ever had in regard to my planned career. I hope to work on developing treatments for Type 1 Diabetes as an engineer or researcher after completing my degree, and this experience helped me learn more about what the research aspect of my career could look like, albeit in a different subject matter then what I hope to work on.
During this co-op, I had the opportunity to work on a one-on-one project with a collaborator which taught me more about the research process than I could have ever expected. I was directly involved in designing experiments and protocols, purchasing materials, performing the experiments, analyzing data and presenting our findings during lab meetings. Each of these responsibilities served as a showcase of what the responsibilities of a career in research would look like if I took that career route. And each of these responsibilities came with unique challenges that I had to learn to face. Protocol and experimental design required me to apply knowledge from the lab and my coursework in new ways, which can be a big mental challenge. Performing experiments and analyzing data required me to learn about all of our lab equipment and how to use it properly, as well as learn the analytical software that we utilize in the lab and how to manipulate that software to output usable data to present. Lab meeting presentations required me to hone my public speaking skills and get comfortable with answering questions about our data or conclusions on the fly without any knowledge of what could be asked.
Each of these responsibilities prepared me for a future at this job and in my career as a whole, while also allowing me to formulate specific goals for the coming year. My first goal for the coming year is to further hone my skills at experimental design and protocol writing. Pursuing this goal, while open ended, gives me the opportunity to hone a skill that's extremely important in the research field. Pursuing it during co-op, where I have guidance and freedom to ask questions, will help me get more comfortable in my skills and techniques before I enter the bulk of my career. Another goal of mine is to utilize my refined interpersonal skills to advance my level of responsibility and role within the lab when it comes to training new members, presenting work, contacting perspective vendors and collaborators, and setting up training opportunities for new skills and equipment. Doing these things allows me to further hone my communication skills in a variety of settings and applications, which will further improve these skills and thus better equip me for whatever I choose to pursue for my general career. These two goals will be the focus of my coming year as an employee at Children's and I hope to come out of my next co-op with a greater breadth of skills than I have currently. I plan to communicate these goals to my employer to keep me accountable, track my progress, and receive advice from a more experienced researcher as I pursue them. Overall, this year has shown me what a research job can be, its pitfalls and upsides, and taught me about what I envision for myself going forward. It's my plan to maintain this learning trajectory going forward to find success in my professional life and beyond.