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After a very busy final three months in the Education team, I have now moved over to Public Affairs, which began with a crash course in UK politics! I have enjoyed all of my projects in Education, and it feels strange to leave it behind. Some of my highlights were organising a webinar for ChemNet, facilitating an update to our Parents’ Guide booklet, and managing our forum for teachers, Talk Chemistry. I was also tasked with project managing our involvement at the Cambridge Science Festival...

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After six months working in the Industry team, I’m now taking on all things related to our 175^th anniversary as part of my rotation in Member Engagement and Communications.

I’m almost a week into my second rotation and already my work in the industry team feels an eternity ago! Rotating hasn’t been as strange as I thought it would be – because I’ve worked at the organisation for six months already, it’s not like starting a new job and a lot of the people I’m now working with I’ve met or worked with before. That’s one of the many brilliant things about the RSC grad scheme: you get to experience a range of completely different roles without having to move organisation.

In my last couple of months in the Industry team, I was working on a project to investigate how university chemistry departments in the UK and Ireland interact with businesses. Collaboration between academia and industry can be really beneficial to both sides and from a student perspective, can greatly increase employment prospects. The RSC is currently conducting a survey of how much collaboration currently occurs, and how effective this is, so that we can champion and further support these activities. Working on this project taught me a lot about higher education structure, funding and policy. This may sound unbelievably dull, but was actually fascinating, especially with the government looking to make some quite major changes to the current system.

I also launched the second round of our internships grant scheme (something I mentioned in my previous post). The first year of running was such a success for both the companies and the interns, so I hope the scheme continues to grow in strength! If you or anyone you know is interested in carrying out an internship in a small chemical science company, the positions will be advertised here and here around May/June time, so watch this space!

My new rotation is split between the Member Engagement and Communications team and will be mainly focused around our 175^th anniversary, particularly our 175 minutes for chemistry campaign. We’re encouraging both our members and any interested members of the public to dedicate 175 minutes to chemistry, in any shape or form. This could be as simple as spending some time reading Chemistry World, getting involved in local section events or attending a local science festival.


Which leads me very nicely into what all of us grads have been spending most of the last couple of weeks doing – preparing for Cambridge Science Festival! Every year, the RSC grads run a series of activities on ‘Science Saturday’ of the festival, so we’ve been busy pulling together some simple, hands-on experiments to get people excited about chemistry. This has been a lot of fun – who knew cornflour and water could be so entertaining! – and things seem to be coming together, so keep an eye out for the next blog post to find out how it all went! 

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Ellie is a Graduate currently working in the Member Engagement/Communications teams on the Royal Society of Chemistry's Graduate Scheme. To see if we are currently recruiting for the RSC Graduate Scheme, click here.
 

Wow! I can’t believe it’s already been almost six months since starting on the RSC grad scheme. The end of my first rotation in the Membership team is fast approaching and so far no two days have been the same!

One of my main roles since joining the RSC in September has been to attend conferences and visit universities in order to promote RSC membership to students and academic staff. I’ve really enjoyed going to different chemistry departments and having the opportunity to travel to Ireland and parts of the UK that I’d never seen before. Working in an outward-facing role, I’ve had so much fun meeting new people who work across different areas of the scientific community.

One great aspect of the grad scheme here at the RSC is that you are really encouraged to participate in as many different projects as you can. The work has been incredibly varied – aside from visiting universities, I’ve been able to write for Chemistry World, be involved with the inspiring 175 Faces of Chemistry project, help organise RSC stands for the Cambridge Science Festival and much more. Recently, I’ve also been heavily involved with running the ChemNet website for 14–18 year olds – this has been a fantastic opportunity to develop new skills in an area I hadn’t previously had a lot of experience in.

The best thing about working at the RSC is probably the people. There are a huge number of creative and inspiring people working across all of the different sections of the organisation. There’s always plenty of fun (and cake) to be had in the office. Outside of work, the Sports and Social Club organise a range of different activities, from squash leagues and 5-a-side football, to pub quizzes and the awesome fancy-dress Christmas party. It’s absolutely amazing working in such a fun, enthusiastic and motivating environment.

Next week I’ll start my second rotation, in the Strategic Partnerships team. I’ve absolutely loved my time in membership and I can’t wait to take on the new challenges that my next role will bring.

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Jamie is a Graduate currently working in the Membership Team on the Royal Society of Chemistry's Graduate Scheme. To see if we are currently recruiting for the RSC Graduate Scheme click here