The past month seems to have flown by. When Friday rolled around, I couldn’t believe that I’d already spent 4 weeks working at the Royal Society. I guess that’s a good sign though. It’s been such a great experience and certainly something I’d recommend to all PhD students. It can be so useful to have something lift you out of the PhD bubble for a little while…
Thinking about the internship overall, I feel like I’ve managed to get a lot out of the placement given it was relatively short. I really benefited from having the mixture of helping out on the typical day-to-day editorial tasks and working on some of my own mini projects (for the RS anniversary issue and Neuroscience marketing strategy). This not only made for a varied and interesting experience but also ensured that I got a good insight into the world of academic publishing. I’m really glad I had the opportunity to talk to people from other departments within the Royal Society as well, as it opened up my eyes to the different options available for graduates within the non-commercial sector that still have some relation to science. It was great to find out more about the amazing work of the organization; I really respect how committed they are to supporting scientists and ensuring that science plays a bigger cultural role within society so it felt really special to be a part of it. Even if it was only for a month.
Importantly I managed to get in another visit to the archive in my final couple of days and enjoyed more geeky time with some old letters/manuscripts. But I have to say that the main highlight of my last week was the farewell banana bread that one of the lovely ladies from the editorial team made for my last day. YUM.
And so back to the reality of PhD life…oh joy. Hmmm, maybe my supervisor will surprise me with a ‘welcome back’ cake tomorrow??