Episode 77: Class of 2023 - Ian, MChem Medicinal and Biological Chemistry

Episode 77 brings Andrew to Ian, where they discuss pharmaceuticals, enjoying the Meadows and using LinkedIn.

Ian was a student ambassador. You can find out more about Edinburgh University student ambassadors at https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-recruitment/student-ambassador-scheme 

Season 5 is titled All Roads Lead to Edinburgh. Here, we take our 2023 graduates 5 years into an ideal future and ask them where they would like to be, and how they would return to Edinburgh if presented the chance to give a speech to the new student cohort.

All opinions expressed are those of the individual and do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Edinburgh.

Multi Story Edinburgh has been created and produced by the Alumni Relations team at the University of Edinburgh. If you are interested in telling your story, please get in touch and let’s talk!

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Andrew: 0:08

Hello listener, welcome back to another episode of Multi Story Edinburgh. The Podcast where each episode is a snapshot inside our graduates minds, a memento of their time at Edinburgh University, and this time a look into the lab of this week's guest, Ian Yang. Now, Ian is a fifth year medicinal and biological chemistry student who's graduated from Edinburgh University in 2023 getting that year's community prize in recognition of outstanding contribution to the School of Chemistry. He has also been a student ambassador, a scientific writer for The Edinburgh University Science Magazine, EuSci, and has just finished an industrial placement with pharmaceutical company Vera Nova. Ian will be traveling five years into the future with me where we will discover where he hopes to be at that point, how he feels about graduating, and what he would do given the chance to come back to Edinburgh all expenses paid. In this episode Ian explains to me the world of pharmaceuticals, how he dealt with doing experiments during COVID and there's even some chat about using LinkedIn. I, Andrew, am your student host for this season and I will be taking you through Ian's journey delving into his Edinburgh experiences and finding another example of how all roads lead to Edinburgh. But before we do that, I will remind you first that Multi Story Edinburgh is not the only way you can engage with us. In our online meeting place, Platform One, you can connect with members of our Edinburgh community, including students, alumni and staff. If you are a recent graduate, watch out for a regular digital newsletter, and head to www.ed.ac.uk forward slash alumni forward slash new graduates where you can catch up on resources, opportunities and careers advice or discover alumni networks and clubs that you can join. I like to point out that in that website, there is a hyphen between new and graduates. Okay, on with the podcast. This is Multi Story Edinburgh Season Five: class of 2023 this is Ian Yang. Hello, Ian, welcome to the podcast.

Ian: 2:17

Thank you for inviting me.

Andrew: 2:18

No, no. Thank you for joining me. So you're a medicinal and biological chemistry student? How's that been going for you?

Ian: 2:27

So I just finished my industrial placement today. So very exciting times.

Andrew: 2:34

What's, what's the industrial placement?

Ian: 2:36

So it's actually in Vera Nova, which is a pharmaceutical company based in the west of Edinburgh. And we basically do pharmaceutical ingredients or API's.

Andrew: 2:47

Cool. Is that something you've recently started? Or have you been doing that for a while?

Ian: 2:51

Yeah. So I've been doing it for a year. It's part of my degree, actually. So the medicine role and biological chemistry degree is a five year degree and in the final year, it's basically... do a placement for 12 months. So I've been doing that for a year.

Andrew: 3:07

Wow. That's a lot of work.

Ian: 3:08

Yeah,

Andrew: 3:08

so you do that alongside modules or is it just the placement?

Ian: 3:12

So it's just the the placement, but we've got to do some work as well on the side. So for example, I had to do a lit review, and a thesis as well as a presentation. It's quite intense sometimes, when you're doing that on the side of working like a full time job.

Andrew: 3:31

Yes, that sounds quite a lot. Is this your fifth year or fourth year?

Ian: 3:36

It's my fifth year? Yeah.

Andrew: 3:37

Yeah so you've done five. Do you come out with an integrated masters?

Ian: 3:40

That's right. Yeah, integrated masters.

Andrew: 3:43

So you're on Multi Story Edinburgh. This is season five, and titled, all roads lead to Edinburgh. And it's a bit different to how previous seasons have been. So I'm going to set the scene for you. Five years on from now, the economy has boomed and the university has surprised you with an all expenses trip back to Edinburgh to give the new first years an induction talk. You are five years older, let's say everybody's getting paid very well, we're about to have another US election and who knows maybe the climate crisis is getting better. Everything's going well. So it's five years on. Welcome to the future. In this future, the thing that I want to know is where are you? Where are you right now?

Ian: 4:37

So I think in five years, I might be working in a big pharmaceutical company like GSK. Or I might be doing a PhD. I might be finishing my PhD in five years, hopefully in computational chemistry.

Andrew: 4:51

drew

Ian: 4:52

I did in the past year, not many, not very many successes. So I'm hoping to join a PhD. program in 2024, actually, and I've actually got someone who's willing to support me for 2024. That's why I said to PhD, and it will actually be in Edinburgh still, so I'll probably still be in Edinburgh. Yeah, that's always been my career exploration,

Andrew: 5:19

Even, even from when you were younger?

Ian: 5:22

See, when I was younger, actually, it's a wee bit different. Because when I was younger, I was actually wanting to do to work in like cosmetic lab or, you know, inventing the new perfume that everybody would love. But as I kind of grew older, I feel like there's more, there's more, so much more that I can do with chemistry with what I'm doing. So I thought one of the best ways to use my degree is to working in pharmaceutical company, or at least working in healthcare, because I will be able to help people with, like, professional technical knowledge. So yeah, that's that's how it came to be. But yeah, when I was little, I also had dreams to work as an actor, which is quite different from what I'm doing at the moment.

Andrew: 6:11

Yeah it's very different. So for pharmaceuticals, I don't know much about that. All I've seen from that is, I think, what's on the big bang theory. Tell me, what would that look like? What would your day look like in five years at a pharmaceutical company?

Ian: 6:26

Yeah, sure, sure. So when I say working in pharmaceutical company, I can be... it is a wee bit vague, because you can work in so many different departments within the pharmaceutical company. But what I'm mostly most interested in would be working in the research and development department. So my daily life would probably look like looking at the chemical processes and how we basically turn a chemical formula into practice. So making kilos and kilos of a pharmaceutical ingredient, or API, that would eventually then go into like injections or helots, that we will be seeing in supermarkets that we can buy- would love to continue doing that in the future.

Andrew: 7:12

Where would you like to be situated for this? Is this an Edinburgh? Is it somewhere in the UK? International?

Ian: 7:20

Yeah, probably probably in the UK, probably GSK or AstraZeneca, or one of the big pharma companies? Probably... Probably not in Edinburgh, because there's not that much that many pharmaceutical companies here. So if I go to GSK, then I might be living in London.

Andrew: 7:39

Okay. So in five years, you are at this pharmaceutical company, and you're near London, but you have no been told that you are being invited back to Edinburgh to give this induction talk. And the fun bit is is all expenses paid. So how are you getting back to Edinburgh?

Ian: 8:00

I'm using my imagination now. Probably some sort of vacuum bullet train that travels? I don't know. 600 kilometers per second. No, no, no, no. That's too... that's too far.

Andrew: 8:16

So you'd like to travel quickly then?

Ian: 8:19

No, yeah. Yeah. Because at the moment, the traveling from London to Edinburgh is like six hours isn't it. If you can make that 30 minutes, you know, you can achieve so much more. There's so much more possibilities that you can achieve, you know?

Andrew: 8:34

Yeah, so you'd like to leave work. Get onto this bullet train. And shoot up to Edinburgh as quickly as you can. Yeah, yeah. Yep. We're in the future. Do you reckon this is a common thing for everyone to do? Or is it saved for someone who's getting this all expenses trip?

Ian: 8:52

I'll probably be a wee bit more expensive in trains, ordinary trains. But yeah, if I were to go to all expenses covered trip, obviously gonna enjoy the fastest way possible - enjoying our champagne on the way here.

Andrew: 9:10

Absolutely. I would agree. You get your champagne; you get get your bit bubbly, private compartment?

Ian: 9:16

Private compartment. Yes, indeed.

Andrew: 9:26

So we're sitting in this bullet train, and you're starting to relax. And you realize this is your first time back in Edinburgh since graduation. You're you're thinking back to right now. You've just graduated. How are you feeling at the moment about graduating?

Ian: 9:43

I would say right now still a little bit uncertain, because I've just, I've just graduated, and I sort of know what I'm going to do next year, which is I'm going to continue doing Master of Science in bio informatics but I still feel quite uncertain about, you know, what I'm going to do next, I don't really have a plan that's set for the next five years, so, and I haven't really got like a, like a permanent job, really. So I feel kind of uncertain at the moment. But I guess that's just life, really. And I'm just, I'm just constantly on social media, looking for opportunities to sort of improve myself and progress myself in my career. But yeah, if in five years, I mean, hopefully, hopefully, I will have a job that's quite intellectually challenging, but also having good working life balance.

Andrew: 10:42

It's kind of natural, I think, to feel lost after you've graduated and unsure. Do you think that's something that quite a lot of people are feeling?

Ian: 10:51

Yeah, I think so. Absolutely. Quite, a lot of my friends are well actually, they don't really have anything lined up after graduation. Quite a lot of them. And they're just going traveling naturally, quite a lot of them, although they do have plans, like for example, some of them are doing PhD. But by what they've told me, they're still quite uncertain about what, what was to come after graduation, and what to expect for, you know, their jobs or their PhDs, etc. And so it's quite natural. It's very common, I would say,

Andrew: 11:29

Yeah, yeah, I'd say so now that you're graduating, how do you feel about your final year of studies and how that's gone.

Ian: 11:38

Now, final years. So I think during my degree right, as a five year degree, but actually, starting from third year to a good part of fifth year, is COVID, actually, so it's been quite harshly hit by COVID. Because if you do a chemistry degree, mostly in the lab, and because of COVID, we weren't able to go into the lab, per se, especially in our third year. Third year was supposed to be the most intense, lab intensive year, and we were... we weren't able to do that at all, really, we did have some catch up opportunities, the School of Chemistry had provided us, but it's, it's not the same, really. So there's, there were there was lots of lots and lots of challenges, really, for the past few years. And we all had to adapt to a different sort of style of learning. I don't know, think of... think of very unique, innovative ways to progress yourself. In the career, basically, what I'm meaning is, for example, during my third year, because of, because of like the lobbying Council, I was constantly having to think about what to do. So what I did was I did a computational chemistry project with one of my professors. And we were able to make it into like, a one year project thing. And it's, and it's actually relatively COVID as well. So it's drug discovery project for COVID-19. So we're looking for drugs that would potentially go into the market, etc, for treating COVID. So, yeah, in that aspect, it's been okay, you know, I find found way found my own ways to adapt to the new reality, the reality. But, yeah, and it has been a wee bit of a shame to miss quite a lot of the stuff that's going on in the course, but also, new opportunities opened up. So it's, it's not too bad as you can see.

Andrew: 14:00

It certainly sounds like you handled yourself well in COVID and really took initiative on everything.

Ian: 14:06

Yeah. It does take some courage, take some time. Yeah, takes a bit of willingness to do stuff. It's really not to... it's really not to negate the fact that there's quite a lot of my friends who have not really been able to cope as well. I won't say the specifics, but there are some that, you know, are not doing so. Well. Really. So, you know, it's, it's been difficult.

Andrew: 14:38

I think COVID... has affected every course in a very different way. I hadn't considered when I was in lockdown due to COVID that, you know, labs is such a big part of your course that to take that away. It makes being at uni quite difficult.

Ian: 15:00

I mean, I suppose for you, you study music, is that right?

Andrew: 15:05

So I do acoustics and music technology now. But while COVID was going on, so it was my first and second year, I was in maths and music. Half of my course was very affected - the music side. Maths is pretty easy to do online. But music, we were meant to have loads of practical stuff that got cut out, and a whole course called Sound Recording got changed. It's meant to be that you go into the field and record a lot of stuff, but it became an online course and how to identify recordings rather than actually be able to do it. But yeah, labs getting taken away must have been quite heavy. How did they teach that instead?

Ian: 15:48

They actually, they were actually recording videos in the lab. And then we just had to sit and watch that video. But still do the lab report with the detail that they provided us and analyze the data, obviously, but quite a large chunk of it became computational chemistry. So actually, they they, they provided a course to learn Python. So we weren't, it wasn't really in our curriculum, but because of COVID we had to fit that in as well. But it's, it's an extra thing that's led, led, led me to where I am at the moment.

Andrew: 16:26

Yet, you've still done really well in all your studies. And you've managed to get to this placement, how did you choose the placement?

Ian: 16:37

I suppose there's quite a few like personal factors as well, because my partner, my partner is actually based in Edinburgh and I have been with them for more than three now. But but but when I was choosing the placement, I was actually thinking about staying in Edinburgh because I really love Edinburgh as a city. It's got lots of green spaces. And it's almost in like my second home. So it was just quite natural for me to choose to stay here. And it's perfect as well, because I want to go into the pharma industry. And it so happens that there's one in Edinburgh, and it's it's only in Gorgie. It's not even like that far out. So it's, it's perfect.

Andrew: 17:20

You had your graduation on Monday, how was the ceremony?

Ian: 17:24

It was, it was actually quite touching. I don't...many words to describe it! It's quite emotional, quite touching. And felt really weird that everybody is suddenly graduating, especially like, because final year is like a placement year. So everybody would be everywhere in the world, scattered around the world so it will be the first time we see some people for the whole year. Like it will be the first time that we see them over over the year. So it felt really weird that we're saying hi again and then we're all of a sudden saying goodbye.

Andrew: 18:00

Yeah. It's like, it's like you'd already graduated and moved on. And then you're come back for the actual graduation.

Ian: 18:07

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I feel I feel sorry for saying goodbye to some to some of my really good friends that I've made here.

Andrew: 18:21

Back to this imaginary world, you arrived to give your speech to the new first years to give them advice. What's the first thing you tell them?

Ian: 18:31

I would say my biggest advice is for the new students to go out more. Obviously, you need to study hard, right? That's the basis of everything. That's how you can get a degree that's how you can get a first. But in the meantime, you should go out more you should go and chat to people chat to people socialize with them, you know, don't be afraid to say hi, you know, because the other person the other side, the receiving end of the message would probably be something in the same that they're intimidated. They don't know what to say. You know, it's normal. And people are sort of the same people want to know each other but maybe a wee bit shy to do so. So I would say absolutely go out and have fun. Enjoy your Freshers Week, because that's when will when you have the most fun, but also go out during like the term time and stuff. And also you like it's not just having fun new year, you're also still learning about how to network, you're learning about how to communicate with people. So those would be very nice skills to have actually in. In the end when you graduate and get a job.

Andrew: 19:52

Where did you find it easiest to meet people then in your first year?

Ian: 19:57

So it's quite specific to me really, but I suppose for the chemistry degree, I was able to talk to the most people and get to know them quite well in the lab. Because how it works is when we're working in a lab in the first year, you basically get paired up with someone else. And during that process, you would be working with them, you will be working in a team, essentially, you will be chatting to know about them. And you know, they'll do the thing to you. And you will just get to know, know them so much better. For example, one of my first lab partners in first year, Marta, she's one of my best friends now. So we've kept in touch over the past five years of our degree. So it's really nice. And new, I feel like you built the deepest connections there in the lab. And obviously, you get to talk to people during lectures too. But it's a wee bit less personal. It's more like the... there's just too many people in the lecture theater.

Andrew: 21:03

What about societies? Did you join any of them in first year and to meet people?

Ian: 21:08

Yeah, I did. I did. Yeah, actually I joined so many societies in my first year, I can't even remember some of them. Okay, so I remember I joined the English debating society, Chinese debating society and then there's also Doctor Who society

Andrew: 21:28

Great choice.

Ian: 21:29

And then at the end is the French theatre society. I think the French name is Les Escogriffes, or something along the lines. But I would say I spent the most time at the French theater, theater society. Because we had to do like one big play at the time. And we had to go in like each and every week, to rehearse for the piece. And I was able to make quite a few friends there, actually, as well. Obviously, not as good as the friend, that were made in laboratories, but just being honest.

Andrew: 22:10

What advice would you give to people coming into the final year? What prep should they do for graduation?

Ian: 22:18

That's a really good question. Actually, if I if I knew what I was going to, if I heard, if I heard this, when I first started fifth year, I think I would be in a much better place. Not to say that I'm not in a good place, I would be so much more successful, my advice would be, again, this year is going to be if you're doing a project this year, or placement this year, make the most out of it, make mistakes, learn from it. You know, don't be afraid to ask questions, to your colleagues, think really, really hard about what you're gonna do next, after graduation, you know, is it going into academia, if you're going to do to do a PhD, afterwards, you know, if you're if you are, then you should think really hard about what sort of specific topic that you that really inspire you in the area that you're in. Don't be afraid to get in touch with people, people are always very helpful in anything really people, get a LinkedIn and just reach out to people. And don't be afraid to get in a zoom chat and talk to them about what to do, you know, ask them how can you fail, so that you know how to what to avoid when you go into that career? You know, how do you get into that industry, you know, then you will get an idea about what what's it like to work in that specific field. So if that's if you're doing a PhD or continuing into academia, but if you want to go into industry, or, you know, for example, quite a lot of my colleagues actually are not doing chemistry anymore, they actually go into finance, accounting, that, you know, so many different pathways you can take. So don't limit yourself only on the subjects that you study at uni. Because at the end of the day, employers is going to look at your CV and say, Wow, that's the, they're going to straight out ignore the education bit if I'm being honest, and look at if you have like relevant experiences. So that's the sort of things that employers really do look at when they are hiring people. And remember this, it's really not so people often hire people that are not necessarily best at doing the job, but those who are willing to learn and those who are we mean to make mistakes, and those who are willing to go and get the job. One other thing that can make really make you stand out from 1000s of applicants is actually to reach out to the person, the hiring manager, or, you know, the one of the people that's working in the department that you're hoping to work in and say, express how much you would love to work for them. And why you want to, you know, do your research, then you might actually land a chance for an interview and, you know, fina another job.

Andrew: 25:38

That is some... that is some great advice. I'm very much taking that on board, because I'm going into my final year. Thank you very much.

Ian: 25:48

It's a wee bit late for me to learn about these, like, at the end of my I mean, literally learn them like a month ago, when I went to one of RSC programs that I went to where I was basically networking with like, big pharmaceutical companies and chemical companies. And yeah, it's just someone inspired me when I, when I was there

Andrew: 26:11

No that's great.

Ian: 26:12

That was a wee bit late. I wish I knew a wee bit earlier.

Andrew: 26:16

So you mentioned messaging people on LinkedIn and stuff. I've tried that. It did not go well. So do you have any advice on kind of retaining people people's interest on LinkedIn, because, you know, they don't owe you anything. So it's very easy for them to switch off?

Ian: 26:34

Absolutely. I've got this too. It's quite common. Like, you know, for example, when you message someone you wrote, like a paragraph of something, and then they never reply to you. It's quite common. But I would say, Yeah, I still get this, this till the stage, you know, but what I would say to that is for you to look at their LinkedIn profile, look at what they've posted, you know, if they don't post anything, then maybe do a little stalking and look at what they've been up to, in their business. And when you message them put down in words, you know, for example, you know, congratulations on X, Y, Zed, then they will be much more willing to read on to what you're actually going to say,

Andrew: 27:29

Yeah, so try and tailor it to the person don't just send a general message.

Ian: 27:35

Tailor it to the person instead of sending like, yeah, instead of like sending like a million, sending a million people the same message.

Andrew: 27:45

Even if people have the same job, you can probably find on their profile exactly what they do and what interests them. Do you reckon that's quite a good way to kind of start the conversation as to mention that stuff?

Ian: 28:00

Yeah, absolutely. You know, if you look, look into their LinkedIn, and then they said, Well, I've done XYZ to improve the business's turnover by 50%, or whatever, you know, ask them. I've heard that you've done such and such. How did you do it? How did you succeed? I would really love to learn from you. What advice would you give me, you know, give yourself five years ago? That kind of stuff. And then and then you listen and and then you'll say what you really want from them.

Andrew: 28:44

I think you've given a pretty good speech. There was a lot of advice in that last bit there. So I think everyone has been thoroughly inspired. And the university is very impressed as well, and they're giving you a free dinner. Oh, anywhere you want in Edinburgh. So where are you going?

Ian: 29:03

I would definitely say Chez Joules. It's a French restaurant. Just on Hanover street. That's my favorite place to go.

Andrew: 29:12

Nice! French restaurant. I love... I mean, I love food. I like French food too. What are you choosing to eat at Chez Joules?

Ian: 29:21

Great question. Wow. Probably surf and turf. That's one of the best meals I've had from them. It's basically like a steak and lobster - half a lobster - with some potato, French potato with some creams. I'm not sure what the name is. It's gone from my head. I had it earlier. But yeah, it's really nice. The best meal I would say though, from Chez Joules is the steak with blue cheese salts. It's quite nice actually. I'm not usually a person that likes blue cheese, largely I think it's, it's a hit or miss really for a quite a lot of people, but they make it really nice so that it tastes amazing. Definitely recommend.

Andrew: 30:12

I love a bit of melted blue cheese. It's... my favorite pizza topping is to put blue cheese on it and let it melt out.

Ian: 30:21

Yeah, no, I know!

Andrew: 30:23

Surf and turf at Chez Joules. Is that something that you've done before?

Ian: 30:28

Yeah, yeah, I've definitely had it before so I recommend it.

Andrew: 30:33

So quite a lot, then, you like to go Chez Joules?

Ian: 30:35

Yes.

Andrew: 30:37

Okay. I should try that. I think my friends have been but I've not been myself. Yeah, Chez Joules. Good choice. Even better, the university is allowing you to take a guest who is one person that gets to come and have surf and turf with you at Chez Joules. And this person can be real, they can be a celebrity, they could be a fictional character. Who's coming with you?

Ian: 30:59

Being quite honest, I would invite my first year lab partner Marta to show up. Just because she she's, she's also one of my best friends, right? And she's going into computational chemistry, slash biology. And she's staying in Edinburgh as well. So Computational Chemistry, slash biology is really a fast growing field, right? And it's really nice for her to go into that field. And in five years, I would really love to see what comes out of her academic career.

Andrew: 31:35

Yeah, so you have a nice little catch up with Marta at Chez Joules. Okay, right. Your final question. You've just had your dinner at Chez Joules and it's time to get picked up. Or maybe you're gonna go back on the bullet train for a quick hour ride back down to home. But you're gonna go first to your favorite place in Edinburgh. Where is that? And why is it your favorite?

Ian: 32:05

So this is going to sound a wee bit cheesy. But I would say, I would say the meadows.

Andrew: 32:12

Interesting.

Ian: 32:13

I just hosted so many parties there. I've, I've had barbecues there. I've I've had quite a lot of shows there was with my friends. And there's just so many so many memories. They're taking place there. So it'd be nice to go and chill again on a pint or a glass of wine. And you know, saying goodbye to Edinburgh city that I've spent five years in.

Andrew: 32:44

Yeah, everyone has the section that they sit in the most in the meadows. Which one's yours?

Ian: 32:52

Great question. So, so so so, Victor Hugo, you know, Victor Hugo, the Victor Hugo Deli?

Andrew: 33:01

Yeah.

Ian: 33:01

the red cafe. Yep. Basically, if you cross the road and go on to the meadows, you turn slightly left. There's one bit that goes straight to the library. So not that road. But the row on the left. I usually sit along there on the left side of that road, because that's where you get the more sun naturally.

Andrew: 33:23

Yeah, I think I go into the one that's in front of the library the most - next to the community garden.

Ian: 33:29

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, definitely know where that is. That one? Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. That's my spot. I sometimes go there, too. Yeah, yeah. Just because there's flowers and stuff. And actually, that is actually quite good for sun as well, because there's no annoying trees just shadowing the sun as well.

Andrew: 33:49

So the meadows is so central to the Edinburgh uni experience, I think. I mean, it's right next to campus, especially for people who were at uni and COVID years. It was one of the spaces that you could socialize.

Ian: 34:06

Exactly. I had that many many times actually like during lockdown. I was here during lockdown. So me, me and my partner, we always just go and sit in the metals and enjoy we cheeky Prosecco.

Andrew: 34:23

I really liked this recurring theme of Prosecco, bottles of wine.

Ian: 34:27

You don't want me to tell you about all the times I've had bad experiences!

Andrew: 34:34

No, that's, that's a lovely place to finish. You're gonna get picked up at the meadows, either... well, we probably will... we'll head to the bullet train, and you'll head back home. That is your road back to Edinburgh. You have started at a pharmaceutical company down in England, got on the bullet train, took you an hour to get back up here. Gave your big speech, spoke about LinkedIn and gave some great advice about that. Had dinner at Chez Joules with your lab partner and then you went to the Meadows and had a little bit of wine and went back home. I think that's a really, really lovely story that you've gotten through there. So thank you for sharing that in. We have a surprise question for you. So each guest is getting one surprise question from somebody else. So this isn't from me. No, don't worry, it's not gonna be too bad. So you have a question from Dr. Peter Kirsop.

Ian: 35:37

Wow

Andrew: 35:38

Senior lecturer at chemistry, we got him as a suggestion from our alumni department. And he is asking you what part time job most perfectly fits with academic study?

Ian: 35:51

What part time job? That's a great question. But also a tricky question. Because you know, he knows all about my part time jobs. He's actually my personal tutor.

Andrew: 36:02

Ah okay, he's your personal tutor, so he knows you quite well! That's a great suggestion, we got then.

Ian: 36:07

So I would say if you go go for a student ambassador job, which is, which is exactly why I've been doing, it would be the best part time job. Because you're, you're actually directly working with the University. And what you do day by day might be different, actually, in Edinburgh, because how it works is you will have open days that are specifically for the school. So the School of Chemistry or organize their own open day, they, they will invite you and they will pay you as well. And they will invite you to the open days, and you'll be able to talk to students, and basically share experiences and answer questions, show them around. But you also get like job offers opportunities. So we do it by shifts, right? So you have shift, shift opportunities from the bigger university. So it might be, you know, if you're, you might be editing a video, you might be doing that, or you might also be doing tours. But sometimes they also, they also invite us to do open day events as well for other schools. But best of all, there's, there's an app called Uni Buddy. The new program that's opened this year,

Andrew: 37:26

I think I've heard of that. Yeah.

Ian: 37:28

Yeah. So it's basically like a online platform where prospective students can type into chatbox. Well, actually, more complicated than that. But we have like specific profiles on like, a web page, and they can message us directly. And we get paid for messaging, which is always nice. You can do it anytime you can do it at 2am in the morning or five in the afternoon. It's totally up to you. So you know, it's quite flexible, which is great.

Andrew: 38:03

It sounds it. a job where it's flexible. You get paid, and you get to help others to get as good as experience as you did. Or if you didn't have a great experience to give them a good experience. And I think that's a great job. How long did you do that for?

Ian: 38:24

Yeah, so I actually started doing it in at the end of my second year. So just before COVID. And really funnily enough, it was actually it was actually Peter, who asked me if I'm interested in in doing okay, so it's a, it's a trick question.

Andrew: 38:45

So he's, he's saying, What's the best job? You better answer the one I gave you.

Ian: 38:50

I'm being honest. No really it is. Yeah.

Andrew: 38:52

Well, thank you. Yeah, that was some great responses and a very interesting road to Edinburgh. That's been your Multi Story. Thank you very much.

Ian: 39:02

No, thank you so much! Thank you.

Andrew: 39:10

Do you know what I think I've come out of that episode knowing a lot more about the pharmaceuticals industry. Ian has done a fantastic job there telling us his Edinburgh story, which does not end there. Of course, I wish him all the luck in his future endeavors. And I hope that for travel sake, in five years time bullet trains do exist. Thank you all for listening to Multi Story Edinburgh. You can find more work from our alumni team at www.ed.ac.uk forward slash alumni, which is where you can find more episodes of Multi Story Edinburgh. Alternatively, you can stream it towherever you normally get your podcasts. For more information. You can find us on Instagram at ED alumni or on Twitter at Edinburgh alumni. That's all from me now. Another route to Edinburgh has been told. See you soon for the next episode of Multi Story Edinburgh, class of 2023.