What is the best job/volunteering role you've ever had?

AislingDM

I know a lot of work is deeply stressful and working for money to be able to live is not always something that people look forward to!

Equally, some people can find a lot of joy in their working life, perhaps because their passionate about their role or simply because the team is great fun to be around.

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts?

(any job, volunteering, work experience etc... is totally cool to talk about, anything that brought you a bit of happiness can be inspiring to others!)

AislingDM

I'll start us off:

1) of course, you guys know how much I love you all here at The Mix, this is probably one of the most rewarding and important things I like to spend time doing. Seeing so much kindness and compassion from you all warms my heart immensely.

2) working as a support worker for adults with learning disabilities has brought me immeasurable joy. Learning from the people we support about their needs, their wants, their likes and dislikes is amazing and I am thankful each day that I can do this.

I think these roles certainly fit very well in both the category of being passionate about your role and loving the team you work with and I wish everyone could feel as positively as me about their jobs

Former Member

I love this idea @AislingDM

I’d say my favourite job I’ve had is the one I’m in right now, working as a Biomedical Scientist, I love being able to work in a field I like and being able to help people. I also loved my time as a volunteer here at the Mix it was great being able to talk to people and be a part of the community.

AislingDM

Such a lovely post @jess63 !! Not only the point about loving The Mix and all the joy this type of community can bring, but also such an awesome job! Science can be such a tough lot of subjects for people to get through at school / university and seeing someone thrive and be so happy with what they have achieved is brilliant

What does the day-to-day life of a Biomedical Scientist look like?

Former Member

Hi @AislingDM , I really like the question because I am quite interested in volunteering role.

For me, it’s volunteering teaching. I’ve done many volunteering educational projects in different places, like in Cambodia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia, and UK. I think it is meaningful and motivated to have positive influences on the children. And I like to work with children and hear about their thoughts. Children sometimes have very interesting ideas and different perspectives. It’s rewarding for me to meet different children from various places. It’s my positive job experiences, and I hope this can motivate people a little bit.

Amy22

@AislingDM I find this thread very handy as it could be helpful for others who are thinking about work experience or a particular job and by reading about someone's experience it could inspire others to take up volunteering. I feel like volunteering is a very good thing to do not only are you giving back to your community, but you also gain a new set of skills as well as something you can put onto CV applications. I'd say when it comes to the best job/volunteering, I haven't really got a job yet so I can't say anything about jobs really. However, and I don't know if this counts but I did work experience for a film company called It's my Shout, October 2022 and I worked as a trainee runner. I found my first day was quite busy and hetic, however I found after the second and third day of my work experience I loved being able to work on a short film. It made me feel a lot more confident in myself too and the industry that I would best like to pursue.

I did do work experience too once in a charity shop (A British Heart Foundation Shop), a while ago. But the current pandemic kind of put a stop to my volunteering role which I was sad about. I did enjoy working there as I got to find a lot of unusual things as well as dealing with lots of different customers. I did have some funny stories too while working there.

Overall though if anything is thinking about volunteering I would say definitely go for it as it can boost your confidence and you also get to make friends and get a lot of contacts (especially if say you do end up doing experience similar to what I did with the short film). I really want to do more volunteering in the future but something that is arty maybe, I'd like to help out with either a knitting or crochet club maybe as that is one of my current interests at the moment.

Former Member

AislingDM wrote: »

Such a lovely post @jess63 !! Not only the point about loving The Mix and all the joy this type of community can bring, but also such an awesome job! Science can be such a tough lot of subjects for people to get through at school / university and seeing someone thrive and be so happy with what they have achieved is brilliant

What does the day-to-day life of a Biomedical Scientist look like?

It depends really on what time/ area I’m working in, but essentially we just process samples, mainly blood from patients, and ensure that the correct results are given out to clinicians. So we have to make sure the analysers are running properly and giving accurate results. That makes it sound way more boring than it actually is, but that’s the basics of it 😂

Former Member

Love this post @AislingDM !!

Volunteering is great, yes it can be tiring but I think with volunteering people actually want to be there, rather than just doing any job to make money to live. Usually, if you're not getting paid for something it's what you want to be spending your free time doing.

Being a support worker for adults with learning disabilities is amazing! I can imagine this is so rewarding. I'd love to hear more about this!!

I do 2 volunteer roles, one here for The Mix which I love as it is very flexible, and I like the fact it can be anonymous because I feel like people are able to share more. I've learnt so much from this and it's been great to chat to people and also very cathartic for me too. My other one is volunteering for a primary school in London working with year 5's, which can be very tiring as I have to be up early and it's a full school day, and every week I wake up with my alarm and say whyyyyyyyyyy have I agreed to this I really could do with a day off, and I get into school and it literally feeds me energy. I love those kids to much, especially when we have singing assemblies and I literally feel so proud and I always leave the shift with a huge smile on my face and say to myself that's why I do it. I'd urge anyone to work in a primary school or just around children because it's soup for the soul and so beneficial for our mental health to embrace our inner child!!

AislingDM

Ah, I love to see so much positivity on here, especially because work is objectively a bit long sometimes, so knowing that people can find time to find their passions is brilliant

Awesome answer @Terry8936 !! It's especially fantastic that all of your volunteering has spanned the globe so much - very impressive I also couldn't agree more about the importance of listening to children, teenagers and young people. All too often their thoughts, feelings, opinions and perspectives are ignored or shut down by the adults around them, when in reality I'm convinced the young people on The Mix know a heck of a lot more than me!!

Definitely @Amy22 ! Figuring out career paths is a stressful one, so getting anything from this thread is highly encouraged That sounds so cool, totally true about first day always being so hectic, but once you settle into it, things become so exciting and it just sparks creativity. Yes, always encourage volunteering! Like I know it's not feasible for everyone which is more than okay, but if you find yourself with some spare time or boredom it's a great way to do something important and valuable

No, that sounds so cool and a lot of the time people probably don't realise how much we should value all of the scientists behind our care. Because we only really see primary care professionals like doctors and nurses, we don't stop to think about everyone involved in helping us to understand our own bodies @jess63 ! In line with that, thank you for what you do

That is such an accurate way to describe it @RenP !! You can feel entirely physically and emotionally-depleted, but once you actually get started at the role that day, you're instantly reminded of how much you love what you do and the people you work with The work with the kids sounds awesome, what sorts of things do you do each day? I LOVE working with adults with learning disabilities at our day centre, understanding their strengths and skills they want to work on is fun and I am very grateful to have obtained this role tbh