Research Technician: Nanna Hansen

Nanna Hansen, M.S.

How did you choose your career? Was this an easy or hard process for you? If you struggled, how did you overcome these struggles?

Choosing a career seemed easy but my choices changed along the way. In ninth grade I started out wanting to be a dentist and figured I should plan my high school classes accordingly (i.e., science, math, biology and physics rather than language and art classes). After high school I spent half a year in Vancouver, BC, Canada as a nanny to get some time off from school. I applied for dental school but didn't get accepted. (Dental school is highly competitive with very few spots open once a year.) Then I landed a job at a dentist's office and worked there for a year to gain experience in the field and possibly make it more likely for me to get accepted to dental school. I was once again rejected so I spent 1.5 years at a lab tech school with an additional 1 year industrial training. I worked for a year as a tech but realized that I wanted to learn more, so I applied for the biology program at University of Copenhagen and was accepted. I spent six years getting my master's degree with half a year at the agricultural university in Copenhagen and roughly a year and a half years as an exchange student at University of Washington in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program to gain more diverse experience and narrow in on what I wanted to do later on.

So as much as the choice seemed obvious back in ninth grade, I ended up in a very different field.

What kind of training, both formal and informal, did you receive to prepare you for your career? If applicable, how did you select where to attend graduate school? How about any additional training? How did you choose what additional training to pursue and how did you choose where to do it?

I went to several career fairs before and during my studies. I wanted to explore which options different careers could lead to and I wanted to see if there was a need for dentists, lab techs and biologists. I approached several representatives to talk to them about the different fields.

How competitive and/or rigorous was the training for your career?

The most difficult task was getting accepted at the university since I thought I had already made up my mind about a career. The training to become a lab tech was not very competitive but landing a trainee job was difficult. Most students want to get in with a big company (like Novo Nordisk) with better prospects of being hired full time once the one-year training period is over. The schooling at the university was very busy in periods and highly competitive when it came to picking courses and enduring exams. We also had to spend two of our summers at summer camps in different parts of the country to gain hands-on experience with the biological world surrounding the ocean, the lakes and the forest.

In general, how much did the training cost? Was the investment worth it?

Attending the university in Denmark is free as we pay high taxes, so in my case the investment was time not money.

How long did it take you to train? Was it shorter or longer than anticipated? If you had any setbacks, how did you deal with them?

Lab tech school including the trainee period took 2.5 years, which was the exact time allotted. The master's in biology, including the exchange at UW, data collection, and thesis writing, took six years, which is also the maximum number of years that the government will fund a master's student. I was hoping to be done in 5–5.5 years, but while collecting data I realized that the extra time spent doing research would be well worth it for my thesis. I encountered most setbacks during my research where experiments wouldn't work the first time and things had to be repeated several times to verify the outcome. It's all part of the learning curve and it's all certainly a part of science.

What was the process like to apply for your first job after your training was over?

This is where I was happy that I had done some networking during my studies. I spent hours searching the internet and trying to figure out what I would like to do, which research areas I found interesting, and I researched a lot on the different labs which would advertise positions online. In the end my network connections landed me a wonderful job.

Was it easy or difficult? How did you cope with any difficulties? Did that differ from subsequent jobs you've had?

I was lucky enough to land three interviews within a month and I was offered two positions pretty much at the same time, so I chose the job (and the PI) I liked the best.

What advice would you give to someone interested in following a similar career path?

Attempt to focus early on on what goals you have for your future and try to plan your studies accordingly.

Do you want a bachelor's or a master's degree? Do you want a Ph.D., do you eventually want to run your own lab? Once you have an idea of how much schooling you are interested in going through and how much time you are willing to spend as a student, then match that with an appropriate degree. Skip unnecessary steps and invest as much time as possible in research that you are interested in rather than shop around or waste time doing something you are not eager about (except homework and weekly reports). At the end you most likely want to hold a job that gives you challenges and gives you opportunities to develop new skills. Life is a learning process from the beginning to the end.

What would you have done differently in preparing for your career?

I think I should have spent more time trying to narrow my study choices and focused more on what the outcome of my choice would be. How would that hold up against what I wanted for my future? However, having a tech degree made my first years at the university much easier since I was used to running experiments, writing protocols and reading scientific material.

How much do you like what you do? Why? Is it what you imagined it would be? If not, how have you adapted?

I love my job, I do work more that the average tech (ten–twelve-hour days and weekends when necessary) but I don't mind since I get to think on my own. I'm not just an average bench lab tech who is being told what to do everyday. I get to think about and plan experiments, I deal with how to go about problems when I encounter them and I have a PI who listens to my suggestions and ideas and takes them into account. The hardest part for me is reading science papers (even finding the time to read them), I know it's necessary and very important, but I prefer actual bench work rather than study time.

How do you achieve career-life balance? Is this easy or hard to do? How many hours do you typically work per week?

I try to work no more than 45 hours a week (I'm hired to work 40), but as I work long days and weekends too, I do try to take days off to make up for this. There is always more you can do in lab and you need to try to keep a healthy balance between your career and your life. I've found that I'm a much happier person if I work closer to forty hours rather than eighty hours (which was a usual work week for me during my exchange at UW). I need my time off to stay on top of my game. I'm happy with my choice of degree since I'm sure I would have become one of those obsessed postdocs and PIs whose world revolves around their research and not much else.

What strategies have you figured out over time to help you succeed?

Focus, focus, focus. I try to keep goals. I love learning and I love seeing progress so if I take on new projects I try to plan them so that I know where it'll be going and how fast. I'm terrible at being bored so I try to keep myself challenged in one way or the other and there really is no reason to be bored when you are in science.

How do you see your field changing in the next 5–10 years?

I think my field will keep developing and we'll always have new things to discover so as such I'm not concerned that we'll run out of things to research or ideas to pursue.

Anything else you would like to share?

Have fun with what you do, if you don't like your job it's not worth your time. To avoid getting burned out, make sure that you get out of lab and have time to follow your interests.