Finding the right position for yourself, a future career or achieving your dreams can be a real challenge. You might scroll through different job or research adverts and not know what to choose. Having the best set of skills but not being sure where to apply them is a common obstacle that most of the people occur. There are high chances that there is a job just built for you, but you just did not get the occasion to face it. The chances on being at the right place in the right time are always higher if people around you are aware of what you are looking for. Small talks with friends or colleagues can bring up great deals.
The story of Edona and Yasmin, who met through Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Program in Tribology funded by the European Union is a great example on how powerful Networking can be!
During their master’s degree they were two house mates studying together having coffee talks after lectures while sharing their dreams and interests. While attending a conference in Coimbra, Portugal, where the main objective was about different methods of Microscopy utilized in different areas of science and engineering especially in Bioengineering, it took a walking back home for Yasmin to see Edona’s high interest in the field. Edona was showing her notes and articles she found related to bioengineering and the related Linked in pages that she follows with a lot of passion. Yasmin remembered her saying “There would be only one case I would be motivated enough to pursue a PhD, and that is only if it would relate to bioengineering”.
After accomplishing their master’s degree, Edona decided to join the industry working for the European Union Office in Kosovo and Yasmin perused her education through academia starting her PhD at University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. Although far in distance and in different fields they kept their contact through social media. One afternoon, Yasmin encountered on LinkedIn an exciting research opportunity in bio tribology at University of Leeds. She knew the research group and the supervision team by working in the same lab but in a different section. Having Edona’s interests in mind, right away she shared the link to her. The one and only condition that Edona would joined a PhD was just there a click away. As Edona got the link in time she could go through the job advert, research about it and write a powerful SOP. After different tasks and an interview for the extremely competitive role Edona got the position and is now part of the BioTrib Research Group.
Moral of the story is that:
Everything you want in life is a relationship away
Idowu Koyenikan
Building ties can save your time, bear you stress and if you know how to use it, it will be a powerful tool for your personal and professional development. Therefore, we suggest: Do not be afraid of sharing your ambitions and interests with people and always stay connected.
Featured Image: Edona Hyla with Yasmin Hayatgheib
This article was written by Edona Hyla, one of BioTrib’s newest Early Stage Researchers at the University of Leeds as part of a series of articles curated by BioTrib ESRs.