For my PhD, I chose a topic with a biological/medicinal chemistry focus because I have always been fascinated by the life sciences. The interface with inorganic chemistry also gave me deep insight into various analytical methods and synthesis strategies.

It was difficult to make myself attractive to the job market with only a PhD and no relevant professional experience, which is why I initially gained project management experience in a completely unrelated field at a food start-up. Only then was I attractive enough to the job market to work closer to my field again, in pharmaceutical and healthcare communications. I can only advise everyone to gain professional experience while still studying or to choose internships that could be relevant to future positions.

No, I hadn’t considered a career in science communication or student marketing at all. During my studies, I simply didn’t associate it with what I had learnt. But communication has always come naturally to me, and I enjoyed co-organising outreach projects, such as the programme for the department’s Long Night of the Sciences.

I plan and organise events for prospective students at Freie Universität Berlin to give them a closer look at studying STEM subjects. I also develop communication formats to foster a better understanding of what it means to study STEM subjects and what career prospects the degree programmes offer. My own experience certainly helps me with that.

It certainly helps to understand how “university works”, and a general understanding of the natural sciences is also useful when communicating with prospective students who would like to find out more about the course content, on the one hand, and when communicating with students and female staff members, on the other, because I can understand their everyday lives.

My tasks are very diverse, and the same applies to my day-to-day work. Shortly before events, I communicate extensively with everyone involved: staff from the STEM departments, students and those responsible for organising events.

Otherwise, I create content for a website intended to give prospective students an insight into studying STEM subjects. To do this, I regularly liaise with the departments. However, I most enjoy communicating directly with students and prospective students – for example, at trade fairs or various event formats. This is, of course, where I get the most important input on what could help prospective students, but it is also simply fascinating to find out directly which topics are important to young people when choosing what to study and how they are planning their future.

In my case, of course, this is a huge difference – I have swapped the laboratory for the office, conferences for trade fairs and writing papers for developing website content. Research and communication are two completely different professional fields. Nevertheless, my training continues to help me with various aspects of my current work. Because I studied chemistry myself, I can naturally also bring my own experiences into conversations with prospective students. In addition, my doctoral thesis was my most extensive project to date and certainly provided a good initial foundation for all the project management tasks that followed. The network I built up during that time also helps me to convey a realistic picture of career prospects.

What excites me most is the direct exchange with students and prospective students and finding out which topics relating to studying and starting university concern them. Quite a lot has changed in recent years, for example as a result of coronavirus and AI.

Sometimes it is challenging to bring together everyone involved from different subject areas and projects, with their differing capacities and needs, but there is always a solution.

There would certainly be opportunities for advancement in various projects or agencies, for example as a department head. However, this is of secondary importance to me. In future, I would also like to continue developing projects and formats myself, and I see myself less in coordination and administration.