About me
Hello, my name is Jodi and I am a molecular neuroscience PhD Student at King’s College London. I graduated with honours from the University of Sussex in Brighton, England, with a first-class degree in Medical Neuroscience and a Distinction grade Master of Research (MRes) in neuroscience. After this, I left academia as I worked in the wearable technology and digital health research and development sector, working on my project management and grant writing skills, before heading back to the lab as a Research Assistant. My journey to PhD student has been an unconventional one, with lots of bumps and potholes in the road that brought me here. But my career goals are to keep advocating for underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) and help as many people as possible along the way. As well as my ‘day job’ as a PhD Student, I am also a co-host of an equality and feminism in STEM podcast, The Academinist, and a keen science communicator on Instagram. I am regularly involved in outreach and public engagement projects and recently started a part-time freelance position as a science writer – which I love.
How you first became interested in your STEM field
Most people seem to have that great story about how they fell in love with STEM, that ‘science spark’ moment that lit the fire to pursue a career in research. I have always struggled to pinpoint mine. I am the first in my family to go to university, so growing up I was never exposed to the wide options of careers available. I knew I was smart, and I knew smart people became doctors. So, I embarked on the journey of becoming one, not really understanding what distinguished medical doctors from those doing research. I assumed they were the same careers, and without proper advice to tell me otherwise I started fumbling my way forwards, only seeing the next step I had to take when I was about to stumble over it.
I have always been interested in the medical fields, specifically the brain. Growing up with a sister with autism and neurofibromatosis definitely shaped these interests and through experience working in healthcare, with patients with mental health conditions, dementia and other neurodegenerative conditions, I found myself more interested in the brain than ever before.
I thought this meant I was to become a neurologist or a neurosurgeon – not realising at that point that neuroscience was an exciting field in its own right.
Adversity
My early childhood was difficult, and as I entered adolescence I grew up in a single-parent family in a low socio-economic background. I have worked since the age of thirteen alongside full time education and at times this has been extremely challenging. For a lot of my education and early career I have often felt lost, unsure of what the next steps are to get to where I want to be, and without anyone to ask these questions to. This is part of the reason why I started my Instagram page, to help give advice and encouragement to people in a similar boat.
I genuinely thought university was not for people like me – poor and with a heavy somerset accent, I was often made to feel ‘less than’ at medical school interviews, up against privately educated candidates with their equally educated parents in tow.
I strongly recall my science teacher at school telling me to ‘stick to poetry’ when I asked to be moved up a science class. This doubt other had in me only spurred me on to prove them wrong.
Finance has been a barrier to opportunity for me, but I have always tried to find ways around it. After several medical school rejections, lots of retakes and a whole lot of determination, I ‘fell into’ neuroscience when my rejection letter from Brighton and Sussex Medical School contained a list of alternative courses, and I picked Medical Neuroscience and never looked back. Overall, I am proud of my journey and all the rejections and bumps on the way have shaped me into the resilient person I am.
Finding your Career
Until I was enrolled in a neuroscience degree, I have never heard of or met a neuroscientist. Let that sink in for a second.
I was just not exposed to any careers other than teacher, lawyer, nurse, retail assistant and … thought I knew enough about becoming a (medical) doctor. This is why I am so passionate about outreach and making myself accessible to aspiring scientists through my platform. All my volunteer work during my school years, shadowing doctors in the hospital and surgeries, medical volunteering in Africa, mental health counselling had all been in preparation for the wrong career in lieu of knowledge of other options.
Once I was at university, I got involved in as much as I could but my need to work part time always limited this. For example, most summer research internships are unpaid, and instead I found myself needing to go home to work full time in a care home to get out of my overdraft and financially ready myself for the new academic year.
The future
What does my future look like? The short answer is ‘who knows?’
I have my fingers in many pies across consulting, researching, and writing as I figure out what I like the most, but I simply am undecided on my next step, and that’s OK. I have just started my second year of my PhD (started in a global pandemic), so I still have a while to figure the rest out. I am a huge advocate for a good work-life balance, and ultimately my PhD, no matter how important or fulfilling, is just a job. I am due to be married in April this year (2022) and have so many exciting things to look forward to that do not revolve around a lab bench. This a mindset that has taken me years to perfect, but viewing my PhD through this lens has been like an epiphany.
My advice to anyone interested in a career in neuroscience research or academia, would be to talk to as many people in the roles as possible. Be patient, we are busy! But with social media, it has never been easier to speak to someone in your dream job and ‘try it for size’ to make sure your energy and efforts are being spent on the right things. That’s something I feel I could have really benefitted from.
For more from me, you can follow me on
Twitter https://twitter.com/notbrainscience
Instagram https://instagram.com/notbrainscience
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/jodi-parslow-4a2323115
My (new) website https://www.notbrainscience.com
The podcast https://theacademinist.buzzsprout.com/
I always try my best to be available and as helpful as I can to anyone who may relate to some of the things expressed here. You got this!
