‘Survival of the fittest’ is the phrase that sums up natural selection. And as a life science student feeding her hunger with botany and zoology, I was not a great fit for biotechnology. Here began the journey to become fit for biotechnology and survive in this field to build a successful career. You can take a look at my article “My life at GGDSD ( Goswami Ganesh Dutta Sanatan Dharma) College, Panjab University, Chandigarh”, a college in Punjab to know how I landed in pursuing my master's degree in biotechnology.

After attending a few lectures in my master's, I realized I am not getting what I was expecting in terms of lab experience. I consciously thought of not letting this thing get on my nerves, and started looking for an internship to gain lab experience. 

When all my batchmates were joining pharma companies for internships, I decided to go to a research institute. And here came the most difficult part of my journey, when a professor straight away said to my face, it's best to go to research institutes but I bet, you won't get it. He said he has seen so many students trying for this and almost everyone has failed. Then I decided, no matter what it takes, I will end up getting an internship in a research institute. 

When my batchmates were done with half of their internship, I was still in my hunting period. From cold emailing scientists to visiting institutes in person, I did it all and finally got an opportunity in the Centre of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (CIAB), an autonomous institute of DBT (Department of Biotechnology), Government of India Institute in Mohali, Punjab.

And this marks the most beautiful 3 months of my degree. The list is long for what I learned from this lab. From research, literature study, honing my technical skills and data analysis to communication in the scientific community. 

They say we have worked day in and day out for this, all researchers were in true terms following that. And I didn’t even realize when I also became one of them. I used to reach the lab at sharp 9 am and leave the lab at 7,8 pm and sometimes even 1, 2 at night when work demanded so. Do you know the best part was, I was tired but never got drained!

Few researchers were definitely frustrated with this but I knew these 3 months could shape me in all aspects. I didn’t know what hard work is, but this lab taught me.

And how can I not express my gratitude towards the researchers. I don’t think I can ever meet such smart and hardworking people with beauty lying in their brains. Post my internship, I successfully completed my master's.               

It's no secret that everyone in India wants to get an education from a reputed institute in a foreign country, especially the USA. No wonder, I was on the same page but financial constraints were not letting me do so. 

Here, I came across an academy - ‘Biocon Academy’, India in collaboration with 'KGI' ( Keck Graduate Institute ) University, USA, where faculty from the USA teach students online and the transcript will also be from the university only. Then I appeared for an interview, got selected, applied for a loan, packed my bags ,and landed in Bengaluru to pursue my certification course- 'Biocon KGI certificate program in Biosciences' in 2019.

And after that, I got my first dream job as a scientist in a pharma company Biocon Limited, Bengaluru, India. I got selected for Research and development and worked there as a scientist. As a scientist, I successfully developed clones with genetic engineering and molecular biology tools and techniques.

This was my journey from getting into biotechnology to landing my first job and further looking forward to continuing my journey in this exciting and dynamic field.

This is me signing off and welcoming upcoming biotechnologists in the healthcare and pharma sectors.

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