From disillusioned to determined

Dr Han Wu, a Research Lab Manager at UCL, was optimistic about her career progression for over a decade, until she felt too beaten down to deny it.

Despite her passion for research, she was stuck in a role with nowhere to go. Then, she joined WHEN’s Career Accelerator. Now, her conclusion is different.

Interviewing Han

Over the period of a month, journalist Megan Brownrigg asks Han about these powerful sways in her mindset.

Today, Han is the Research Lab Manager at UCL’s department of Chemical Engineering. She holds onto the research element of her title but acknowledges that there are limited resources and platforms for technicians like her to progress. She wants to know there’s still hope. And she’s not alone. Han is amongst several technical staff who arrived at this accelerator feeling that their progression was at best, limited, and at worst, non-existent. Keen to see if WHEN’s programme could make a genuine impact on women with qualms as strong as Han, I followed her journey across the two days at UCL all the way through to her Action Learning Sets a month later. My first interview with her took place on day two.

1. What brought you to this course?

I was never one to believe that there is such a thing as a dead-end. When I first started as a researcher doing PhD, my vision was that anything is possible, I was trying to change the world. When you help to develop new drugs, you’re doing it because you want to make a change. You’re always doing something totally new. That’s how research works.

So even when I’d had my second baby and wasn’t successful in getting a fellowship, and I accepted a permanent technician role, I didn’t listen when people told me this was a dead-end.

But 15 years later, I feel frustrated knowing there’s nowhere for my progress. I still firmly believe there’s scope for technicians to thrive. But currently, in reality, the opportunities are not there.

2. Can you explain to me some of the issues that technicians are facing?

There is just nowhere to go for a lot of us. There are more technicians than there are job opportunities. Also, most of us have very specific skillsets, which makes us a bespoke product of our own but it can often mean that our knowledge is not transferable to the roles being advertised.

So I’ve felt frustrated. I need clarity and to know what the future holds for me.

3. Do you feel any differently now to when you walked through the door yesterday?

To be honest I feel overwhelmed, but I feel very, very positive about it. There is no direct answer or current framework about technician progression. But I’m not seeking an immediate answer anymore.

I want to make sustainable change. I came on this accelerator to learn about myself and make discoveries that I can bring back and share with my colleagues…about what we can do, and what opportunities we can pursue. 

4. How has the programme helped so far?

It covers so many topics that feel closely related to me, and there’s so much shared experience amongst the women here, which feels beautiful.

Hearing all the advice and stories is helping me to see a way forward. I want to emulate some of the personalities here - being of firm mind and knowing exactly what I want from my future.

5. What is one thing that you will do as a result of this programme?

Firstly, I’ll find a mentor scheme because this programme has shown me what I’ve been missing in that sense.

Secondly I’m going to keep thinking of things that are in my power.

This Career Accelerator offers self-reflection, something I never usually do, because I don’t make time for myself. It’s really helped to highlight where to focus my energy.

6. How are you feeling, having had that reflection time? 

I feel fully supported and I feel part of a community. That was my first impression of this accelerator.

Normally, on other courses, people say “my name is XX, my job title is XXX” and that’s it. But people here were open, honest and warm straight away.

It’s felt like a safe environment to talk about anything. It’s easy to feel like an isolated island when you aren’t getting positive feedback from your peers, but here I feel like I’m in a family again.

7. Where do you see your career going from here?

My big vision is that I want to be the technician representative for UCL, because I relate to them and the problems they experience so strongly. I can see so much that I can do for them.

For example, a lot of technicians are shy people. I was so shy when I started, I couldn’t even speak English properly. It was always a barrier for me and I want to make change for other people who feel the same way.

We can all be ambassadors and role models. I want to be that for them.

8. If someone said to you they were thinking of doing this programme but they’re too busy, tired, or nervous. What would you say to them?

You have to go.

This is a unique time to think about you, your career development, your vision, your achievements, your family, it’s a time for you. And there’s no judgment.

And you will love it.

Next steps for Han?

Fast forward to one month later, and Han attended her second action learning set (ALS) with WHEN. The ALS take the form of two-hour sessions led by one of our coaches, for a small group of delegates to reflect on any professional issues they’re currently tackling, as well as to mark their progress so far.

Here are a few things Han had been up to in her first month out:

• Securing conversations with her line manager to discuss her progression, including travel grants, research grants, and training

• Writing a proposal for seed-funding that will help her break limiting cultures

• Completing another leadership programme

But perhaps the biggest leap is in Han’s outlook.

"I want to be known as a scientist,” she muses on her professional identity. “And a role model”.

To do so, Han is determined to drive change within her current institution, and champion the role that technicians play in research culture.

“I think before this event I’d accepted that this was it, that I’d reached the ceiling of my career and there was no point in trying to break it, because I’d already tried and failed. The system was not allowing me to progress, especially as a female.

“To be honest, I just joined the WHEN programme just to tick a box for my appraisal form. But it’s been eye-opening and heartbreaking. I feel like my heart is beating again and I’ve finally found my community. I haven’t been forced to do anything, but I’ve been able to think about what I want to do and it all came from me. The best thing about this course has been changing my vision and my view, and my conclusion.”