Aimee – Health researcher
Hi, my name’s Aimee, and I’m a researcher. I haven’t always been involved in this kind of work though. Let me tell you about how I made my way to this career.
When I was still at college, doing my A’ Levels and having three gap years after that, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to go to university; as a working class student, I was scared of the debt I could end up with and I wasn’t sure if I would even pass. So, I worked in two supermarkets, a cinema, and a chain of corner shops, often with several jobs at a time. After a few years of this, I saw an advert to train on the job to become a paramedic. It sounded interesting, varied and it paid pretty well without having to go to uni first.
I got through all of the tests and then had my interview: they told me I didn’t have enough (or any, in fact!) healthcare experience, and that I should go away for a few years and do a healthcare job before applying again. At this point I found out about a local organisation who had residential care homes for Autistic people with (excuse me whilst I vomit) “challenging behaviour”, who were almost always recruiting (due to relatively low pay and high staff turnover). I worked in a few of their care homes for Autistic adults and children over the next six years, including during my university holidays.