How I got my job... as a neuroscientist 🔬

Welcome to Glamour's weekly column, How I Got My Job, featuring one woman with an amazing job, and the real route to get it. Looking for career inspo? For this week's instalment, neuroscientist Dr Molly Crockett shares her CV...

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Who? Dr Molly Crockett, 30

What? An award-winning neuroscientist. She’s a lecturer at Oxford University, where her research involves studying the brain to understand more about human interaction and conflict.

The CV:

“When I was 12, I found a book called What Remains To Be Discovered and I knew right then that I wanted to be a scientist. The interest in neuroscience came from seeing a few close friends suffer from mental illness. There’s still so much we don’t know about the brain.”

“My interest in serotonin and social behaviour took me to Cambridge University, one of the few places researching that specific aspect of brain chemistry. I planned to stay for two years, but then I made a discovery that low serotonin levels make us more likely to take revenge. This finding propelled my career forwards and convinced me to stay at Cambridge to finish my PhD.”

“I applied to the Wellcome Trust to fund my postdoctoral studies – they support biomedical research, but suggest you spend time abroad in a different field. So I chose Switzerland, working with economists: they study social behaviour, but very differently to how I had. At times it felt like a mistake. I had to learn a new field, I spoke no German, I wasn’t publishing great papers. But when I got back home, I realised how much stronger being out of my depth made me.”

“I started two new projects on social interaction: 1) How we decide whether to help people, and, 2) How we learn if people are nice or nasty. Gathering data for studies like this can take up to a year and when you get the result, it’s common for it to reveal nothing exciting. But you savour the moments it does.”

“I’m now a lecturer, and I’ll often look around a conference and be the only female speaker. I’ve never been treated unfairly, but this awful voice in your head thinks, ‘Have they only invited me to fill a quota?’ There’s a condition called ‘stereotype threat’, where the more you get reminded of a stereotype, the more it happens. We need more visible examples of young women getting to the top.”

1. Most people fall into science: they do a degree, then a masters, then a PhD. But if you’re interested, approach professors and ask if you can help out. Science isn’t well-funded, we’re always looking for volunteers. It’s a great way to get an ‘in’.

2. Read as much as you can. The best scientists have the best questions. And the more you’ve read on a subject, the better placed you’ll be to know what knowledge gaps need filling.

3. I’ve really had to work on my communication skills. After one talk, someone said, “Great content, but you were so nervous.” I realised my ideas had no influence if I couldn’t communicate them. So I took a stand-up comedy course; lectures have felt a breeze since.