Biology was always my favourite subject at secondary school. Unfortunately, I wasn’t selected in the lottery for the Bachelor’s degree in Medicine, but luckily I really enjoyed biomedical sciences as well.

I went to look at other universities in other cities, but my mum works at the UvA. So it made sense to go to the UvA’s open days. I’m from Amsterdam and enjoyed getting to know the city in a different way as a student.

I have to say that the Biomedical Sciences programme was fairly set in stone when I was a student. I spent an extra year on my degree and took some additional modules outside the curriculum.  Within the programme, however, you are completely free to choose your own research placements. I found a number of topics interesting and emailed a few research groups.

The Master’s programme is quite practical! I took a number of modules for a few months and then completed two 8-month work internships. I learnt the most whilst I was on my work internships.

The atmosphere has always been great. In the Master’s programme in particular, you work on a group assignment for almost every module. You give a presentation together or are set writing assignments. I’ve stayed in touch with a few friends from my student days. 

This is a research-based Master’s degree, so it was a logical step to start working in a research department at a teaching hospital. Both my final-year projects involved research into the heart, one of which was an internship abroad. My first internship focused on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and I am currently working on my PhD within the same research group.

I think I’ve been very lucky. After my first placement, I added my supervisor on LinkedIn. When I was nearly finished with my second placement, I saw on LinkedIn that a PhD position had become available. I used to think I didn’t want to do a PhD, but as the end drew near, I realised I wasn’t done with research yet. I sent my supervisor a message to ask if we could have a casual chat about the position. I was convinced, so I applied.

It’s a bit of a cliché, but always do something you enjoy. What are you interested in? Do some research into where you’d like to do your work placement. It might just turn out to be your next employer.