My 6-month experience at Autolomous exceeded any preconceptions I had before I joined…

‘I didn’t have any previous experience in the biotech industry and never considered it as a future career path‘

However, once I joined my mindset changed as I began to further understand Autolomous and its processes. Having learning opportunities from senior members of the company was exciting in the midst of a year you could otherwise consider the worst of our lifetime. 

When I first started, the most important thing I had to adjust to was the new way of working: virtually. Refashioning my social skills to suit a virtual environment was tough at first, but soon became very useful. The key to my success at Autolomous was effective communication and being transparent about expectations. Developing rapport with colleagues without physical interaction was most challenging, but rewarding. 

Autolomous has a great social culture that is inclusive. A highlight was the e-social events. Hosting bingo and quiz nights, we embraced the opportunity to get to show our competitive, but fun side, which allowed us to get to know each other and create a bond and trust – this is what makes Autolomous so coherent and well organised.

Autolomous was a great place for me to build upon and develop new skills that I can take forward to my future endeavours. The flexibility of the company permitted me to participate across all teams allowing me to collaborate across multi-functional teams and mature my existing competencies. Participating in the writing of the first drafts of content, choosing infographics, testing the performance of the new website, made the website launch the most rewarding activity. Whilst doing so it made me think about a different aspect of the businesses that I was not exposed to – social media. Learning that an online presence is part of a vital marketing strategy for attracting new investors and increasing awareness of your brand.

Observing the product team taught me how to be persuasive and engaging when pitching an idea, and the sometimes arduous process it takes for an idea to become reality. The validation team’s attention to detail opened my eyes to the amount of work it takes to deploy a product for patient use, so the product can be client-ready, especially in the cell and gene therapy world. This all draws parallels to other industries, for example, in financial services where entrepreneurial skills and meticulousness are needed to be successful.

Having not come from a background of either cell and gene therapy, or technology, I had time to expand my professional horizons. Spending time with the development team, I was able to build the foundations. Completing courses on git and familiarising myself with Terminal and VSCode was not in my comfort zone, but was extremely refreshing. Collaborating with different internal teams allowed me to see first-hand how dynamic Autolomous and its processes are – getting ideas turned into genuine, ‘tangible’ components within the product. 

Adding these new tools to my repertoire of competencies will prepare me for my future plans. I was able to put them to good use during many online interviews and assessment centres. Not to mention learning how to advance my use of Excel, and learning to use applications, such as Atlassian, Confluence, Slack, Gliffy to name a few. 

Autolomous permitted me to flourish and learn throughout my experience as an intern, putting me at an advantage over those who did not have the opportunity to cater for the new ways of working. Every day it was easy for me to put to use the transferable skills I wanted and needed to learn. The Autolomous team was always willing to help and share their experiences, creating a comfortable working environment. So do not shy away from new experiences even if they seem challenging at first.