Ashley Quinlan

"I think the personality types match me fairly well, as well as the work that I do. I work as part of a larger team, supporting a number of departments with their recruitment activities, so for that I need to be team oriented as well as highly organised. As I work in a central team, I am also required to work with a wide range of people with different backgrounds, which means it is important I am able to adapt to changing workloads and priorities. "

"I manage recruitment across a range of job roles, from Research Scientist, to Finance Coordinator, to Lab and Facilities Manager. I read through job profiles to ensure they meet Employment Legislation, and I check adverts to ensure they will appeal to a wide range of applicants. I generate offer letters for successful applicants and help with their induction when they start working with the University. I like how fast-paced my job is, I support a number of departments and therefore there is always a lot of work to do, I enjoy being organised and multi-tasking. The starting salary for my role is around £23,000. "

"I left University with a BSc in Forensic Science with Criminology and started working as a DNA Sequencing Scientist, I processed sequencing samples in the lab. After this, I worked for GlaxoSmithKline doing a similar role in their Target and Pathway Validation group, I would process sequencing samples using Sanger Sequencing. I left GSK to work for a small start-up company as a Research Scientist, the company was researching antibiotics for multi-drug resistant bacteria, I gained a lot of lab skills from this role however unfortunately they were unable to secure enough funding to keep the company running and therefore I was made redundant. By this point I had gained a PgCert in Molecular Biology and MSc in Biomedical Science, but I had decided that I no longer wanted to work in the lab. I used my redundancy as an opportunity to try out something different and I ended up in scientific recruitment. I spoke to a range of people looking for scientific roles, and I used my experience in the lab to help guide them into their next role. Ultimately, I was not happy with the target driven environment so I decided to apply for a Recruitment Administrator role with the University of Cambridge which is where I am now. "

"I enjoy playing board games in my spare time, my favourite type are cooperative board games (although sometimes I do enjoy a competitive game!) I also enjoy playing games on the Playstation, running, and have recently tried crocheting (but I am not very good at this!)."

"I spend most of my time at my desk going through emails, everything I need to do comes into a joint inbox that I share with my team. In any day I can be posting job vacancies, sending interview invites, generating offer letters. I am also required to process Certificates of Sponsorship for employees arriving from outside of the EU, I gather documentation from employees to get them Research Passports to allow them to work on NHS samples. I am also involved in projects such as improving the induction plans across my departments. "

"A Levels in Psychology, Art, and BiologyAS Level in ChemistryBSc in Forensic Science with CriminologyPgCert in Molecular BiologyMSc in Biomedical ScienceLevel 3 Qualification in Recruitment Practice"