jenny turner

My current roles main responsibilities are; emptying incubators, counting plates, scanning results, populating data and carrying out general diagnostic identification techniques. From my previous role of inoculating samples into broths and onto plates I am now able to identify the growth of the bacteria on the selective agar and undertake the confirmation necessary to accurately identify the bacterium. This has broadened my understanding of microbiology and increased my skills in a range of analytical techniques. I am computer literate as I spend an extensive period of time using the LIMS operating system, Microsoft outlook and excel to report any positive results and update databases with necessary information.

During my time as a microbiological food analyst I worked a couple of hours a week in the Allergen department. Here I undertook ELISA assays using a range of ELISA kits to detect allergens within samples. I was also able to practice a small amount of PCR techniques. My time in this department allowed me to increase my precision when pipetting and gain valuable knowledge in my scientific understanding of the detection of allergens within samples.

During my role as a Microbiological food analyst I gained the responsibility of becoming a weekend team supervisor. This required me to manage a number of people in order to allow the smooth running of the laboratory. This included ensuring samples where sampled and inoculated within the time sensitive period, organize people to carry out specific tasks to ensure the required resources where available and problem solve when necessary. Through this role I was able to attend a days training course to increase my ability as a supervisor to allow the effective running of my team. This led to several occasions were I covered a weekday team leaders responsibilities when required to do so.

As a microbiological food analyst my job role involved preparing samples for incubation via sampling, preparation of dilutions and pipetting. I primarily worked within the specialized Campylobacter department however I was also able to work in other departments becoming familiar with several agars, broths and utilize equipment such as a spiral plater. During this role I was able to manage my time appropriately and gained valuable experience working within an industrial laboratory environment. I also learnt key skills in sampling and pipetting to a specified time period whilst maintaining aseptic techniques and producing high quality work.

Whilst undertaking my degree I worked in the University Learning Resource Centre where I swiftly learnt the database and gained familiarity working with the till. My main role focused on ensuring students had the resources they required in order to complete their studies; this gave me valuable customer service skills and experience in dealing with stress in others.