Project Manager

00:15 The World Gold Council is funded by the world’s leading gold mining organisations,

00:19 so approximately 60% of the top gold mining organisations

00:24 fund us as their marketing and market development organisation.

00:27 I mean obviously as a world gold council, we’re all focused on gold in some way or another.

00:32 Our division is very small, it’s just two of us,

00:35 and our responsibilities lie just purely within the industrial and the technological areas.

00:44 We also fund a lot of new research into gold, so gold is being used in a lot of

00:48 really interesting areas at the moment, including the fields of medicine, solar cell technology,

00:53 fuel cell technology and things like that so we try and scout out new potential uses and

00:58 fund, and provide funding for those projects.

01:03 I did my degree at the University of Kent and I didn’t have a year in industry,

01:08 I just did my straight three years and that was a pharmaceutical chemistry degree.

01:11 So I got a really good feel for the pharmaceutical industry from my studies there,

01:15 and then I went directly on to a PhD from there.

01:22 It’s part of my role, I obviously have to go out and talk to lots of different people,

01:25 and I would suggest approximately 25% of my time is actually out of the office and much of that is abroad.

01:38 Travelling the world, speaking to people about gold was something I never expected to be doing,

01:44 but it really is the foundation of the chemistry and then on to my PhD that is giving me the ability to do that

01:50 and I rely on that every day, to some extent.

01:53 I couldn’t do the job I do without that qualification.

01:59 The buzz is always finding something new, setting up a new collaboration,

02:03 getting some work going and you know, this involves employing people as well,

02:08 so if we’re providing a certain amount of money to a university,

02:10 they go off, they employ somebody to do some work.

02:12 It’s a great buzz, it really is, to know we’re in a position where we can have some effect,

02:17 in that sort of area is great, and then you start seeing the work,

02:22 start seeing the reports coming in, I mean, someone publishes a paper,

02:26 acknowledging your involvement, that’s a great buzz, I wouldn’t swap that for anything.

02:37 When people ask me about what I feel is important,

02:41 for when you are going for a job or for when you are applying for a job,

02:44 is to have good presentation skills, to really work on that,

02:47 and most people find that very difficult when they’re doing their degree, you know,

02:51 a lot of people are very nervous about that type of thing, presenting, writing,

02:55 so they’re really, really important skills that you should always make our top priority.

03:04 Opportunities for chemists, I think are just vast, in pretty much any area you can think of,

03:11 like I think a lot of financial areas, you know, appreciate the skills, the analytical skills,

03:16 chemists have and you’ll find that a lot of the banking staff, for example, will be chemists by training.

03:22 I think it’s important not just to think ‘right, I’m going to be in a white coat in a laboratory’,

03:27 I mean if that’s what you want to do, of course, that’s absolutely brilliant.

03:30 I think it’s important to realise there are a number of us who used to do that but now are

03:35 doing something completely different, things we never thought we would be doing.

03:38 I think it’s, the world’s your oyster really in many respects.