Profile
Sophie Spinks
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About Me:
I live with my boyfriend in Billingham. I am a project manager in the daytime and at night, I love to watch television, listen to podcasts or knit! I have a cat called Alan who loves cuddles and my favourite snack is a kinder bueno
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My pronouns are:
she/her
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My Work:
I am a senior continuous improvement lead. I manage projects to increase the efficiency of processes, reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction. My goal is to make doing the right thing, the easiest thing and if we can make other people happy in the process, why not?
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My Typical Day:
I wake up, cuddle my cat and eat a cereal bar, before getting ready for work. I get to work at 8:30am, where I start off my day complaining about the traffic and checking my emails. I usually have a meeting in the morning where we talk about the plan for the day, any issues encountered overnight and people can ask for help. I spend the morning closing off little items from my to do list and catching up with people. I have dinner with friends from 12-1pm and then in the afternoon, I put my headphones on and work on progressing my projects.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I would donate it to my STEM ambassador team, within my company. We have ideas for resources we can create and take along to STEM careers events. These resources explain our company, the variety of roles available and we even have some profiles we could print, explaining who we are and how we got to where we are!
We also have ideas of experiments we can create and show students in schools, to increase engagement. There are some really cool science experiments we could create that show the work we do, but in a smaller and safer way.
Mass producing these resources and experiments would be costly so at the moment, we are limited with what we can bring along to STEM events. As a team we attend as many STEM events as possible, but it would be great to have something we could hand out and let people take away!
We want to inspire the next generation and show them the amazing careers in STEM, this prize money would certainly help us with this!
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Education:
I went to Waverley Primary School and for secondary school, I attended Balby Carr Community Sports & Science College. Attached to this secondary school was a college, so that is where I did my A-Levels. I left home (Doncaster) to go to university.
I attended Teesside University, where I gained an undergraduate and postgraduate degree. I also joined the universities archery team and started running the club!
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Qualifications:
GSCEs: 12 A* to C including:
ICT (A*), Textiles (A), English Literature (A), English Language (A), Sociology (B), Science (B), Additional Science (B), Further Additional Science (B), French (B), Religious Studies (B), Physical Education (C) and Mathematics (C)
A-Levels: Biology, Chemistry, Psychology and Sociology
Undergraduate Degree: 1st Class Degree in Biomedical Science (BSc Hons)
Masters Degree: Distinction in Biological Sciences
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Work History:
I worked in a pharmacy for for 4 years, dispensing medications to patients and i also worked in a Costcutter for nearly 3 years, as a shop assistant.
When I moved to Teesside for university, I got a job as a school representative for the School Of Science, Engineering & Design. This helped me make changes to the courses, give feedback from students to lecturers and advocate for students rights.
I then started working in James Cook Hospital as a pharmacy dispenser, where I ordered stock, checked patients medications and dispensed them, so they could leave the hospital safely.
From here, I got a job at Fujifilm as a production technologist. I worked day and night shifts, making medicines for our customers and working with different teams to make sure that everything was running smoothly.
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Current Job:
My current role, is as a Senior Continuous Improvement lead. I am responsible for driving and implementing projects to enhance operational efficiency and quality, whilst reducing costs!
I work with lots of different people from lots of different teams, to make doing the right thing the easiest thing!
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Employer:
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Cat-loving project manager!
What did you want to be after you left school?
A scientist in the NHS
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Not really! I was only ever told off for talking too much!
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
I would love to write a book!
Who is your favourite singer or band?
I love all genres of music so this is tough! I am loving a bit of Adele at the moment though
What's your favourite food?
Either chicken korma or pepperoni pizza, i love them both so much!
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
1. To be able to fluently speak french (I struggle so much with copying the accent!) 2. To go see the northern lights 3. To be able to perfectly bake anything I think of!
Tell us a joke.
How do you cut the sea in half? With a see saw!
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