My first week in Paris is over. In a short frame of time, I have so many experiences and so much new information that has already changed how I look at the world and myself. The day I landed at the CDG airport, the 4 hours of sleep I had on the plane did not fuel me for long. After my host dad welcomed me and showed me the rooms, I fell asleep. After waking up, I wanted to explore a bit, so I walked around the neighborhood. A beautiful park with ring-necked parakeets nearby caught my attention. What’s fascinating is that these birds are not native to Paris. Originating from Africa and India, they were meant to be birds for an exotic pet trade, but they escaped cages in the airports and are now part of a large community!
So far, I’ve seen the Eiffel Tower while riding a boat on the Seine, eaten at an authentic French bistro, explored the Montmartre neighborhood, and visited the palace and gardens of Versailles. The profiteroles with ice cream, warm chocolate sauce, and whipped cream were quite divine. In the coming weeks, I will be transitioning from a tourist to someone who works and lives here. The first few days, I took the buses and metro very frequently to get to orientations, meet up with friends, and also just to prepare myself to commute daily with the system. The metro and train in particular are quite efficient and impressive. I’m glad that the transport system is more familiar to me now, especially since I will be taking the bus and metro for a 40 minute commute each day and need to be on time for work!
My internship in Paris at INSERM at the Institut Cochin will be starting quite soon and these last few days have given me an idea of the professional and social aspects that are important to my work. I am working in the biomedical research and life sciences industry, specifically bioinformatics or computational work. There is no laboratory work, so my day-to-day life will be focused on technology.
Generally for the bioinformatics industry, in terms of the more technical skills, working in a Unix environment is standard and expected. Any knowledge of Python or R is also valuable to have. Different labs or research institutions often have very specific goals and deal with different types of datasets or pipelines. So when recruiting, they would ideally like a candidate that fits their specific field of research and tools used as much as possible. It is important to keep track of different pipelines and types of data, like ChIP-seq, RNA-seq, and be able to speak about those experiences during interviews. The key is to connect your skills and experiences with each organization’s goals and needs.
Secondly, taking initiative and finding ways to make processes efficient is very important. In the context of research labs, there is always data that needs to be analyzed. Biologists conduct experiments and bioinformaticians or data scientists develop pipelines to efficiently process this. Biologists may not necessarily have a lot of coding knowledge, and bioinformaticians might not have as much knowledge about the biological concept involved. To truly be successful in research, it is great for a biologist to know what is scientifically meaningful in terms of their field and how they want data to be analyzed, communicating it to the bioinformatician. Conversely, being able to make other people’s lives easier by producing scripts or pipelines for analysis accessible to everyone is what makes someone a good bioinformatician or data scientist, in my opinion. Sometimes, people do not know what they need to advance a project, so that is where it is important for a bioinformatician to take the initiative and propose new ideas or methods.
During our first few days in Paris, we had two days of orientation, one of which was focused on professional culture in France. Based on the presentation, I learned one of the key cultural differences between American and French professional settings. Americans love to have a clear and set plan, with the agenda being covered as planned for every meeting. In France, though there is a project, there is not necessarily a clear-cut plan or a list of tasks for each day. Employees and interns are expected to be creative. Even if there is a list or an agenda for discussion or things to be done, often, people discover new information and choose to adjust their plans. America likes simplicity while France likes a degree of ambiguity and flexibility, which I feel is great for research.
Other than that, in America, you are worth what you do, but in France, you are worth who you are. This is another quote that stood out to me during the orientation. In France, relationships are important in a professional environment and it is recommended to socialize with colleagues during lunch, taking a “pause café” or “pause thé” when needed. I do feel that relationships are important to maintain in any work environment, regardless of country. It is possible that this expectation manifests itself differently in France, to a greater extent.
I am definitely looking forward to learning more about bioinformatics and French professional culture, and I hope to adapt myself based on everything I learn each day! I will be taking notes and maintaining a journal for both my professional and personal life for the two months I will be here. Someday, five years down the line, it would be lovely to read all my experiences and how it shapes me as a person. In the meantime, I will be researching epigenetics and data during my working days and researching restaurants and good desserts on the weekends!
