Inside Promega
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Today we’ll meet Miriam Meyer, Technical Service & Training Manager, GI Europe
Tell us a little bit about what your role is at Promega.
In September of 2022, I joined the Technical Support and Training Manager (TSTM) team. If our customers, distributors (or colleagues) need information or help with one of our products or instruments, they contact us. Additionally, we perform different training courses for customers, distributors and/or colleagues. That’s what I am mainly in charge of, but in addition, I am doing several other ‘little’ things, e.g. being part in some of Promega’s advertising activities or similar, i.e. I had the pleasure being the interviewer in a video we shot at the Institute of Legal Medicine in Cologne.
What is the greatest lesson you’ve learned in your career?
Leave your comfort zone, try something new, never blame yourself for making mistakes, ask the questions you want to ask – and be honest and kind to everyone, even if it’s hard to do! Then you will receive helpful and nice replies that will really help you move forward. In my opinion, that’s the way to develop and to grow.
What does a typical day for you look like?
I get up in the morning at 6.30 h and grab a coffee. That’s the first thing, I need in the morning. After that, I prepare breakfast for me and the kids, wake them up and help them to get everything ready for school. At 8 a.m., they have left to school, and I am ready for a new working day. I work until ~1 pm, and then start to prepare lunch for my family, what is sometimes challenging as half of the family is vegan, the other not. Usually, I prepare the “vegan option” while my spouse is working on the meat option… :D We like to have lunch outside in our garden. That’s something, I absolutely love about the summer! After that, I get back to work, meet my colleagues or chat with customers. Around 5 p.m., my workday ends and I start into the evening with the family. We love to be outside, in the nature, going for a walk or doing some sport activities, or we play something together. All of us, but especially my son, are big fans of all kinds of parlor games. That’s why we have tons of parlor games in our living room, and we love to explore new ones continuously. On most days, I am trying to find a little Me-time, to do some sports or read a book. But to be honest, that is often postponed to the weekends.
What does a typical day for you look like?
I get up in the morning at 6.30 h and grab a coffee. That’s the first thing, I need in the morning. After that, I prepare breakfast for me and the kids, wake them up and help them to get everything ready for school. At 8 a.m., they have left to school, and I am ready for a new working day. I work until ~1 pm, and then start to prepare lunch for my family, what is sometimes challenging as half of the family is vegan, the other not. Usually, I prepare the “vegan option” while my spouse is working on the meat option… :D We like to have lunch outside in our garden. That’s something, I absolutely love about the summer! After that, I get back to work, meet my colleagues or chat with customers. Around 5 p.m., my workday ends and I start into the evening with the family. We love to be outside, in the nature, going for a walk or doing some sport activities, or we play something together. All of us, but especially my son, are big fans of all kinds of parlor games. That’s why we have tons of parlor games in our living room, and we love to explore new ones continuously. On most days, I am trying to find a little Me-time, to do some sports or read a book. But to be honest, that is often postponed to the weekends.
What’s your favorite thing about your job?
I like the contact with our customers very much. I like to talk to them, find out about their challenges, to help them and/to solve their issues. But besides, I love to work with my colleagues, to learn from them and to work with them on different projects and topics. All of them are very smart, very nice and warm-hearted, interested and empathic people – and I feel very blessed to work with them.
Where do you want to travel to, but have never been?
I would love to go to Australia for a longer time period. After obtaining my diploma in 2005, I travelled to New Zealand for 6 weeks. On my way to get there, we had a short stopover in Sydney – the same on our travel back – and I loved everything about this city. Since then, my dream was to get back to Australia and travel there for a few weeks, especially I would love to explore the nature and the outback. And I am also fascinated by the Aboriginal way of living.
If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
I would love to have the superpower to be existent at two or more places at the same time. With two kids, a part-time dog, a spouse, a house, and a job, it would be very helpful nearly everyday to have the superpower to be at my homeoffice desk, to do homeworks with one kid and to play or draw with the other one at the same time, or to take them to their sports classes while I could be in parallel in the kitchen and cook a nice dinner.
If you could have dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would it be?
That would definitely be my Mum! She passed away nearly six years ago, and I miss her every day. I couldn’t imagine anything better than having dinner with her once again.
What was the last thing you heard or saw which made you laugh out loud?
A few weeks ago, we celebrated our 25th graduation anniversary (from high school), and it was very nice and funny to meet all my schoolmates again. Most of them look exactly like 25 years ago, only with some (more or less) wrinkles and grey (and/or) fewer hair. We had so much fun talking about some of our school stories – and I laughed so much! That was a fun day.
What is your favorite sport to watch?
That’s soccer! – especially the German national team.