The My Warwick Life feature gives an insight into staff and students’ lives at Warwick, considering both their work and social life on campus. This week we hear from Amy Ismay, Secretary, Research Development Team.

There is no such thing as a typical day but in an nutshell my job involves...

providing secretarial support within the Research Development Team at Warwick Medical School. My main role is to collate, manage and maintain the data for the Research Excellence Framework 2014 submission, so I spend time liaising with staff and academics from several divisions.

I had a really useful meeting recently with...

With a man from IT services who came to meet with my line manager and I. We were having difficulties with the database in which we've chosen to store and sort our information. After meeting with Martyn, he went away and replicated our database and came up with some great problem-solving tips which have helped us run more accurate queries.

It would be useful to work more closely with...

the Research Development Team in going through the grant applications and learning more about that process. Hopefully this is on the cards for the near future.

At the moment I am really enjoying working on...

the database my line manager has created to store our information. I have discovered a love of databases and spreadsheets and am really enjoying the opportunity to develop this interest, and to run queries of my own in order to sort our data.

I recently learnt that...

it's ok to admit when you're good at something and that you don't need to play down your own successes. When you work as part of a supportive team, receiving praise and positive feedback is a way of being recognised and appreciated. I think it's quite a British trait to play-down this recognition for fear of being big-headed, but sometimes it's good to admit you're proud of something you've done.

Warwick is really unique because...

it's such a lovely work environment. The physical environment is wonderful as there are great outdoor spaces to walk in and have lunch outdoors; we have a duck pond right near our office and there are wild rabbits on the other side of the building. The staff are friendly and there is an open and inclusive atmosphere. It's also great having access to brilliant training in differing areas of interest.

The best thing about working at Warwick is...

the confidence it has given me in my work. I always thought I would enjoy working in an academic environment, and I was right. Warwick was a dream working location, and I feel very lucky to have found such a rewarding role here.

If I could change one thing about the University it would be...

Boris-bike style bikes you could hire to get about campus. I don't drive, so when I need to get to central campus for training (I'm based at Gibbet Hill) I have to walk or catch a bus. A bike would be ideal, and I believe they have similar schemes running elsewhere in Europe.

I recently had a meal at...

the Gibbet Hill cafe in the Medical School Building, where I eat quite often as it's convenient for meeting up with others on campus and the food is good. I usually have the chilli.

I usually travel to campus by...

car with my partner. She also works on Gibbet Hill campus in Clinical Trials, so it's lucky that we can both travel together.

I'm planning to use my Warwick learning vouchers for...

a really interesting looking course in Coaching and Mentoring. Otherwise I may go to the life drawing classes.