Ceara Burke, joined us back in February as one of our Lab Analysts working on our world class laboratory information system, ULTRA. Before working at Cirdan, Ceara was a specialist Biomedical Scientist and has brought with her 4 years of first-hand lab experience in order to help develop ULTRA for our customers and users.
Outside of work Ceara leads a healthy and active lifestyle and is a member of the East Belfast GAA club and plays for both the ladies’ Football and Camogie teams.
We recently caught up with Ceara to find out more about her work within the ULTRA team and to find out all about her passion for Football, GAA and supporting charities close to her heart.
What activities does your job involve on a daily basis?
As a Lab Analyst at Cirdan, I work as part of the design team on ULTRA. My daily activities involve working with the other Lab Analysts, Software Developers, and Testers to help develop our ULTRA LIMS system, more specifically the web-based product we are looking to bring out.
Before joining the team at Cirdan, I was working as a specialist Biomedical Scientist. From my 4 years of working in a lab, I have gained first-hand experience of what it is like to use software in a lab that is sub-optimal.
I love the fact that my day-to-day work activities will make the lives of people who work in labs a lot easier, smoother, and more enjoyable. It is great to see my work help medical staff and patients, who have samples sent to the labs for testing.
What is your favourite thing about your job?
One of my favourite things about my job is my ability to bring and share my knowledge and experience of working in a lab to my colleagues. Even though working at Cirdan is a completely different role and environment to what I got used to. I am still able to utilise and bring all the skills and knowledge that I’ve gained over the past number of years to the team. This enables me to provide a real insight to my colleagues about how a lab works and how we can design our products so that they can benefit our customers.
Another favourite thing I love about my job is the opportunity to learn something new every day. Not long after joining the company I quickly realised that no day is the same when you work at Cirdan. You could be working on something different from one week to the next. Since I have joined Cirdan everyone has been so quick to help and even with everyone working from home I still feel like part of the team, which is great!
How do you spend your time outside of work?
Last summer, at the end of the first lockdown, I joined the newly formed East Belfast GAA club. Currently, I play for the ladies’ Football and Camogie teams and I am part of the committee for the Camogie team, which keeps me very busy. I train four nights a week at the minute, but it is good to be back doing something social after the last lockdown.
I love my Football and Camogie team! They are a great bunch of girls! It is great to be able to have a bit of craic and get fitter at the same time and It is lovely to be part of such a diverse and inclusive club. The club started in an area of Belfast where there would be historically, no GAA culture at all, so I’m really excited to see how the future of that progresses as time goes on.
What are you most passionate about?
I am most passionate about playing GAA. I really enjoy getting to know people as I’m a really sociable person. I like meeting new people, especially if they grew up in different circumstances to me and enjoy being able to learn new and different things.
Another big passion of mine is trying to spread awareness and positivity around people with Down syndrome and how their viewed in society, as that is
very important to me. I have a sister who has Down syndrome. I love being able to support the charities that she is involved in. For world Down syndrome day in March, me and my friend went hiking up the Mournes wearing odd socks, as part of the charity’s campaign for this year, because people with Down syndrome have an odd number of chromosomes.
Thank you Ceara for sharing your story with us! We are thrilled to have you as part of the team at Cirdan! Can’t wait to see you develop your career with us!
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