This week I’ll continue to look at some of the most common career options for life science researchers and also prompt you to think a bit outside the box, beyond these traditional employment routes.
The list is not exhaustive, but it’s a good start for you to contemplate/discard/follow-up on.
Based your core strengths, values, current situation and personal interest, I suggest you attempt to provide each of the options with a score from 1 to 3, where:
1 = highly suitable; 2 = moderately/mildly suitable; and 3 = unsuitable.
As a rough guide to help your decision process, I’ve indicated a few skill sets that lend themselves particularly well to each profession, based on previous research.1 Furthermore, I’ve also provided some top personal strengths and a list of resources that might help career progression in that particular field.*
*!CAUTION! – The skill set list for each option should only be used as rough guide when scoring; the skill set required for each option will be far broader than those provided. Also so if an option is of interest, but you are weak in a particular skill set listed, it’s not game over – weaknesses can be considerably improved upon with experience. So make sure you work on any potential weaknesses if a particular profession is of interest to you.
Non-Academic Researcher (non-commercial): Aside from the commercial sector providing non-academic research positions, other organisations (non-for-profits) that employer researchers (either directly for their own research or for projects conducted by external organisations) include:
- Public sector employers such as civil service departments (e.g. the Forestry Commission in the UK)
- Publically-funded bodies (e.g. the British Antarctic Survey)
- Charities (e.g. medical research or social justice charities)
- Think tanks
The skills needed to work in these organisations are analogous to those required for all researchers including those working in academic institutions, although teaching will not routinely be part of the job description for non-academic researchers.
Useful skills: Written and oral communication, data interpretation and teamwork
Top Personal strengths: Confident, intellectual, tenacious
Helpful resources: Post-graduate level qualification(s), expansive & high-quality publications, flexibility to move
Patent Lawyer: This is a profession in which you can use your science knowledge and combine it with an interest in the law. The work involves communicating with inventors and researchers to understand the technology underpinning their inventions and providing the best protection for their intellectual property (IP).
In the UK there are three sets of exams for training patent attorneys, which take 3-5 years on average to complete. Most commonly training will be undertaking by entering as a trainee in a private practice (the same as you would for a law firm) or in the in-house IP department of a company/research institute.
Useful skills: Written and oral communication, data interpretation and learning quickly
Top Personal strengths: Eye for detail, coping under pressure, people skills
Helpful resources: Post-graduate level qualification(s), aptitude for languages, passion for law
Regulatory Affairs: A career in regulatory affairs (RA) enables you to work at the interface between business and government regulations. The work involves writing and reviewing documents to guide products (mostly medical, but also cosmetics, nutritional products and biotech) through to market.
The work required a good understanding of science and business as well as government procedures. Detail is the key in RA. Not all jobs in this sector require a doctoral-level degree, but in higher-level positions this level of training is common due to large amount of responsibility to get new products (worth in their millions of dollars) to the market place successfully.
Useful skills: Written communication, data interpretation and time management
Top Personal strengths: Eye for detail, coping under pressure, fantastic communication skills
Helpful resources: Post-graduate level qualification(s), aptitude for languages, interested in the detail
Science Policy: This work is involved in the area of public policy that affects the conduct of science in terms of national policy. Essentially, it assesses the ethical and political aspects of how science and technology best serves the public. An understanding of science, politics and economics are all required.
There is a wide range of employers in this sector:
- Government departments
- Think tanks
- Commercial business (commonly in the pharmaceutical and food industries)
- Charities
- Learned organisations (e.g. The Royal Society)
Useful skills: Written communication, data interpretation and time management
Top Personal strengths: Eye for detail, coping under pressure, fantastic communication skills
Helpful resources: Post-graduate level qualification(s), aptitude for languages, interested in the detail
Scientific/Medical Communication: The scientific and medical communications sectors represent expanding job markets for researchers. Entry positions can be tricky to find, but once you have experience jobs are aplenty (at least in the medical communications sector). Medical writers commonly support pharmaceutical clients with publication writing and medical affairs support.
Scientific writing encompasses a wide range of diverse writing positions (commonly referred to as scientific journalism). Scientific journalists edit/develop content and feature articles about technological advances and novel discoveries for businesses, publishers, and the general media.
Whilst having a doctoral level degree is not necessarily a pre-requisite for these careers, it certainly helps in securing entry-level positions. With experience in these sectors there is also the option to eventually freelance, providing more flexibility for your working life.
Useful skills: Written communication, data interpretation and time management
Top Personal strengths: Eye for detail, coping under pressure, fantastic communication skills
Helpful resources: Post-graduate level qualification(s), aptitude for languages, aptitude for editing and formatting
Teaching: As an academic researcher it is likely that you have had some exposure to teaching during the course of your career. So of all the careers listed above (and discussed last week), you’ll hopefully have some understanding of whether or not you possess some aptitude for teaching.
However, teaching is a lot different at the pre-college level, so it is prudent to get some exposure of teaching under-18s to assess if it’s a good fit for you. To work in the state education system (at least in the UK), requires a post-graduate teaching qualification. In the UK this qualification is the PGCE (postgraduate certificate in education), which takes ~1 year to complete (2 years part-time).
Useful skills: Written and oral communication, data interpretations and time management
Top Personal strengths: Fantastic communication skills, inspiring passion in their students, crowd control!
Helpful resources: Post-graduate level teaching qualification(s), interest in working with young people, classroom experience
Thinking Outside the Box
Lastly I’d implore you to also take the time to consider other career options, where the path from the lab bench is less well trodden. Your research training has provided you with the necessary skills for effective problem solving and learning. This provides a strong foundation in successfully carrying out a huge variety of prospective careers. So why limit yourself to only those professions listed above.
That said experience for entry-level positions is extremely helpful at getting a foot in the door. So if you’re considering a career path that does not draw on your science-rich knowledge base, then you should look of alternative ways to demonstrate experience (e.g. volunteering, part-time work, joining profession-specific societies etc.).
Considering you future career options? Perhaps you’ve already made a decision and are implementing a career plan? Share your thoughts and experiences on the blog page at https://biomedbadass.com/identifying-career-options-part-2/#respond
Reference
- Sinche, M. et al. An evidence-based evaluation of transferrable skills and job satisfaction for science PhDs. PLoS One 12, e0185023 (2017).
