Career Options

Is the world your oyster?

(With a BSc. Medical Sciences degree from the University of Exeter, it may very well be)

When students complete their undergraduate studies with us, they commonly face two options: 1) to continue studying as a postgraduate student to gain further expertise in a selected discipline (see the postgraduate studies page for more info.), or 2) to find a relevant job straight away to earn some money, gain experience and work their way up the career ladder. Some graduates opt to take a break from academic and professional life entirely to recharge their motivational reserves and enthusiasm for whatever set them on this path in the first place, which is OK too... as long as you do not drift for too long.

So, what lies in wait for the freshly minted Medical Sciences graduate? Please see below for some potential career paths that await you. Exciting times ahead!

General careers advice and where to find jobs

  • Next Steps Careers Guide from the Royal Society of Biology. This resource gives lots of really useful information about the types of job you can get with a degree in the medical sciences/biosciences, as well as hints and tips for how to go about securing employment.

  • Target jobs (https://targetjobs.co.uk) is an excellent resource, not only for graduate level vacancies but also for extremely valuable careers advice. It is recommended that you sign up to this website.

  • Prospects.ac.uk offers some excellent advice on finding graduate positions

  • Jobs .ac.uk. This website is used by many professionals to find jobs within academia (teaching, research, post-graduate programmes, etc.) throughout the UK and Ireland. You can also set up a weekly jobs alert to be sent through to your inbox. The site also contains lots of useful resources on career development (https://career-advice.jobs.ac.uk)

  • Nature Jobs and New Scientist jobs are also useful websites to set up job alerts straight into your inbox, as well as offering insightful career guides on a wide variety of careers.

Graduate Schemes

A graduate scheme is a structured training programme offered to new graduates (or those just about to graduate) in a wide range of disciplines by often large companies and organisations with the aim of finding new management staff and leaders. Graduate schemes are typically two or more years in length.

Some of the larger pharmaceutical and biotech companies offer graduate training schemes within research and development, but with a degree in Medical Sciences you could apply for graduate training schemes within such disciplines as finance, retail, management, HR, sales and marketing, etc. Whatever rocks your boat!

Some initial thoughts on where your degree could take you...

Click the links below to find out more about the kinds of jobs you could do following completion of the Medical Sciences degree. Some of these roles may require further postgraduate study (MSc. and/or PhD), which your Medical Sciences degree will allow you to apply for.

If you would like to learn more about any of the jobs listed below you may wish to browse the job profiles on the Prospects website.

Academic Disciplines

Jobs in pharmaceutical or biotech industries

Jobs in the NHS and in the Medical and Healthcare Industries

Clinical Research & Clinical Trials

  • Clinical Research Associate (The role of a clinical research associate in simple terms is to coordinate the collection, distribution and storage of data obtained during clinical trials. If entering this career path with only limited clinical trials experience you can start working as a clinical research administrator and then move on to an associate role within a year or two.)

Polly Fox, Clinical Trials Manager

I am a Clinical Trial Manager currently working for Imperial College London, setting up their second COVID-19 Human Challenge Study. Prior to my current role, I was the lead Clinical Trial Manager for the Novavax COVID-19 trial (the largest ever double blind, placebo-controlled vaccine trial to be undertaken in the UK) at St. George’s, University of London. This vaccine has recently proven to be 89.7% effective at preventing COVID-19 and the vaccine has just been authorised for use by the MHRA. I also started a MSc in Clinical Trials with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2020, which I fit around my full-time job.

“I would highly recommend considering clinical trials as a career path. It is so rewarding to work collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team of researchers and even more fulfilling when your studies affect real clinical policy change.”

Link to view Polly's presentation 'A career in Clinical Trials'

What Can I Do With My Medical Sciences Degree?

Careers in Healthcare (other than in medicine or one of the allied health professions)

NHS Clinical Scientist Training Programme (STP)

This paid integrated work-study training programme (clinical rotations plus study for a Masters) leads to work as a HCPC-registered Clinical Scientist. The application process for the NHS postgraduate Scientist Training Programme opens in January each year and has a closing date around mid-February each year.

The training programme offers specialisation in a wide variety of disciplines, which varies each year depending on available placements and clinical priorities within the NHS. Examples include: cardiac science, clinical biochemistry, clinical bioinformatics, genomics, clinical immunology, clinical pharmaceutical science, gastrointestinal physiology, genomic counselling, haematology & transfusion science, etc.

  • For more information, please visit the NHS Scientist Training Programme webpages here

  • Translational Science Seminar (TSS) slides from STP trainees can be found here.

  • Career talk on the STP application process, the training programme itself and the role of a Clinical Scientist by Namir Al Hasso, Clinical Scientist and the STP Training Programme Director for the National School of Healthcare Science, Health Education England - recording (19th February 2021)


Other NHS roles:

The NHS has been in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers table since the table was first made. There are many diverse career opportunities that the NHS can offer, not just the ones everybody thinks of when thinking about the NHS, such as:

- Finance Management

- General Management

- Health Analysis

- Human Resources Management

- Policy and Strategy Management

The NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme offer graduates in relevant life sciences an excellent opportunity to train and work within the NHS at a senior level. Applications for the Management Training Scheme open in October each year and close mid-November.

A list of all NHS careers open to life and health science graduates (most require additional post-graduate qualifications) can be found at https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/Explore-Roles

Alternative careers for science graduates

What happens when you have worked so hard to get a science degree only to realise that you don’t want to follow the expected research trajectory, and instead you want to try something new?

The good news is scientists are not confined to the lab anymore. In fact, candidates with a science degree and a science background are becoming increasingly desirable in other fields.

New Scientist has compiled a list of seven popular alternative career paths for scientists looking for a change: Top 7 alternative Career Paths for Scientists (newscientist.com)

Other resources:

Careers in Scientific Communication

Are you a good communicator? Do you enjoy writing? Broadly speaking, scientific communication careers encompass everything from science journalism and publishing to medical communication.

Scientific communication roles may involve preparing educational materials or product information, or writing commissioned scientific journal articles for publication. Further useful information about medical communication can be found online at http://www.medcommsnetworking.com/startingout/ and in the Medical Communications Careers Guide: MedComms Careers Guides | FirstMedCommsJob.com



Below is a list of organisations that you can use to connect with science communication publishers and audiences - if you have an idea for an article or event, then make contact and see where it might take you!:

General science communication

Science writers and journalists

Bioethics

Learned societies