Biochemistry
A biochemistry degree opens up a wide variety of different career options. If you have one you are like a pluripotent cell with the capacity to “differentiate” in many ways by choosing different job roles or training options leading to a wide variety of routes to different career destinations.
Broadly speaking, you can:
- carry on in the direction of your favourite biochemical discipline
- change biological discipline
- use your degree to enter scientific roles, or enter scientifically related roles
- use the fact that you have a degree that develops a wide variety of qualitative, quantitative and problem solving skills to enter the broader graduate market which may or may not include subsequent training.
What are my career options in research and development (R & D) within life sciences?
Academic career - R & D
If you want to carry on in the direction of your favourite discipline, then you could take a PhD and subsequent post-doctoral research with the goal of pursuing an academic career.
When considering further study, it is important to note the differences between master's and doctorates, especially in terms of funding.
- Master's degrees are often self-funded, incur student debt, and allow you to deepen knowledge or refocus taught study direction.
- Doctorates are generally externally funded, tend not to incur student debt, and are always research orientated – they are much closer to your final year project than any taught element.
- Doctoral Training Programmes (DTP), sometimes called 1+3s, have the advantage that a year of studying research approaches is spent before the PhD proper begins, but it is worth noting that they are highly competitive and more restricted in research scope than the more conventional three-year PhDs.
Entry requirements for masters degrees are usually 2.2 and for PhDs 2.1 at BSc level – master's degrees might help competitiveness but are not normally a requirement.
It is not essential to progress academically to be involved in university research, nor is there any urgency to take further qualifications.
General R & D
Research and development not only includes those in universities progressing towards an academic career, it also includes working: within universities:
- within universities as technicians, research assistants, or if more qualified, research associates
- for universities but within the private sector such as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
- directly in university spin-offs, small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or more established companies.
People frequently move seamlessly from one to another - in and out of “industry” and “academia” – the line between the two is much fainter than people imagine.
If you are drawn to lab work then laboratory work describes graduate entry. For those interested in consultancy, which can be entered at any academic level, there are parallels with Knowledge Transfer Partnerships.
Agriculture, food and drink
The agriculture sector and the food and drink sector are huge. With the challenge of feeding an increasing global population at a time of displacement of food producing regions due to global warming, R&D along with many other roles are becoming more essential.
Careers within agriculture
Careers in food and drink
Biotechnology and contract research organisations (CROs) including clinical trials
Biopharmguy is a good place to look for businesses involved in biotechnology and contract research.
CROs are companies that support pharmaceutical organisations amongst others to carry out clinical study and clinical trials for drugs and medical devices. The Contract Research Map lists the research institutions in each country and the work they are currently doing.
Clinical trials are medical research studies involving people. All new treatments must be thoroughly tested. Researchers test possible new drugs in the laboratory to begin with. If they look promising, they are carefully tested in people.
Clinical trials look at:
- Risks and causes – how genetics, lifestyle and other factors can increase people's risk of cancer.
- Preventing disease – using drugs or lifestyle changes to reduce risk.
- Screening – tests for people with higher-than-average risk of disease or for the general population
- Diagnosing – new tests, scans or procedures
- Treatments – new drugs or combinations of drugs. Trials also look at new doses of drugs or new ways of giving treatment and new types of treatment.
- Controlling symptoms or side effects – new drugs or complementary therapies
- Support and information - for people with a particular disease and their carers, families or friends
Icon - Choosing the right clinical research career path for you
NHS Careers - Clinical academic and research careers
Prospects: Becoming a clinical research associate
Pharmiweb.jobs - 10 Clinical Research Career Paths
Medical research charities and MedTech
Medical research charities
Medical research charities fund research in universities, start-ups, and other organisations. For example, Cancer Research UK through their cancer research technology have funded 60 start-ups.
Medical technology (MedTech)
Medical technology or the medical device industry is a sub-sector of the life sciences sector, which in the UK is one of the strongest and most productive in the world, turning over in excess of £88.9 billion per year. The medical technology global market is fast developing, making up 52% of industry employment in the life science sector, according to the Bioscience and Health Technology Sector Statistics 2020.
Careers in medical technology
Pharmaceuticals
The UK Government’s Office for Life Sciences has produced an infographic on the scale of the biopharmaceuticals sector.
Pharmaceutical companies will undertake research into and manufacture of cancer drugs. Firms such as Roche, Bristol Myers Squib, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Takeda, Pfizer, Eli Lilley, Merck and Amgen manufacture some of the most widely used drugs on the market.
As well as research and development they will recruit graduates to roles such as regulatory affairs, communications and government affairs, finance, commercial management.
Careers within pharmaceuticals
The ABPI lists leading pharmaceutical firms within the UK many of which will offer graduate employment, summer placements and placement years.
What are my career options within life sciences beyond research and development?
Data roles
Many life scientists have sufficient data analytic skills to simply apply for roles in data analysis, or even data science.
A good working knowledge of Python/R is needed and SQL is a huge benefit – courses for both are available online. The university's Nottingham Advantage Award (NAA) runs an SQL course and our artificial intelligence (AI) webpage describes how to enter the field of AI.
Forensic scientist
Forensic scientist role is open to biology graduates but it does requires additional training and qualifications and there apprenticeships routes are available.
Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences
Healthcare scientist
If you are drawn to working as a healthcare scientist the Association of Clinical Scientists lists professional bodies related to this area.
Our healthcare scientist page describes the two types of accredited healthcare scientists in UK hospitals – clinical scientists and biomedical scientists. Both careers result in state registration with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC). The clinical scientist has a clinical interpretative role while the biomedical scientist is more laboratory based.
The most well-known and structured route, the NHS Scientific Training Programme (STP), is very competitive. For STP applications there is a two-week window in January (of your final year) and it is a good idea to have had practice in the process of applying for roles beforehand so you know what to adjust. STP training starts in September.
National School for Healthcare Science
NHS Careers - Healthcare science
Health communication
Health communication is communicating promotional health information, such as in public health campaigns, health education, and between doctor and patient.
The purpose of disseminating health information is to influence personal health choices by improving health literacy. You could find yourself working in medical communications, healthcare advertising, healthcare public relations, medical writing.
Healthcare data analysis
Healthcare data analysts help improve healthcare outcomes using data from a variety of sources. Most commonly, healthcare analysts work on the business side of medicine, improving patient care, or streamlining the way things are run.
They look at clinical data, claims and cost data, pharmaceutical data, behavioural data and health outcomes.
Health Data Research UK
Public health
The NHS Careers website describes the three main areas of public health:
- Health protection - working to prevent the outbreak of epidemics, plan responses to emergencies, or in food safety.
- Improving people’s health - you might be involved in campaigns to encourage healthier eating, physical exercise, or to persuade people to quit smoking and drugs.
- Healthcare services - making sure that everyone has access to high quality health services and medicines that they need when they need them.
Careers in public health
Sustainability roles
Sustainability roles can be explored on our environment and sustainability webpage.
What roles are open to me with a biochemistry degree and additional training?
Graduate courses in a variety of subjects are available. For example:
What are my career options with a science degree?
Science degrees develop analytical, communication and numeracy skills and so there are many directions that a science graduate can take:
Science and pharmaceuticals job profiles from Prospects summarise common destinations of those with science degrees who want to carry on using their degree, including
- bioinformatics
- health informatics
- intellectual property including patent attorney work
- medical sales
- medical writing
- science writing
- regulatory affairs
- science policy
There are also jobs such as teaching and education-related careers which draw on your scientific knowledge.
Biochemistry graduates enter a diverse array of roles spanning accountancy, actuarial work, banking, charity work, finance roles, legal roles, marketing, public relations, sales and so on.
Explore a range of graduate roles
What do graduates from my course go on to do?
Graduate Outcomes is a national survey capturing the activities and perspectives of graduates launched in 2018 and is the biggest annual social survey in the UK.
You can view the destinations of graduates, who completed the survey, from your course by booking an appointment with an adviser. This can help you to explore your options if you are unsure what you want to do.
Find out more about the Graduate Outcomes survey
What are my further study options?
Our biochemistry graduates have undertake a wide range of further study courses.
- MRes Biochemistry or MSc in related discipline
- Doctoral Training Programmes
- Graduate Entry to Medicine (GEM)
- Physician associate
- PGCE for teaching
Biochemistry-related areas of study
- Chemistry
- Drug discovery
- Human Computer Interaction
- Molecular Cell Biology
- Nano Technology
- Oncology
- Pharmacology
- Regenerative Medicine
- Virology
Find out more about further study including applying and funding options
What skills will I gain during my degree?
As well as the skills developed on your course, participation in extracurricular and work experience, organisations large and small are also looking for students to have developed a range of attributes such as the following while at university.
What employers seek from candidates is evolving all the time and it is important that you keep up to date with recruitment trends in the career areas that interest you.
- Collaboration
- Relationship building
- Initiative
- Resilience
- Adaptability
- Influencing online and in person
- Business appropriate communication
- Self-motivation
- Career management
- Digital literacy