Career Prospects in Pharmacology?

I am in my final year in pharmacology and I loved it as a course and couldn't imagine having done anything else. Sure its tough work but I enjoyed it. I chose pharmacology over pharmacy as I didn't want to be making the same few common drugs day in, day out. With a pharmacology degree you can work in either academia or industry helping in the design of new drugs by coming up with assays or animal models to test the drugs and possibly helping in clinical trials if that is what you are interested in. I choose pharmacology over medicine as I personally would get to attached to patients and the pharmacology aspect of medicine is merely learning off drug names and doses while in the full pharmacology degree you learn about the action of drug classes in the body, how they mediate their effect and possible side effects and how drugs can be improved in the hope of making better medicines.

I am just about to finish my final year and I already have a job so I don't know what other people are on about. I did an internship last summer in a pharmaceutical company and I am either continuing with that work (computer database work of pharm data from the labs to help decide which drugs should enter into clinical trials) or I am going to transfer into being a quality project coordinator where I overlook CROs and general project management.

I think the possibilities are endless with a pharmacology degree and I think it is only people who don't research anything that thinks that you can only transfer to medicine or pharmacy.

I also know of a lot of friends who are remaining in academia and doing PHDs. The good thing about my pharm degree was that I had my own thesis where I did my own work on cancer cells and saw the effects that certain compounds had on their growth.

I hope this helps someone!

Have a look at this website:

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/options_pharmacology.htm

Studying Pharmacology sets you up with a lot of scientific skills in both chemistry and biology. I don't think job prospects for Pharmacology are as bad as people make out - the problem I'm having is trying to choose WHICH path to take, not finding one!

If you want to work for a pharmaceutical company. Big names include: AstraZeneca (where I'm currently doing my industrial placement), GSK, MedImmune, Covance. There are also loads of smaller companies based in the UK e.g. Eisai, EvoTec. You can also go on to work for a scientific (rather than pharmaceutical) company and there's quite a few if you know where to look (New Scientist jobs, for example). You can work for companies like these with only a BSc degree and experience in a laboratory setting.

A few posts require a PhD and they generally get paid more - but you have to have the right mindset to do one and if you can't get funding/a paid studentship, it can be very expensive.

Don't bother doing a Masters unless you want to completely change your field of interest or go into teaching (my A-level chemistry teacher did a Pharmacology degree and it's something I'm considering).

The NHS do a STP (Student Training Programme) which sets you up for scientific roles in hospitals such as haematologist, biochemist etc. Google it, but it's very competitive (good graduate pay though!).

Other science-based jobs include: science communications, medical/science writer, work in Quality Assurance, IP Law.

Non-science related jobs can be anything - the student who was doing an industrial placement before decided to go into Accountancy. There are loads of graduate schemes at places like Danone, Johnson & Johnson, Reckitt Benkiser (all household names - even if you don't realise it!) where you can go into finance, marketing, sales etc. But these are usually quite competitive.

Hope this has helped! I study Pharmacology at Leeds Uni, currently on my industrial placement

I am in my final year in pharmacology and I loved it as a course and couldn't imagine having done anything else. Sure its tough work but I enjoyed it. I chose pharmacology over pharmacy as I didn't want to be making the same few common drugs day in, day out. With a pharmacology degree you can work in either academia or industry helping in the design of new drugs by coming up with assays or animal models to test the drugs and possibly helping in clinical trials if that is what you are interested in. I choose pharmacology over medicine as I personally would get to attached to patients and the pharmacology aspect of medicine is merely learning off drug names and doses while in the full pharmacology degree you learn about the action of drug classes in the body, how they mediate their effect and possible side effects and how drugs can be improved in the hope of making better medicines.

I am just about to finish my final year and I already have a job so I don't know what other people are on about. I did an internship last summer in a pharmaceutical company and I am either continuing with that work (computer database work of pharm data from the labs to help decide which drugs should enter into clinical trials) or I am going to transfer into being a quality project coordinator where I overlook CROs and general project management.

I think the possibilities are endless with a pharmacology degree and I think it is only people who don't research anything that thinks that you can only transfer to medicine or pharmacy.

I also know of a lot of friends who are remaining in academia and doing PHDs. The good thing about my pharm degree was that I had my own thesis where I did my own work on cancer cells and saw the effects that certain compounds had on their growth.

I hope this helps someone!

I am in my final year in pharmacology and I loved it as a course and couldn't imagine having done anything else. Sure its tough work but I enjoyed it. I chose pharmacology over pharmacy as I didn't want to be making the same few common drugs day in, day out. With a pharmacology degree you can work in either academia or industry helping in the design of new drugs by coming up with assays or animal models to test the drugs and possibly helping in clinical trials if that is what you are interested in. I choose pharmacology over medicine as I personally would get to attached to patients and the pharmacology aspect of medicine is merely learning off drug names and doses while in the full pharmacology degree you learn about the action of drug classes in the body, how they mediate their effect and possible side effects and how drugs can be improved in the hope of making better medicines.

I am just about to finish my final year and I already have a job so I don't know what other people are on about. I did an internship last summer in a pharmaceutical company and I am either continuing with that work (computer database work of pharm data from the labs to help decide which drugs should enter into clinical trials) or I am going to transfer into being a quality project coordinator where I overlook CROs and general project management.

I think the possibilities are endless with a pharmacology degree and I think it is only people who don't research anything that thinks that you can only transfer to medicine or pharmacy.

I also know of a lot of friends who are remaining in academia and doing PHDs. The good thing about my pharm degree was that I had my own thesis where I did my own work on cancer cells and saw the effects that certain compounds had on their growth.

I hope this helps someone!

I am in my final year in pharmacology and I loved it as a course and couldn't imagine having done anything else. Sure its tough work but I enjoyed it. I chose pharmacology over pharmacy as I didn't want to be making the same few common drugs day in, day out. With a pharmacology degree you can work in either academia or industry helping in the design of new drugs by coming up with assays or animal models to test the drugs and possibly helping in clinical trials if that is what you are interested in. I choose pharmacology over medicine as I personally would get to attached to patients and the pharmacology aspect of medicine is merely learning off drug names and doses while in the full pharmacology degree you learn about the action of drug classes in the body, how they mediate their effect and possible side effects and how drugs can be improved in the hope of making better medicines.

I am just about to finish my final year and I already have a job so I don't know what other people are on about. I did an internship last summer in a pharmaceutical company and I am either continuing with that work (computer database work of pharm data from the labs to help decide which drugs should enter into clinical trials) or I am going to transfer into being a quality project coordinator where I overlook CROs and general project management.

I think the possibilities are endless with a pharmacology degree and I think it is only people who don't research anything that thinks that you can only transfer to medicine or pharmacy.

I also know of a lot of friends who are remaining in academia and doing PHDs. The good thing about my pharm degree was that I had my own thesis where I did my own work on cancer cells and saw the effects that certain compounds had on their growth.

I hope this helps someone!