No such thing as a well paid Biology/Biological sciences job?

I am planning to do a biological sciences/biology Bsc next year and am a bit worried by a lot of people saying that it's not possible to get a well paid career from it, or that jobs in the field are saturated, due to it being a 'softer' science.

I am not concerned with making "lots" of money, but I would still like to earn a reasonable amount so I can fund my hobbies, buy a house etc. I have done some research and found jobs that I *think should be applicable* to a biology graduate (or a biology graduate who does a post grad qualification) including: Patent attorney, Regulatory affairs officer/associate, Healthcare scientist/toxicologist and Food scientist/technologist (I know this one might sound like it would be low, but IMO £30-45k after 5 years isn't bad, or up to £65k eventually). Even teaching, while it obviously isn't typically 'high' salary still isn't a 'bad' salary, especially with leadership roles and in different countries. I looked at a few websites for each of these, inlcuding www.prospects.ac.uk (which I assume must be at least a bit reliable since it's the usually the first result if you type in the salary for any job in the uk on google).

Can anyone confirm or prove this idea wrong, are the jobs I've listed misrepresented by the research I've done, or are all these jobs possible (and more)? I've heard yes and no from different sides so I'm a bit confused.

Thanks

To stay in science you need at least a masters if not a PhD. Scientists earn enough to buy a house and fund hobbies and £35-40k is more than enough to live decently on. You will work you way up but there are definitely better paid fields than science which you can get into with a science degree.

Of course you can earn lots of money doing a career in biological chances, good luck with it as these sorts of jobs are rare and really the top of the field, e.g. university professor. You may have a bit more luck with something biomedical or biotechnological. I did I biology based degree, worked a bit in industry, paid pittance, realised if I ever wanted to have a biology career I actually enjoyed, I'd need a PhD. Getting to the end of a PhD now and realising the job market it tight, I mean REALLY tight, there is not a lot out there at all and money is so competitive it's crazy. Looking back now I wish that I had done something more vocational like medicine, but I was a bit too pigheaded to actually take others advice and was determined I was going to do the thing I was most interested in. I really enjoyed my degree, I enjoyed parts of working in industry and for the large part I have enjoyed my PhD, I would never pick a career based on money, but picking one based on interest has not got me very far and I'm now at an age where friends are settling, most have bought houses and I'm looking at being jobless. I'm not telling you to not pick a biology degree, but I am telling you to think very carefully about your future, I know it seems a long way off, but it'll get there sooner than you realise!!!!

Yes I wasn't planning on just doing a Bsc and then looking for a job, what are these better paid fields by the way?

The first things that come to mind are law and consultancy but what is considered decent pay is relative. I'm in science and consider myself decently paid. I live in a nice place in London and can afford two big holidays and multiple shorter holidays a year and think I live a decent life with my partner. Others may disagree so your best bet is to go with what you enjoy and keep exploring all career options.

Great to see you're thinking about this and taking things seriously.

The reality is that you can apply to all the jobs that are accessible to other graduates - law conversion, accountancy, corporate graduate schemes, teaching, the civil service fast stream, policing, military, etc etc.

You have identified some occupations that might particularly be interested in bioscience undergraduates. Your obvious options there are patent law, university/research administration, biomedical science (e.g. in a hospital laboratory), pharmaceutical sales, etc.

Bioscience research is also an option but it isn't wonderfully paid (£16,000pa for a three year PhD followed by £35k+ as a post-doc scientist) and career progression is currently tight (as Nightwing pointed out). There is also an option to pursue research in industry, e.g. for pharmaceutical companies.

You have lots of options but should be thinking about them (and planning) while at university. Lots of new graduates struggle because they start thinking about career destinations in their final year.

Yes I wasn't planning on just doing a Bsc and then looking for a job, what are these better paid fields by the way?

May I ask what you do as a career? I definitely would say that's decent pay if you can afford to do that, and I agree with what you last said. Thanks

Put it this way. If you want to get anywhere near a decent paid job in the biosciences, you'll be spending many additional years having to do a masters and then a PhD. That's a fact. I highly considered going into biosciences at university and I did my research and it just didn't click with me. If you stop at a BSc, you may as well not even bother with it because you're permanently considered a junior type. The salaries I've seen top out at £40-£50K at best, research jobs pay even less. I moved into the navy instead to train as a nav officer. My potential peak salary is much higher and if I do the job well, I can get to that peak faster than someone who tries to go through the laborious education process to become a relevant scientist. It's a shame because I really enjoyed Biology and Chemistry at A level and did well in them but I had to take a risk/award approach looking at it

I am a bit confused by your post... I was under the impression most MSc's are 1-2 years, what do you mean by many additional years? What is wrong with a salary that tops out at £40-50k? I did say in my OP that I don't care about making lots of money. I was looking into doing a Bioscience with a speciality in food science and considering being a R&D scientist for a food company http://www.prospects.ac.uk/food_technologist_salary.htm this doesn't suggest a peak at £40-50k, and having looked at job advertisements there are some for more than what the site suggests. And what is wrong with doing a degree you are interested in so you have access to things like teaching, civil service and corp. graduate schemes (as another poster mentioned)? I did also consider the idea of joining the navy as I think I'd enjoy the lifestyle and obviously it's good money for officers, however what puts me off is not having a family and the risk of being killed

I'll elaborate. I meant years when you combine a masters and a Phd, yes masters on their own are quite brief. There is nothing wrong with it topping out at £40-£50K but in the biosciences field those jobs are harder to come by versus other fields of science. If you're happy making that, that's good. I think its a good amount of money to reach at a peak of a career but if you want more, there are other fields. Also with the navy thing, I'm not in the Royal Navy, I'm in the Merchant Navy. They stay away from wars. I'm training to be a navigation officer which can let me one day be a captain so its quite different

You can earn a lot of money doing ecological consultancy and the like, especially if you are willing to travel. A friend of mine did consultancy in Abu Dhabi and earned a ridiculous amount, but even in this country you can earn ~ 50k depending on the job, or more if you work your way up.