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What uni course and career?

I’m in year 12 studying a-level maths, biology & geography and am beginning to wonder what I want to actually go in life.

I’m mainly interested in careers within science such as biomedical science, biochemistry, genetics, earth sciences, neuroscience, etc. Or even chemistry? However, I’m not really too sure where some of these degrees would even lead me?

In my head I see myself in about “5-7 years” working as a scientist and wanting to travel to various locations in the world. Bit optimistic, I know. I’m not looking for a job that requires travel by the way, I’m just looking for a job that allows me to do what I want to do and earn money to travel but of travelling is an aspect of the job I would definitely take it.

My question is what sort of degrees do: biomedical science, biochemistry (willing to do a foundation year to study this degree), neuroscience, genetics, earth sciences and similar ones, what sort of jobs will I be qualified for after? Is it competitive? Is there good job security?

Please any help would be lovely, thank you.
(edited 5 years ago)
Reply 1
Maybe try looking at different types of career on https://www.prospects.ac.uk/ ?

If you want to work as a research scientist you'd (probably) need to do a PhD. Most academic undergrad degrees aren't going to set you up for one specific job (just as an example, a lot of physics grads go into finance) so really for long-term careers you've got all the time you need to think about it.
Reply 2
Original post by Sinnoh
Maybe try looking at different types of career on https://www.prospects.ac.uk/ ?

If you want to work as a research scientist you'd (probably) need to do a PhD. Most academic undergrad degrees aren't going to set you up for one specific job (just as an example, a lot of physics grads go into finance) so really for long-term careers you've got all the time you need to think about it.

Thank you for the link, I will definitely check out different career choices.

From research on degrees, I’ve narrowed down to:
Biomedical science (potentially lead to medicine or apply for the NHS STP)
Earth science (quite versatile and can lead to out in the field research work)
Mathematics (as a last resort as not only do I really enjoy the subject but it’s also an extremely versatile degree)

I will however research a lot more into all these, thank you for your help.
(edited 5 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by Jamiehou
Thank you for the link, I will definitely check out different career choices.

From research on degrees, I’ve narrowed down to:
Biomedical science (potentially lead to medicine or apply for the NHS STP)
Earth science (quite versatile and can lead to out in the field research work)
Mathematics (as a last resort as not only do I really enjoy the subject but it’s also an extremely versatile degree)

I will however research a lot more into all these, thank you for your help.


For biomedical sciences it's really likely that chemistry A-level would be required and for maths at uni, further maths is usually put as a requirement (if your school doesn't offer it then fair enough, they'll still accept you in that specific case)
No prob :biggrin:
Reply 4
Original post by Sinnoh
For biomedical sciences it's really likely that chemistry A-level would be required and for maths at uni, further maths is usually put as a requirement (if your school doesn't offer it then fair enough, they'll still accept you in that specific case)
No prob :biggrin:

For biomedical science, I’ve seen a lot of degrees not requiring it, thank god.
For maths, further maths is offered I just never even thought of taking it up, some universities don’t require further maths, however, I would be extremely disadvantaged so I would only ever do maths if I was exceeding my targets immensely and scored highly in test which is the case right now.
Reply 5
Any biology related degree could probably take you where you want to go so look into lots of different ones and see which you like the sound of best. Earth sciences sound like a better fit for your A level subjects than things like biomedical or neuroscience as you have geography, but you could probably do any of them!
Reply 6
Original post by ella.n.
Any biology related degree could probably take you where you want to go so look into lots of different ones and see which you like the sound of best. Earth sciences sound like a better fit for your A level subjects than things like biomedical or neuroscience as you have geography, but you could probably do any of them!

Yes I will definitely have to look more into earth sciences, just confused on what sort of careers it has in hold for me and if I’d enjoy something like biomed more.

Thank you for your help.

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