Where can a pharmaceutical science degree take you?
I have been offered a place to study pharmaceutical science however I am not sure on whether to accept it. I am not sure on the careers that you can get from studying pharmaceutical science. What jobs are available after studying pharmaceutical science and how easy/ hard are they to get?
Well the first set of jobs are those generalist grad schemes any grad can apply to - including in financial services (accountancy, investment banking, manaagement consulting, and some other areas), the civil service, many roles in NGOs and charities, as well as lots of "general" managerial or business function roles in corporate environment.
The second set will be those more specific to the subject area, which for pharmaceutical sciences probably overlap a lot with other bioscience or chemistry courses. These will be various lab based technician/technologist roles, and possibly some non-lab based roles requiring some scientific background such as in more specific business side roles in scientific enterprises (such as in the pharma industry) where some scientific background is useful or needed, or things like becoming a patent attorney. You may also be able to apply to the NHS Scientist Training Programme for certain streams although I'm not 100% certain which.
As for being "easy" or "hard" to get, the reality is any graduate role is "hard to get" and you do need to put a fair amount of work in to making yourself employable regardless of what degree subject you do. The only degree where just getting the degree will effectively guarantee you a (graduate) role is medicine (which is due to how those degree cohorts are specifically planned against NHS workforce requirements) - and even this may be changing! So you do need to be actively working to make yourself a stronger applicant for graduate roles while in the degree, beyond just going to your lectures and taking your exams (and hopefully doing well).
Securing internships/placements (including potentially a year in industry), engaging in leadership positions in e.g. societies and similar to develop transferable skills, and preparing for assessment centre exercises and the psychometric tests companies use will all be essential. As will obviously building a CV to showcase all of this and preparing for interviews to communicate all these things you've done in a way which is relevant and specific to the job being applied to (e.g. using a STAR format in many cases).
The second set will be those more specific to the subject area, which for pharmaceutical sciences probably overlap a lot with other bioscience or chemistry courses. These will be various lab based technician/technologist roles, and possibly some non-lab based roles requiring some scientific background such as in more specific business side roles in scientific enterprises (such as in the pharma industry) where some scientific background is useful or needed, or things like becoming a patent attorney. You may also be able to apply to the NHS Scientist Training Programme for certain streams although I'm not 100% certain which.
As for being "easy" or "hard" to get, the reality is any graduate role is "hard to get" and you do need to put a fair amount of work in to making yourself employable regardless of what degree subject you do. The only degree where just getting the degree will effectively guarantee you a (graduate) role is medicine (which is due to how those degree cohorts are specifically planned against NHS workforce requirements) - and even this may be changing! So you do need to be actively working to make yourself a stronger applicant for graduate roles while in the degree, beyond just going to your lectures and taking your exams (and hopefully doing well).
Securing internships/placements (including potentially a year in industry), engaging in leadership positions in e.g. societies and similar to develop transferable skills, and preparing for assessment centre exercises and the psychometric tests companies use will all be essential. As will obviously building a CV to showcase all of this and preparing for interviews to communicate all these things you've done in a way which is relevant and specific to the job being applied to (e.g. using a STAR format in many cases).
Reply 2
Original post
by Hisham06I have been offered a place to study pharmaceutical science however I am not sure on whether to accept it. I am not sure on the careers that you can get from studying pharmaceutical science. What jobs are available after studying pharmaceutical science and how easy/ hard are they to get?
Is difficult to get a job. Please don't accept it.
Reply 3
20
Basic info - Choosing between Pharmacy and Pharmacology
Job profile - Pharmacologist job profile | Prospects.ac.uk
Career info - What can I do with a pharmacology degree? | Prospects.ac.uk
And, as above, many people do not follow their degree subject on graduation, and will end up in the widest range of career areas you can imagine. The question you need to be asking yourself is actually 'does this interest me enough to study it for 3 or 4 years, ie. will I enjoy what I'm studying?'.
Job profile - Pharmacologist job profile | Prospects.ac.uk
Career info - What can I do with a pharmacology degree? | Prospects.ac.uk
And, as above, many people do not follow their degree subject on graduation, and will end up in the widest range of career areas you can imagine. The question you need to be asking yourself is actually 'does this interest me enough to study it for 3 or 4 years, ie. will I enjoy what I'm studying?'.
Reply 4
Original post
by Hisham06I have been offered a place to study pharmaceutical science however I am not sure on whether to accept it. I am not sure on the careers that you can get from studying pharmaceutical science. What jobs are available after studying pharmaceutical science and how easy/ hard are they to get?
I have observed that alot of people do not understand what the term pharmaceutical sciences represent. Pharmaceutical sciences is a collection of all sciences in pharmaceuticals and they are postgraduate courses, which includes eg. Pharmaceutics, Pharmacognosy, MSc Pharmacology, clinical pharmacy and so on. Bachelor of pharmaceutical science prepares one for undertaking any of the various pharmaceutical sciences for post graduate specialisation. Pharmaceutical professional is a broad area of study that includes research and non research.
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