Bioscience and Healthcare
The Bioscience and Healthcare sectors are huge, diverse and exciting areas to work within and we sought to bring this to life and explore some of the interesting career options in the fields during Bioscience and Healthcare Week (6-10 November 2023). Whether you were able to attend or not, you can still access lots of useful resources to help you research careers in this sector. If you are not sure how to access them, you can drop into the Careers Service to speak to us and we can help.
As well as our on-campus events, we held two online panels which you can watch back in the Webinars to watch section below:
- Research & Development Alumni Panel
- Diverse Careers in the NHS - Alumni Panel
Our alumni from the NHS panel also gave some great top tips:
Lucy Roberts-West, Trainee Clinical Psychologist, Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- Be to be prepared to apply quickly to jobs on NHS jobs website as the adverts close quickly
- Write your applications according to the person specification and show how you meet each criteria
- Think about why you want the role and how does it fit with your values - make the most of all your different experiences when applying and looking for jobs!
Katie Johnson, Graduate Mental Health Practitioner, Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- When applying, look for any role in the field you’re interested in, even if it’s not your ideal job. I learned about so many roles I never heard of before joining.
- When preparing for interviews read the trust values and prepare for questions about them.
- If you want help with applications/ interviews reach out to people in the field on LinkedIn. I have helped people who have messaged me for advice.
Careers Guides
Bioscience R&D
Psychology
Healthcare and the NHS
Science Alternative Careers
Blog Series
It can be hard to figure out what you might want to do after you graduate. So for interest and inspiration we have sought out insights, hints and tips from recent alumni who now work in the science and healthcare sector and asked them about their career journey so far and how they landed their current role.
Webinars to watch
Research and development (R&D) is when businesses gather knowledge to create new products or discover new ways to improve their existing products and services. Larger companies may have their own research and development team that will test and refine products or processes before commercial use.
Pharmaceutical R&D refers to the pharmaceutical research and development of new medicines.
On this panel, you will hear from alumni working in this field, covering pharmaceuticals, cancer trials, biotech and neurosciences:
Watch the recording
There are over 350 different types of career in the NHS. Everyone makes a difference every day and you can find out more about the roles available here. Hear from a fascinating panel of Royal Holloway alumni working within diverse roles within the NHS:
Watch the recording
Bioscience alumnus Adriana Macko explains how taking a year in Industry really opened her eyes to the diversity of roles within the exciting and constantly evolving biotech field but also how it led to a graduate role at Illumina. Adriana also shares some helpful insights, hints and tips when applying for roles in the broad science sector. Watch the recording.
Looking for inspiration? Love science but not lab work? Listen to our fantastic panellists discuss their own career journeys and current roles working within the broad science sector. They are alumni working in healthcare consultancy specialising in PR and medical communications, also alumni working in Biotech and Pharma, all outside of the lab. They share insights on how to enter the field and do well in the selection process. Watch the recording.
Hear from three alumni who work in a diverse range of roles all within the Pharma Industry from Sales in Medical Devices, Medical Writing and then Regulatory Affairs for AstraZeneca. Some key insights from the session include
- Use LinkedIn to network and find out about jobs in the sector and even ask for an informational interview with professionals
- Learn all about a day in the life of these jobs to know if it's a good fit for you and
- You will always be constantly learning skills in any role so don’t worry about changing career direction! Watch the recording.
Overview of the recruitment and selection process, along with plenty of useful resources and further reading to help you prepare to apply for graduate entry medicine. Watch the recording.
Grace and Srushti are both alumni who are now on the graduate entry medicine pathway to become NHS Doctors. On this interesting panel they discuss everything from how to prepare for the admissions tests and interviews to what it’s like on placements as a medical student. They also share some of their thoughts on what specialisms they are considering and loads of hints and tips too. Watch the recording.
The NHS flagship graduate management training scheme is well known and a fantastic way to start your career in a range of different professions from HR to Finance to General Management. We brought together a panel of 3 to talk about the scheme (one is now an assessor so a really valuable perspective!) but also their experiences and advice on how to do well in the selection process. A must watch for those even vaguely considering applying! Watch the recording.
Are you interested in a career in mental health or forensic psychology? If so, this session could be very useful. Hear from Maria, who works as a Clinical Assistant Practitioner in Acute Psychiatric Services (and more recently as a trainee Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner) and Yvonne, who is Director of the Curado Group, which is a residential facility for men with severe mental health issues. Both give an interesting and useful insight into their work and some great advice for those looking to enter the field. Watch the recording.
Join Dr Simon Mantell, formerly from the Careers Service, for a look at how to access laboratory work. Watch the recording.
Are you interested in becoming a bioscientist, or maybe just keen to hear more about what the career path of a bioscientist looks like? Would you like to learn more about working in the NHS and the Scientist Training Programme (STP) in particular? Then this is the perfect session for you! The speakers are:
- Alumni Amani Elhouderi, a Biomedical Scientist for the NHS
- Guy Brown, a trainee Clinical Scientist (Medical Physics) on the STP - at Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust
They share their career stories, insider insights, top tips and advice. Watch the recording here.
We invited a panel of 2 Physician Associates to tell us more about this interesting career option in the Healthcare profession. The speakers are:
- Bilal Chaudhry MSc PA-R Physician Associate in Haematology Northampton General Hospital
- Naju Ibrahim Physician Associate in Surgery University Hospitals Birmingham Trust
Watch the recording here.
Discover your prospects!
Prospects is a useful website, where you can explore the different roles in a sector.
Check out the roles they have listed for the healthcare sector.