Science Spin January 2007

Job options for the science graduate

By Sean Duke

Science is exciting, and it offers a much wider range of job opportunities than most people think. For example, for those interested in research, and many of us are interested in finding out how things work, the outlook has never been so good, with the Irish government and the EU investing millions to encourage more research activity. Research and Development, R&D, is set to boom here, and there will be a huge demand in coming years for science and technology graduates that can work in large research teams.

The high-tech end of industry is booming too, so traditional science jobs there - generally involved with making production processes run smoothly - are still widely available.

Elsewhere, there are a number of growth areas emerging, and these include biotechnology - which, after a slow start, looks like becoming one of the most important sectors in the Irish economy. One of the specialities is bioinformatics. where biology and IT expertise is combined, a fast moving field underpinning many of the new developments in medicine.

The government is also committed to supporting more research in agriculture & food, health, environment, the marine and energy - good news for people interested in these areas.

Science teaching is another excellent option, as it can be rewarding, far better paid than it was in the past, and there are, of course, those fantastic holidays. Those with a science subject as their degree are more likely to get the jobs, as there is a shortage of science teachers, and this is particularly true of those with Chemistry and Physics.

There are other perhaps more unusual options out there that in the past might not have even been considered by science graduates. These areas include journalism, publishing, technical writing, public relations, sales and marketing, or perhaps working in a patent office or starting up a business -all potentially very stimulating and rewarding careers.

Industrial production

Good management of high technology processes has become the cornerstone of many industries, and this requires the application of graduate skills. In fact, up to 20 per cent of science graduates end up in the field of industrial production of one form of another, whether that is in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, chemical, plastics, metals or food and beverage sectors. These are all sectors that are growing and developing fast here, so there is a high demand for lots of bright young science graduates.

In a factory situation, where something is being made, the entire process must, these days, involves incredibly detailed planning, and then monitoring to ensure that the process is working properly. Mistakes can be costly, but a good production manager, can be invaluable for a company as such a person can save them money through introducing new and better ways of doing things, and also looking for improvements.

The larger companies tend to allocate specific roles to staff, while in a small company the scientist can have responsibility across a wide number of areas.Some of the companies recruiting science graduates are among the biggest employers in Ireland. These big names include Intel, Eli Lilly, Glanbia, Hewlett Packard, Proctor and Gamble and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

Production managers can start on relatively low salaries, but, within a few years. with more experience, they might be earning up to €40,000. In many cases, the larger the organisation, the larger the potential salary. However, in smaller companies, the opportunities to participate in decision making can be more rewarding. Follow-up studies have shown that a majority of small to medium-sized firms started to expand after taking on science and technology graduates. Many of the graduates who go into small and medium-sized firms end up in senior management positions.

R&D

The future is very bright for science graduates interested in research and development. The government is committed to investing huge amounts of money and resources into developing a knowledge-based economy. It has always been the case that many of the best science graduates regard R&D, either at third level, or within industry, as the reason why they wanted to do science in the first place.

These are the kind of people that the government is interested in encouraging.
A sign of the Irish government's commitment to supporting R&D came in June 2006. That's when the government announced an enormous €3.8 billion allocation for R&D in the universities and within industry over the period 2006 to 2013. The strategy is to double the number of PhDs over that period, and to create 350 significant new research teams.

All of this research is going to be done either in third level institutes, or - increasingly - in industry, whether that be Irish companies, or foreign companies based here. In very general terms, the difference between working at third level or in industry is that industrial research tends to be more applied, that is, more goal directed from the start. Research at third level can be more 'basic' meaning that the first priority is the pursuit of knowledge.

A post-graduate degree is generally required to gain entry to a career in R&D, and a PhD is the gold standard qualification. It can take about four years on average to complete a PhD and when that is added to the four years it takes to do a BSc, this means that it can be eight years, at the very least, before a full-time R&D post is achieved. These are very sought after jobs, so there is no guarantee that a PhD will automatically lead into an R&D job. The best thing is to remain open minded as to where the job opportunities might be, and if current trends continue, those opportunities will increase.

For a number of reasons, links between research groups working in the universities and those working in industry are becoming more common. Industries have become more reliant on R&D and many companies outsource all or part of their research to the colleges. This means that scientists have become more mobile, so the move into industry is not so big a jump as it was in the past.
Research has also become more international, and most researchers now work in large multi-disciplinary teams, often across many countries or continents. This makes for a stimulating work environment with exchange of ideas the norm, and a top researcher can expect to live in many countries during their working career.

Many of the large multinational companies are starting to locate R&D wings in Ireland, and this is a major change from the past. Top names such as Bell Labs, for example, have decided - with encouragement from the Irish government - to set up here, and this is part of a strategy to make Ireland an R&D base for the multinationals. For the multinationals, this is a good deal because Ireland is already a high-tech manufacturing country, and now Irish scientists can help the companies develop new products.

Medical

Graduates from genetics or other life science backgrounds might consider working in a clinical laboratory setting. Clinical scientists working in a medical environment use their skills to help doctors to diagnose diseases.

Graduates interested in working in a clinical setting, might, for example, end up working at the National Centre for Medical Genetics in Our Lady's Hospital in Crumlin, though it must be said that posts are few here, and competition is intense. Even so, other opportunities are starting to open up.
The first step for graduates interested in working in this area is to train as medical scientists. In order to qualify for such training it is essential that the graduates have a life science component to their degree. That means they should consider specialising in subjects like Biotechnology, Pharmacology, or perhaps Zoology.

The public laboratories in Ireland that would hire medical scientists include the National Virus Reference Laboratory, based at Belfield, and the Irish Blood Transfusion Service.

There are also a growing number of private hospitals around Ireland, and these could represent additional opportunities. Certainly, there are not enough medical scientists to fulfil the needs of public and private laboratories in Ireland just now, and this is likely to be an area that will experience some growth in jobs in coming years.

Bioinformatics

The emerging field of bioinformatics combines the life sciences with information technology, and this has proved to be a powerful combination. Information technology has not only helped crack biological codes, but it has given biologists access to molecular structures, and in health care we see the emergence of smarter devices. There is a growing need for scientists who know how to combine biology and information and computer technology.

Public and private laboratories also require people that are specialists in bioinformatics to make sense of the information pouring out of research projects. One example of where bioinformatics is being used today is in the field of genetics. Scientists now know the entire genetic code for human beings, but that's only the beginning. The next stage is for scientists to make sense of the code, and to understand how the various genes combine to make us all up, how they interact together and why things can sometimes go wrong, leading people to suffer from disease or premature death.

Bioinformatics is very important for pharmaceutical companies, as they require specialised people that can help them with drug design. Design of drugs is very expensive, and the traditional method has been to slog through hundreds if not thousands of drug 'candidates' that might help treat a particular disease. Bioinformatics can speed the process up, by very quickly narrowing down the likely number of 'candidates'. This can save drug companies millions of euro. That is why they are keen to employ people trained in the field of bioinformatics, and good careers and salaries are available here.

Keep in mind, however, that bioinformatics requires taking a fourth level qualification following on from a BSc, the latter preferable in a biological related subject area. However, such is the growth in this area, that it is an option well worth considering.

Biotechnology

This is an exciting area that is finally looking to deliver on its long-held promise for the Irish economy, both north and south.

Biotechnology involves the control and manipulation of biological processes, traditionally a sector dominated by brewing. Through biotechnology, insulin to treat diabetics, and cholesterol reducing foods are being produced, and it is an expanding area, highly relevant to many sectors of the Irish economy including drug development, food processing, agriculture and the environment. There are a range of indigenous, fast growing and dynamic Irish companies involved in research in areas such as cancer, disorders of the immune system, and infectious diseases.

There has been substantial investment from the Irish government into supporting the growth of indigenous biotechnology companies, and there have been moves to create an all-island 'cluster' involving the north and south.

There are a large number of ways to enter into this sector. Many of the most successful people involved in biotechnology in Ireland have started life working in the university and then moved into industry, generally seeking to develop their research into something that can be commercially viable. These are the biotech entrepreneurs.

There are over 40 companies, some of them very large, engaged in biotechnology activities in Ireland and many of these have been hiring in significant numbers in recent years, and that trend appears set to continue. Some of the better known names in this sector in Ireland are HiberGen, Biotrin, Trinity Biotech and Bristol Myers Squibb.

Teaching

The opportunity to teach at second or third-level is an attractive option for many science graduates. Taking second level first, the primary requirement is a BSc., which takes three or four years. Then it is necessary to complete a Higher Diploma in Education, which takes one year, and involves practical teaching practice in a school, as well as lectures.

There is a lack of science teachers entering the system, and in recent years there has been a particular shortfall in teachers that have Physics or Chemistry as their main degree subject. Students with those subjects going into teaching would be highly sought after as a result, and would have a strong chance of securing full-time employment.

The salaries for teaching have improved in Ireland in recent times, and added to that there are good holidays, with a lengthy summer break, as well as Christmas and Easter proving attractive to many graduates. There are also opportunities to take 'career breaks' once a full-time position has been secured, but generally science graduates are slightly better placed than other graduates to get full-time teaching jobs.

Teaching at third-level is generally conducted by full-time academic staff with PhDs. These positions are highly sought after and very competitive, but once an initial position is obtained, there is a very good career structure and opportunities to advance.

Aside from the universities there may be teaching opportunities in the Institutes of Technology, and the Post-Leaving Certificate colleges, that are open to science graduates.

Microelectronics

Jobs in this field are generally limited to science graduates that have specialised in physics and mathematics. These highly sought after 'problem solvers' are considered to be of great value in areas such as telecommunications, precision engineering, and software sectors. These areas were growing at incredible speed up to a few years ago. There has been something of a slowdown, but the signs are that the telecommunications and software sectors are making a come-back. Salaries are good in these fields, and a postgraduate degree is an essential requirement for many specific areas within the sector.

Environment

There are a growing number of jobs available to science graduates interested in what can loosely be called the environment. Researchers are needed to investigate climate change, the impact of carbon-dioxide emissions, fossil fuel usage, the benefits of renewable energies (non polluting energies such as wind and wave power), and water pollution.

Ireland, having signed the Kyoto Protocol on reducing carbon dioxide emissions, is committed to supporting research into renewable energy sources. At present, Ireland does not have enough engineering graduates to work in this area, and this year, additional research grants are being made available to support energy research.

Industry is no longer allowed ignore its impact on the environment, and experts are needed to ensure that processes are clean and safe. Before an industry can set up a plant, it must submit a detailed environmental impact report to the planning authorities, who will then independently assess that report. If the company receives permission to build its production plant, it must then make sure that it is not excessively polluting local water supplies or soil.

Qualified scientists are required by industry to ensure they meet environmental regulations, and they are also required by the planning authorities to ensure that industry meets its obligations under the planning laws. So, what's good for the environment is also good for science graduates in search of an interesting career.

Patents

Aside from teaching, science graduates get jobs in the civil service. Some, although numbers are small, go into the Patents Office. This job, which is highly varied, centres around obtaining, protecting and granting legal monopolies on new products and processes, so that the people with the original ideas, or 'intellectual property' can benefit from protection.

The work includes drafting of plans relevant to a patent specification, understanding the patent application process, patent strategy and patent control. Because new ideas are so important commercially, scientists are being encouraged to understand the need for patent protection. All universities have set up commercial offices that provide advice to researchers on whether their research could be developed into something with commercial merit and be protected.

This is another source of future jobs, as it is likely that third-level institutes will expand their commercial arms in coming years, in line with the government's wish that more research in the university is translated into something that is economically valuable.

Communications

This is an attractive option to many students, but it should be remembered that the number of opportunities to use science in communications are limited. Most of the large institutions and universities now have outreach programmes, involved in promoting science, particularly among schools, so there are a few jobs there for science graduates with experience or a qualification in communications.

A small number of science graduates go into writing or journalism careers. Technical writing, as required for instructional manuals and reports, or scientific abstracts, can be well paid, but it is a small niche.

While a number of science graduates, with good communication skills have gone into mainstream journalism in print or broadcasting, very few manage to specialise as science writers. Compared to the UK, Europe, or the US, our population is low, so the market for science journalism is small and, in spite of the high profile of science here, only one newspaper in Ireland employs a science correspondent. One of the reasons why Science Spin was established was to provide an Irish outlet for science writers.

Sales and Marketing

Scientists are valued by pharmaceutical and healthcare companies for their ability to explain how drugs, medical devices, or healthcare products can benefit people.

Some science graduates may decide that they don't want to work in a laboratory setting, and might be keen to use their people skills to good effect. For these graduates - with lots of get up and go - there are ample opportunities to get into sales and marketing, and while it can be a pressurized job, requiring the regular meeting of sales targets, it can be rewarding, and well paid.

Most companies will provide their representatives with a good new car, and a decent salary starting off, so these graduates can be the envy of their friends. However, remember that this career is not for everyone, and those choosing to go down this road must work very hard to make their way up the corporate ladder.