• Question: How do you even become a scientist after uni

    Asked by anon-186224 to Verity, Trystan, Raquel, Danny, Catherine, Andy on 6 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Catherine Smith

      Catherine Smith answered on 6 Nov 2018:

      There are lots of different ways – it depends on the type of scientist. If you want to be a research scientist, one way is to get a job as research assistant in a lab. From there, you might decide to do a research degree (PhD or Masters). There are also scientists working for government organisations like the NHS or Public Health England, or private companies. Some of them have graduate programmes that you can apply to. It’s always a good idea to try to get some work experience to see what it is like in some of these jobs if you can.

    • Photo: Danny Ward

      Danny Ward answered on 6 Nov 2018:

      The route I am taking is through post-graduate training. I first did an ‘undergraduate’ bachelors degree in biological sciences (3 years). Then I moved on to a ‘post-graduate’ masters degree (1 year). Now currently I am study for a doctorate where I work in a lab for 3-4 years and write up my research findings in a big scientific thesis. Then I will be a research doctor and can conduct my own independent research or lead a research group at a university or research institute. I can also work in industry or government doing research, or working in other various scientific capacities. As well as this route, there are also new apprenticeships, company training schemes or entry-level positions where you can work your way up to become a scientist.

    • Photo: Trystan Leng

      Trystan Leng answered on 6 Nov 2018:

      There are lots of ways to become a scientist. Probably the most standard way is after completing your undergraduate degree, going to do a masters degree in a field that you might be interested doing a PhD in. After your masters, you can apply to do a PhD. For a PhD, you can apply for funding for a specific project, or you can join what is called a ‘centre for doctoral training’ which trains up lots of PhD students at once in fields that need more researchers. If you can get a bit of lab experience during your time at uni, that would be great!

      There are many other ways though, including graduate schemes – it depends on what sort of scientist you want to be, and whether you want to work in industry, government, or at a university.

    • Photo: Verity Hill

      Verity Hill answered on 7 Nov 2018:

      I think everyone else has answered this question well 🙂
      I personally did an undergraduate degree in Biology, and then a taught masters degree where I learned about all sorts of different diseases and the fundamentals of controlling them. I now do a research degree called a PhD.
      Then there’s all sorts of things you can do! You can stay in universities and become a professor, or you can work for a governmental organisation like the NHS, or you can work for an international organisation (like the world health organisation, or the european centres for disease control). Or you can go private and work for a pharmaceutical company for example. Science is a huge field! There’s all sorts of places you can go

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