Science degree..what have you done career wise

[ProfessorLayton1]

Just curious.. what have you done since graduation ?

Travelled around troubleshooting on factories, managed a lab, got my name on some patents when i was in R&D, then quit as they wouldn't reduce my hours or offer compressed hours when both kids were at school. Now a SAHM.

should have added how much you earn as well?
I have done a vocational course so there was only one path and you knew what you were getting at..

I didn't study science at uni, but the people I know who did:

• physics teacher, now headteacher of a secondary school
• works in IT
• owns his own business (specialist sports clothing and equipment)

Chartered accountant!!!!

Physicist
Worked in research
Now a teacher
None of your business

I did a physics degree in 1990, then a PhD, and now I work in IT at a university, but part time, as I also do lots of voluntary work as a school governor and run a STEM club.

Salary is 48K (full time equivalent, but in practice I only do 0.5FTE), but could easily be higher if I wanted to manage people rather than 'just' be an analyst, or if I wanted to work in a different sector (which I don't at the moment - universities are family friendly working environments and full of interesting people).

I'm married to another physicist, who I met when we were recent graduates in our first job. We earned the same now, but he works for an oil company and earns 90K+. Again he could earn more if he was the managerial ladder-climbing type, but both of us prefer an easy life. He's usually home by 5.30pm and that's the way we both like it.

Neither of us have ever had any problem changing jobs - people are always impressed by STEM qualifications from good universities. So long as you're generally a sensible person with good emotional intelligence and can string a sentence together there's no excuse for not doing well in life once you have a science degree under your belt.

Thank you
Bloke - we both are doctors so sort of science related but no idea what scientist do apart from academic work.
I did a stint in molecular biology but it was not for me although I enjoyed it .
My Dd wants to do STEM degree but she is constantly been told that she won't earn well and she has to be in lab all the times .
She is vaguely interested in Chemistry/ biology degree but feels that she does not have the passion some people have for their subjects. To be honest she is not passionate about anything else apart from when she argues about social inequality and feminism
SHe has just started her AS levels but so stressed that she is making a wrong choice.
This will help me to tell her that if she does not like basic science there are other jobs she can do

A science degree will lead to as many opportunities as any other- graduate jobs, accountancy, law, finance etc.

Science wise, yes the pay is generally shit. Academia you need to really love it, short term contracts, competitive, low pay. There is research in industry which is much better paid.

The nhs is a fairly big employer, clinical scientists, researchers etc. Clinical trials too.

What about pharmacy? Good money, and can go into research and a phd at the end, or into hospital or community pharmacy. Lots specialise and research at the same time, so in chemotherapy or diabetes for example.

The police employ scientists in forensics, both lab, csi, and as researchers. Forensic it is a growing area.

I've never been brilliantly paid, but my research skills have meant i can find a job pretty much anywhere.

She sounds like I was at her age. I was passionate about social inequality and also the environment and not much else

I am now ancient (52 years old) but I did a degree in Chemistry with Management Studies at Kings College London (graduated in 1985).

I ended up working in various consultancy/market research agencies for about 20 years. You need to have a good eye for detail, be good with numbers, able to present your data in an interesting and coherent way both visually and verbally in presentations and reports

I did quite a lot of travelling to visit and present to clients and also a lot of very focused work analysing data at my desk. I also had to design research projects to meet client aims so would have to liaise with different sorts of service providers and be able to organise large multi country research projects.

I was earning around £50K (FT salary) in 2007. After DS was born in 2004, I moved to 3 days a week ( for £30K pa) then up to to 4 days a week (at £40K pa) . I was only able to go part time though because I had worked at the same company for more than 5 years when DS was born and they wanted to keep me.

Then we had the 2008 crash and the company I worked in went under. We then moved as a family and it proved impossible to find a part time job in the same work in the area we moved to area.

My choice was to change the type of work I did or to get a FT job commuting between 1-2 hours away each way. As Ds was still small and I didn't want to work full time, with over an hour commute each way, I applied for and got an admin job at a local university at a fraction of my previous salary I them moved to another admin role in the same university about 3 years later and now, have moved to a full time role at the same place in a business/market analyst role.

I got this last role because of my previous (albeit a bit out of date) experience in market research agencies. It is not as well paid as my previous jobs in agencies but as interesting and much more flexible (even though it is full time)

Overall though I am not sure I would recommend MR agencies. I do enjoy much of the job but Market Research agencies are not fantastic for offering flexible working in my experience. There is more flexibility I think if you work in market research departments/functions of client companies instead.

I would say though that if she is passionate about

My cousin did a pharmacy degree and was a Management Consultant at PWC earning £150K going into places such as GSK to advise.

If she does STEM subjects as A levels and a STEM degree she can still do a Law Conversion and LPC in 2 years post grad to become a solicitor ( as long as she has AAB/2.1 degree)

Biology degree, worked in a lab for a few years at entry level, went travelling, came back at the end of the recession and couldn't get another lab job- did an msc in molecular biology and then worked in the teaching technician labs at various universities (3-2 of which I had to move to London for). Heading back up north next month to a managerial role within a uni on 35k. Been 4 year since graduated from masters

Does math count? I'm a business analyst

DH did maths and computer science and he's an IT contractor

Chemistry degree.
Went straight into software and computing. Now Big data.
Tech support
Consulting
Project management
Product development
Business strategist
Commercial Development
Senior Exec at top global company leading multi million £ line of business.
Salary started off as graduate on £21k
Now six figures salary plus bonus, pensions and shares a very generous 50% extra on top.
Never ever worked in Science but Chemistry opened doors!!

18 years work experience and full time single working mum I might add!

Like Zodlebud I am a chartered accountant, but have moved into a specialist role

I did a biomedical sciences degree, and I currently work in surgical sales it's very medical and I enjoy it, I did think about going into research/teaching but the pay put me off

At the management consulting firm I did a bit of work for, they always tried to hire people with science / engineering degrees as they have the best analytical skills.

Scary numbers of Accountants have science / Engineering degrees.
Most Actuaries have maths degrees

Visiting unis for open days, attending the Science/Biomedical talks, it’s been mentioned quite frequently that many graduates go accounting/finance jobs, as the skills they’ve learnt are transferable to other jobs.

Biology degree, graduated in 1998, now a lab manager

Someone on another sciency thread said there was a huge lack of ppl with Bioinformatics skills, so it may be something she could look into?

I did chemistry with medicinal chemistry & worked in clinical research - both monitoring sites & managing studies.
Left to SAHP /HE

Multiple degrees including PHD
Postdoc
Changed career to clinical research
Not giving exact figure. 50-100k bracket.

She doesn't need to be in he lab the whole time. If she wants to earn money then a business based approach is the way to go - pharma, clinical research organisation etc. Or of course any of the numerate professions (actuarial, consultancy etc.)

Academia/Wet lab work is only one option. And rarely the best paid.

A science degree is always useful. Keep it as numerate as you can, try to get a year in industry if you can. Network and find out where each path leads.

'Science' is also a broad church. A biology degree may open or close doors that a degree in chemical engineering/biostatistics doesn't. Personally, the harder and more applicable the science the better. I wish I'd not done a biochem/genetics degree - it was fascinating but in retrospect more mathematical / practical chemical stuff would have been more lucrative.

As long as she comes out literate, numerate and with a good grasp of her subject she will be ok. Some stint in industry even better

Bagel, what is bioinformatics?

CookieDough, how does one get into Big Data?