What sorts of jobs are there in scientific consulting?
Corie Lok
Tuesday, 15 July 2008 16:06 UTC
(I’m reposting this from the Naturejobs forum. It was posted anonymously.)
Hello,
I have the following question. I am now hesitating between struggling for entry-level faculty positions or try an alternative career in industry. Having analyzed my expertise, I realized that the points that I can offer to a commercial company are the following: I know several fields around molecular and systems biology, bioinformatics and biophysics and know how to combine the field. I am also good in internet-based communications. However I am not interested in a work as a programmer or in a wet molecular biology lab. I am thinking, that what I would be interested in, is to advise on different science-related decisions such as future technological directions, investments, getting/offering funding, PR, etc. So, finally, this job is probably a “scientific consultant”. I do not see any advertisements like this, and probably such a job may be found only through personal connections. What do you think? Can you advise where to look for such positions?
Thanks!
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Replies
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There is often a divide in the Science community between an academic route or industry. The reality is there are many posts ouside these boxes that may suit you. Consultancy is a braod term, but government departments (DIUS, defra and DH), including research councils, Environment agency and RDAs, funding charities, science journals, all need scientifically trained staff.
Jobs are often advertised in Nature or NS, or Guardian (Monday) another route is www.researchresearch.com.
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Hello,
Brian gave you a couple of links – on the other hand, I also find that many of these ‘scientific consultant’ jobs are not advertised, but you converge into them from different career paths, and by building yourself a unique skillset you can then suitably employ.
If you are not lucky to find suitable offers right after your PhD, you could try either the communication path (PR, Scientific Publishing etc) or gain some experience working for a ‘conventional’ consultancy firm specialising on biotech, or get into patenting or pharma business development, while trying to discover how to find the position you are aiming for.
Good luck !
Matthias
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i agee with the broad thrust of all this. i have actually seen a number of jobs over the last few weeks for positions similar to the ones described by the enquirer.
One point is I think worth making. Most of the consultancies I work with here at my college would like scientists (PhD’s or post-docs) to come in as ‘consultants’ rather than ‘scientific consultants’ particularly at the point of entry. They want people to be open to the variety of cases that may come their way. It is a big leap for trained scientists to drop the title of ‘scientist’ since this may be a key part of the way they define themselves; particularly if the new title they are being offered ‘consultant’ has no meaning or valency for them. They are not trained in it – what does it mean? However a search for consultancy roles may be more fruitful, and may paradoxically bring them to influence the role of new discovery and new technology in the economy. Hope this makes sense – my comemnts come from many conversations with PhD students contempalting a move awy from the bench.
