How My STEM Degree Opened Doors Outside of Academia

Upon arrival at university, I thought I had my career all figured out: undergraduate STEM degree, further post-graduate studies and then ultimately end up working in a scientific lab. I had fallen for the common misconception that studying a STEM subject will only lead to a research-driven career, occupied by pipettes and petri dishes. But once I began job-hunting, I realised that a STEM degree was much more valuable and transferrable than I once thought.

While at university, my biomedical sciences degree consisted of a range of both non-vocational and vocational modules. Much to my surprise, I didn’t enjoy the traditional laboratory-based modules as I struggled with the practical aspects of experiments. In contrast, I enjoyed my vocational modules much more, such as Global Health and Science Communications & Policy. These modules allowed me to exercise my creativity and helped me to understand how science works in a real-world setting. I realised I enjoyed learning about science outside of the lab and applying my scientific knowledge more creatively.

During my final year, I chose whether I wanted to pursue a laboratory-based dissertation or take part in a work placement in an industry environment. As I had already briefly experienced what life was like in a lab, I decided to take the work placement route to gain some professional experience.

Armed with my new passion and work experience, I approached my university’s career advisors, who introduced me to alternative careers outside of a research lab. It turns out there is a wealth of career paths out there for STEM graduates: public health policy, journalism, medical affairs, and healthcare consulting, to name a few. These career paths still use your scientific expertise, but in a different way to how you would traditionally use this knowledge in the laboratory setting. As a result, STEM graduates are among the most rapidly sought after graduates in the workforce as you develop your analytical, communication and problem-solving skills.

Applying for jobs after university

Towards the end of my degree, the time finally came to begin applying for jobs. Once I realised just how many routes I could pursue, I decided to keep my options open and apply for a range of jobs. I would urge any student always to be open-minded when applying for jobs, after all any opportunity is still a great learning experience! 

I’m sure anyone who has applied to jobs post-university will agree that job-hunting is not an easy task (especially in a pandemic). Receiving job rejections can be disheartening, but each application is a good learning opportunity to make the next one even better. Employers are keen to hear about your university experience, and they want to understand how your STEM degree is applicable to their job role. For example, a failed lab experiment demonstrates resilience and your problem-solving abilities, a skill that is necessary for pretty much every job out there.

Exploring science journalism

Following my interest in science communications at university, I decided to explore jobs in science journalism. In science communications and policy, we explored different forms of science communication, like film, video, infographics and even podcasts. In a time where communicating science to the public is so important, I wanted to have a go at communicating my academic knowledge to the general public who may not have a science background. I spend the majority of my time, like many of us, reading a lot of journalism on social media, so I thought why not dabble in trying to create the content I like to consume!

My first opportunity post-graduation came as an internship at New Scientist magazine, the UK-based magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Through this internship, I worked alongside esteemed editors at the magazine to publish articles on the latest scientific research. Science journalism was, for me, the perfect blend as I was still able to use my scientific expertise when reading new academic papers and interviewing researchers. Science journalism is a fast-paced environment filled with people from more traditional science research backgrounds, and even some writers who do not have a science background at all! I was able to experiment with different forms of science communications, including podcasts, video and long-form writing. My colleagues also urged me to write about all things science-related, not just biomedicine, so I wrote about space, technology, climate change, and ancient humans. I even got to review some books and film documentaries for the magazine; never did I think I would be paid to watch TV and write about it!

Once I had a taste of science journalism, I moved on to another internship at The Wall Street Journal to write about health policy and politics. My degree again came in handy here when writing about global health issues and how they intersect with political decisions. Equipped with my writing experience from the previous internship, I wrote longer pieces about health policy during the quick-moving pandemic for a global audience. Without my degree in biomedical sciences, I would not have been accurately able to explain scientific concepts to the lay audience, like how vaccines work and when a country achieves herd immunity (and I’m still wrapping my head around it!).

Entering healthcare consulting

When my internship at Wall Street Journal ended, I was slightly torn about what to tackle next. I wanted to gain some professional experience in a business environment, one which required me to use my analytical skills a little more. I was reminded of the different routes introduced to me at university: one of which was healthcare consulting. Now, what is healthcare consulting? 

Healthcare consultancies provide pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical devices companies with strategic advice on how to promote the growth of their products amongst patients, healthcare providers and regulators. For example, when a pharmaceutical company is launching a new drug, they need to know exactly where to launch, how to price their product, and what commercial strategy to implement to ensure as many patients as possible use their product. This is an area I particularly was fascinated by following the pandemic – these pharmaceutical companies have saved countless lives with their innovative vaccines, but just how?

Now, I work at a healthcare consultancy, working with pharmaceutical companies to ensure their drugs reach as many people as possible to ultimately improve patients’ lives. My knowledge from my STEM degree is particularly useful in this role as I have an understanding of how the body processes drugs and have a sound knowledge of various diseases and conditions. However, I also have exposure to the business side of pharmaceuticals and understand how these companies ultimately operate. In comparison to my previous experience, consulting requires much more critical thinking, something I also developed at university. For me, healthcare consulting has the perfect balance of creativity, analytical thinking, and routine. It also offers an excellent route for progression, constantly presenting you with challenging situations to tackle and learn from.

Although the professional environment is very different to an academic one, my experiences at university have helped to shape my simple consulting skills, such as delivering verbal presentations and writing formal reports.

So, what have I learnt?

Within just over a year of graduating with a STEM degree, I have had multiple jobs in different sectors, all of which drew on different experiences from my academia. By keeping my options open, internships were a great opportunity to try something out for a short amount of time. I’ve never been one to know exactly what I’ve wanted to do for the rest of my life, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this. But the one thing I am sure of, is that my STEM degree has enabled me to gain these opportunities and make the most of them. Your opportunities as a STEM student do not end at the laboratory door!

Karina Shah is an Associate at Deallus at the time of writing, after graduating from Imperial College London with a BSc in Medical Biosciences.