Industrial Scientists

Industrial scientists work in the private sector, often in pharmaceutical companies where they are involved in developing and testing new drugs and other treatments. While some stick with the science, others choose to go into general management.

We interviewed a number of industrial scientists, mostly working in pharmaceutical companies.

The scientists usually had phds, although some had joined their companies, at more junior levels, with Masters of undergraduate degrees.

Although these scientists had often enjoyed their academic work, they did not want to become academics. What these scientists really found exciting was the opportunity of applying their research to real settings – for example, developing drugs that would actually improve people’s lives.  They felt that by working in industry they could take their science through to the endpoint and see it translated into a product.  They also liked the fast pace of doing science in the private sector.

Scientists in this group recognised that they earned more money and often had better resources that university based scientists.  However the trade-off for this was seen as being that they had less autonomy and could not just follow their curiosity.  Instead, the science they did was dictated by business strategy, and underpinning most of what they did was a profit motive. They worked in teams on projects which could be cancelled by the company if not seen as commercially viable.

However, several of the industrial scientists we spoke to worked in pharmaceutical companies that placed a high value on academic science and so, in spite of the commercial nature of their work, they still occasionally wrote research papers and attended academic conferences. They enjoyed this because it was a way of staying in touch with cutting edge science and international scientific networks.

Many industrial scientists particularly appreciated the career structure available within large, private sector organizations, the opportunities for further training and development, and the chance to move into general management.