Scientific research and development: roles for doctoral graduates

Just over 2% of the 2008/9 cohort of doctoral graduates were employed in the sector six months after graduation, and ‘What Do Researchers Do?' shows that 8.8% of UK-employed doctoral graduates were in the broader R&D sector (which includes the pharmaceutical industry) three and a half years after graduation. In 2009, 33% of companies in the sector which did recruit, recruited a member of staff with a doctorate².

Doctoral graduates from recent years are known to have worked in the sector in the following profiled roles.

• Actuaries
• Analytical chemists
• Biochemists
• Biologists
• Chemists
• Doctors (including junior doctors, GPs and consultants)
• Economists
• Editors
• Electrical engineers
• Electronic engineers
• Financial analysts
• Geologists
• IT consultants
• Management consultants
• Marketing executives
• Microbiologist
• Medical scientists
• Metallurgists and material scientists
• Production, works and maintenance managers
• Public relations officers
• Research and development managers
• Research mathematicians
• Research psychologists
• Science and engineering technicians
• Social science, arts and humanities researchers
• Software designers, programmers and engineers
• Statisticians
• University and higher education lecturers