After the LMB

You're just beginning your PhD, but do you know where it will take you yet?

Probably only a small proportion os PhD students would answer yes to this question at the outset, whilst the majority will express an intention to "see how it goes" before committing themselves to a specific future plan. This response is not a surprising one, as for most, the PhD itself will provide the first real experience of the world of research science and what it is like to live in it! So for those (few) who are certain of their lifelong committment to research, you can rest assured that the LMB will provide am excellent training ground and you are likely to leave a very desirable post-doc applicant. Nearly all LMB PhD students leave the lab with at least one significant first author paper. Most would-be-post-docs are able to find positions in the top labs of their field of choice, with American destinations being popular.Many LMB stidents are also able to win prestigious independent funding such as Wellcome or EMBO fellowships. If this is your career ambition, post-LMB, you need read no further!

For those of you less certain of your futures, the following is intended to reassure you that there is a breadth os other career options following your PhD and this qualification will probably enhance your chances of entering any career that you might choose.

A popular choice is to go into scientific industry and usually this means pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies. The main attractions here are better working conditions and pay, whilst the detraction in the eyes of the researcher is more limited scientific freedom (though this is not necessarily the case).

Business attracts another significant proportion of LMB graduates. Financial, services, banksing and management are all common career choices. The success that LMB graduates have in securing jobs in these highly competitive industries, well known for taking only the best, is an indication of the respect that and LMB/Cambridge PhD commands amoungst employers in all fields.

There are also a variety of other careers that are frequently pursued - various clinical professions from full-blown medical training to working on blood transfusion (to cite recent examples), Scientific publishing is also popular, as is teaching. Other less well-known options include careers in science administration in organisations such as MRC, CRUK, Wellcome, etc.

You should be confident that whatever you want to do after the LMB, the experience and the skills gained here will almost certainly help in enabling you to succeed!