Since the rise of biotechnology in the 1970s, the worlds of bioscience and business have drawn ever closer together. But for jobseekers interested in the biosciences industry, how much of an asset is business training? It may offer some advantages. The pharmaceutical industry, for example, is suffering serious job losses (see Nature 448, 965; 2007), but there still are jobs available, and business training is one way to get a leg up. The extent to which that training translates into broadened opportunities is hard to quantify. The Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, California, which specializes in bioscience degrees that incorporate business skills, has released a report that assesses the situation (see http://www.kgi.edu/x6503.xml).
Molly Schmid and Helen Liu looked at the 3,790 jobs that were open in July at the top five revenue-generating drug companies (Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Merck and Johnson & Johnson) and the top four biotechnology firms (Amgen, Genentech, Biogen IDEC and Genzyme). The results may surprise life-science researchers.
Roughly 17% of the jobs were for positions in research and development (R&D); the rest were for jobs related to the business side of the companies. Of these, 7% were in manufacturing, 24% were in administration (including duties such as information technology, finance and legal services), 25% were regulatory jobs (such as quality control, technical writing and statistical analysis), and 27% were in sales and marketing.
Schmid says the results are a bit of a wake-up call. "Academics don't typically see or think about what types of jobs are available in industry," she says. "Many will be truly surprised. They probably thought there'd be more R&D."
The study is, of course, just a snapshot of one month. But the numbers underscore the importance of having multiple skill sets. "Students need to appreciate the types of jobs for which their science educations might be preparing them," says Schmid. "And they might not be getting that message in their organic chemistry labs."