Career Advice

Bill or any other member of Biotest staff, I hope you can give me a little advice. I am a junior majoring in bio-chemical engineering and am greatly interested in working in the supplement of pharmaceutical industries after graduation. I realize that there is a lot more to learn than what you get with a B.S… What individual study would you recommend? Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, I am very grateful for all the time you take from what I am sure is a very busy schedule to lend some of your expertise to the knowledge thirsty masses of T-mag readers.

I have to admit I’ve never even heard of biochemical engineering. Chemical engineering, of course, and biochemistry, but hadn’t heard of biochemical engineering and don’t know what it is.

There is high demand in the pharmaceutical industry for analytical chemists. You cannot reasonably be hired as a synthetic organic chemist unless one of the top students from one of very few schools (just how it is.) Medicinal chemistry is a field I think is interesting and
has significant employment. Toxicology and clinical chemistry might have job opportunities but I don’t know. A PharmD, meaningless though it is (OK, I’m exaggerating there) is the best ticket in the pharmaceutical industry even though it is not a legitimate doctorate (does not involve, as does a PhD, the development and contribution of original knowledge and findings, nor does it, as with MD, involve development of the same levels of skills and knowledge and ability to treat people, nor does it involve nearly as much graduate education as either.)

So those are my suggestions there.