I'm currently a staff research associate. I graduated from a good college with a degree in molecular & cell biology. I have a co-authored paper in a top journal. I'm pretty sure I can cut it in grad-school getting a PhD in some form of biology at a pretty respectable. However... I'm not keen on being behind a lab bench after getting my PhD. I don't particularly like lab-work... which is sort of a conundrum because I'm fairly good at it and at research.

My question is as follows. What lines of work (pharmaceutical, biotech, business/law, etc.) and job opportunities are common to people who are fresh out with a PhD who don't want to be behind a lab bench (i.e. not a post-doc).

I used to be in molecular biology but I HATE lab work! I'm now doing a PhD in a different field after converting via an MPhil. That's always a possibility. I think you might find a PhD that depends on lab work a miserable experience. Other friends of mine did the following:

scientific officer civil service
administering research grants
scientific publishing (one went to Nature, another books and now has his own business)
pharmacuetical/medical writing (often advertised)
TV (after Nature, she went to BBC documentaries - very tough admission process)
converted to law
careers advisor (science specialism)

But my personal advice would be to do your PhD is something more agreeable - even if that means doing an MSc/MPhil first.

Patent law and intellectual copyright could be interesting.

check out the institute of biology website:

http://www.iob.org/general.asp?section=education_careers/education_iob/careers

Click the links on the left. In particular, check out 'a week in the life of a biologist'. Hope that's helpful, good luck!

Hi,

I don't know much about the pharmaceutical line of work, but you could always try looking on job boards, they will have a wide range of jobs suitable for graduates, in all fields.

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If you don't like lab work i don't advice you do a PhD.