Question: Hi Suze If i was asked to think about jobs regarding science degree's I would tend to only think of jobs in the medical profession, i was suprised to find that most of the scientists have jobs outside of medicine would you ever consider doing any work in the medical profession would the degrees's you have gained allow you to do so? Thanks for your time RachelTA

Suze Kundu answered on 13 Jun 2011:

Hi Rachel!

Great question. I guess everyone thinks that science means medicine. I was lucky at school in that we had a great careers team, helping us make decisions. If we couldn’t decide (I definitely didn’t know what I wanted to be ‘when I grow up’ – and I still don’t!), then we were encouraged to study something that interested us, while leaving a lot of doors open.

I would consider doing some research with the medical profession. For example, some of the work within our group, using the same technology that I’m using for water splitting, can be coated onto hospital equipment to kill bacteria and superbugs like MRSA, which cause a lot of problems when people catch these bugs in hospital, when they might already be feeling weak from an illness or treatment that they’ve had.

I don’t know whether I could switch to medical drug development, as my branch of chemistry is very far away from that, although if I put in the hard work, I’m sure it wouldn’t be impossible. That is an area called organic chemistry. It is really useful, but everything is a colourless powder, and I needed more colours on my lab bench, so I chose inorganic chemistry!

It would be possible for me to train to be a Doctor, however I would have to take a four year grauate conversion course. These are for people that have a degree, but want to do something more vocational (which is training for a really specific job, like a Doctor, or a Lawyer). Conversion courses are available for medicine and law, although I don’t know whether any other courses exist at the moment.

Personally, I am really squeamish, and a total scaredy cat, and I don’t think that I could handle working as a Doctor in a surgery or hospital, so it’s definitely not for me!

Thanks for your time too. We’re all really enjoying the questions, as it is making us all think outside of our own little worlds! It’s very easy to get lost in your own work 🙂