Case studies: Safety pharmacologist: Paul

Paul graduated with a degree in biochemistry and biological chemistry and then went on to gain an MSc in Pharmacology. He now works as a safety pharmacologist with Pfizer.

During my undergraduate and postgrad courses, I gained industrial experience within the pharmaceutical industry, including some in vivo experience (research with whole living things). I was interested in safety pharmacology because of the variety of the work and the opportunities on offer.

After graduating, I worked at a pharmaceutical company on a temporary contract through an agency while I applied for permanent jobs. I looked at the Pfizer website and saw vacancies in drug safety that appealed to me, and I applied online for a role in safety pharmacology.

The assessment process involved going to the Pfizer site for an evening dinner, followed by a day of interviews. During this interview day, I had the opportunity to meet a variety of people from the department, people from HR and new graduates.

When I joined the company, I had a comprehensive induction programme. My on-the-job and off-the-job training is ongoing. Since starting work, I have undertaken technical training in Functional Observation Battery (FOB), Plethysmography and modules 1-4 of the Home Office Licence. I have also been involved in safety pharmacology training, some exploratory work and various personal development courses.

Pfizer takes on graduates from a variety of degree disciplines, but my degree and masters courses were very relevant to the job I'd applied for. For example, a good understanding of pharmacological theory and analysis is important to be effective in the role, and many key concepts from my courses are directly relevant to my day-to-day work. My Masters course enabled me to gain a high level of familiarity with the latest advances and techniques used in pharmacology as well as experience of working on commercially relevant topics.

A typical day for me would involve organising the paperwork for planning a study, preparing the study with technicians and then analysing the results after the study has been performed. I would also liaise with statisticians and the quality assurance team to make sure that both the study and the analysis had been done properly. My favourite parts of the job are being in the lab, doing experiments and working as part of a multidisciplinary team. I really enjoy problem solving and doing well-designed experiments efficiently.

My career goals are to work up the career ladder, be competent with as many laboratory techniques as possible and become multi-skilled in several areas of work in order to be involved in more studies.

To be successful in this type of role in industry, you need to be keen to learn new skills and techniques, be enthusiastic about laboratory work and be willing and able to contribute your ideas on how to improve things. My advice to others interested in this career area would be to gain as much relevant work experience as possible, as this gives you an advantage when applying for jobs and going for interviews. More importantly, it's useful for finding out if this is the type of work you'd like to do.