Zoology

As a zoologist, your research and work will most likely fall under one or more of five thematic areas, as identified by the Institute of Zoology, part of the Zoological Society of London.

• behavioural and population ecology
• biodiversity and macroecology
• evolution and molecular ecology
• people, wildlife and ecosystems
• wildlife epidemiology

Academic career - R & D

If you want to carry on in the direction of your favourite discipline, then you could take a PhD and subsequent post-doctoral research with the goal of pursuing an academic career. 

When considering further study, it is important to note the differences between master's and doctorates, especially in terms of funding.

• Master's degrees are often self-funded, incur student debt, and allow you to deepen knowledge or refocus taught study direction.
• Doctorates are generally externally funded, tend not to incur student debt, and are always research orientated – they are much closer to your final year project than any taught element. 
• Doctoral Training Programmes (DTP), sometimes called 1+3s, have the advantage that a year of studying research approaches is spent before the PhD proper begins, but it is worth noting that they are highly competitive and more restricted in research scope than the more conventional three-year PhDs.

Entry requirements for masters degrees are usually 2.2 and for PhDs 2.1 at BSc level – master's degrees might help competitiveness but are not normally a requirement.  

It is not essential to progress academically to be involved in university research, nor is there any urgency to take further qualifications. 

Many graduates from life sciences courses move into teaching and education-related careers. But if that’s not for you, then you can translate your transferable skills into many different careers.

You will have developed skills such as:

• communication
• planning and organisation
• teamwork, collaboration, and relationship management
• self-efficacy

You will also have developed a host of professional behaviours, such as:

• self-awareness
• resilience
• reflective practice

We learn skills all the time across all areas of life, so don’t discount these valuable life-wide skills. Get comfortable understanding them, talking about them, and demonstrating them. It will be helpful for job interviews in the future.

Graduate courses in a variety of subjects are available. For example:

• graduate entry into medicine (GEM)
• graduate entry into nursing (GEN)
• physiotherapist, pharmacist, or counsellor conversion courses

In some cases condensed postgraduate courses are available to those who have covered relevant material, or foundation courses for those who have not.

Find out more about further study

Science degrees develop analytical, communication and numeracy skills and so there are many directions that a science graduate can take:

• Scientific career paths
• Science careers beyond the lab

Science and pharmaceuticals job profiles from Prospects summarise common destinations of those with science degrees who want to carry on using their degree, including

• bioinformatics
• health informatics
• intellectual property including patent attorney work
• medical sales
• medical writing
• science writing
• regulatory affairs
• science policy

There are also jobs such as teaching and education-related careers which draw on your scientific knowledge.

Zoology graduates enter a diverse array of roles spanning accountancy, actuarial work, banking, charity work, finance roles, legal roles, marketing, public relations, sales and so on.

Explore a range of graduate roles

As well as the skills developed on your course, participation in extracurricular and work experience, organisations large and small are also looking for students to have developed a range of attributes such as the following while at university. What employers seek from candidates is evolving all the time and it is important that you keep up to date with recruitment trends in the career areas that interest you.

Employers will recruit to the appropriate level of skill needed for the role. They will assume a standard level of attainment, knowledge and skills related to their degree.

Softer skills are the differentiators and will be tested at interview with competency-based scenarios around areas such as:

• Flexibility and adaptability to cope in fast paced environment with deadlines
• Teamwork
• Self-awareness
• Communication skills
• Attention to detail
• Accuracy
• Time management
• Planning
• Contingency planning (for example, for cell based assays, having a backlog of cells)
• Resilience the work can be stressful.
• Report writing skills, understanding core structure for a report, tone and content
• Critical thinking and problem solving
• Awareness of statistical analysis techniques
• Sector awareness is desirable
• Digital literacy

There are many places to look for information and listed below are some that we think you will find useful. It is not exhaustive and no doubt your own research will lead you to other websites.