A recent survey of all alumni of our DTP1 and DTP2 programmes provides a snapshot of their career trajectories and insights into how the DTP programme helped to launch their careers.
Of the 65 responses, all but one are currently employed with roughly a third in academic research, a third in biotech or pharma companies and the remaining third applying their skills in a variety of science-related professions, such as consulting, medical writing and scientific publishing. The vast majority (92%) agreed that the transferable skills they had acquired in the DTP were useful to them now, while a slightly lower proportion (85%) have continued to use the technical skills they acquired.
A very encouraging finding was that 49% of responses mentioned the Professional Internships for PhD Students (PIPS) as being the part of the programme that had the strongest impact on their career choices, allowing them to make informed decisions, providing skills later used in their jobs and making them more desirable to employers. Notably, this included many who are still in academia as well as those who have moved into other sectors.
The results show the strengths of the programme in not only providing excellent research projects in our world-leading research laboratories, but also in offering outstanding opportunities for training and work experience in diverse professional environments.
We aim to stay actively engaged with our alumni as part of our DTP community and look forward to interacting with them at events like our PIPS and Annual Symposia, where a number have already taken part in careers panels and some have even offered PIPS placements!
Prof Chris Smith, Programme Director, said: “The whole DTP team were highly gratified by the results of this survey, which show how well the DTP programme equips its students for future employment in various parts of the thriving bio-economy. Being able to show the variety of exciting career options available to PhD graduates will help our mission to recruit talented students from diverse backgrounds.”