3. Communications

Communicating extremely technical scientific concepts to customers, investors and the public provides a huge challenge that requires a thorough scientific grounding and excellent communication skills.

• Public & Investor Relations Perhaps nowhere is a well thought out and immediately responsive public relations strategy as important as in companies which are in a financially volatile sector. These companies are also subject to a vast amount of regulation and are frequently confronted with difficult ethical questions. Public Relations concentrates on projecting a positive company image to customers and the general public. Investor Relations focuses on those who control funding - venture capitalists, banks and institutional investors.

• Technical & Medical Writing This can cover a wide range of activities from producing reports on clinical trials in order to register new drugs, to writing technical guides to new laboratory instruments or products or advertising for new drugs or products. In all cases, you must have excellent writing skills and be articulate and accurate with an excellent eye for detail. At the more creative end of the spectrum, for example medical advertising, creativity may be more important than a technical background.

• Clinical Trial Management Several clinical trials are required for every new medical product that is used on humans, and each requires people in a number of different disciplines to design, implement and analyse the trial. Knowledge in matters medical and statistical are likely to be of particular use