bachelor's in biotechnology?

[succubus]

What are the job opportunities for students with a bachelor's degree in biotechnology? What do the do? Are there opportunities for biotech grads in malaysia? Or is it necessary to pursue a postgraduate degree?

[dlearn]

It depends on what your want to work in. If you are academically good, do go for PhD studies and there should be plenty of chances to get some form of assistanships or scholarships.

The Biotech industry in Malaysia is still very young and it is not like the ICT industry that is relatively "high-end labour intensive" as a lot of work in the biotech arena can be done via mechanisation. In fact biotech is such a wide field I personally do not think that any one with a bachelor level degree would have sufficient depth in all the areas. On the other hand, as the varous industries develope around the biotechnology theme, more jobs will be available.

Not everyone works in the field they were trained in though. I was for one am not working in the field in which I was trained: agriculture, biotechnology, plant tissue culture!

[StupidCupid]

erm... from what i heard

(so i don't know whether this is true or not)

biotechnology is a "growing" field in malaysia and will be among the "hot" things just like IT in few years time...

and it is much more easier to get a scholarship if you are going into biotech...

these are just what i heard...

[succubus]

but what do people with degrees in biotech work as? Do they do anything other than research? Are there enough biotech jobs in the market? What is the pay like? Thanks

[dlearn]

The industry is still at it infancy. There are not that many employers from the private sector apart from a few private colleges and private uni for teaching jobs (which require Master or PhD degrees). The rest of the jobs are in R & D mainly in the government sectors and in public universities.

I would say most biotech graduates (and there are still not many around at present) will end up doing technical sales jobs or join other fields of work.

Don't worry about the job prospect that much. I have a PhD in plant micropropagation and after working 5 years in research, I have been working in the private higher education industry for the last 8 years. Going from teaching to management position. My friend who has a PhD from UPM in biotechnology (food biochemistry) ended up teaching biological sciences in Taylor's College. I have never taught biotechnology or plant tissue culture! What is important is, you need to have the right attitude, good personality and great PR and communication skills....guys like me will tend to give you full attention when we are hiring.

As I said before, the biotech field is just too wide. So I don't think anyone with an undergrad degree will be able to say he/she is ready to work in the biotech industry...you are still 'half baked' and need a lot of time to be trained.

At what stage of studies are you at present, succubus?

[succubus]

dlearn, thank you for your reply...
I am still doing foundation studies, and i am considering studying biotechnology in university.I find the subject interesting, and reading a book on mitochondrial dna(the 7daughters of eve - bryan sykes) piqued my interest. Isn't biotechnology the field to go into if i wish to do things like create new drugs, and obtain patents? Chem is not my best/most fav subject, so i ruled out pharmacy. Btw, based on your speculations, will there be any jobs in r & d in the private sector in the future, in say, 5 years? Other than teaching, and being in r & d, what are the other industries a biotech graduate to go into? So basically when you say a person with a bachelor's is only half-baked , a master's is an absolute must in order to 'survive' the real world?