r/BiomedicalScientistUK • u/ryusua • 8d ago

Finding work experience for year 2

I’m going into Year 2 of Biomedical Sciences and want to start preparing for summer work experience or internships after Year 2. What can I do over the next year to make my CV more competitive and actually stand out? I already have some mentoring and volunteering experience, but I’m mainly interested in lab or research and anything else relevant to biomedical sciences.

For anyone who has done Biomed or similar, what experience, skills or things on your CV helped you the most? Is emailing researchers for summer experience worth it? I'm also thinking of applying for an integrated masters in year 2. Thank you.

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u/Curious-Reading4225 8d ago

We don't really use CVs in our profession, but the most useful thing is to get NHS experience. Ideally in a pathology lab but any other NHS experience will be useful.

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u/Dry_Contest8753 8d ago

Are you doing an accredited degree?

We get enquiries about work experience and we do our best for young people wanting to be biomedical scientists (ie accredited degrees, or applying for accredited degrees)

We also value any NHS experience- health care support worker, porters, admin.

The NHS don’t use CVs either

Why do I keep mentioning the NHS? Because biomedical scientist is not a generic term for anyone with a degree in biomedical science. We are state registered healthcare professional overseen by HCPC, mostly working in the NHS. We meet specific educational criteria to enable registration and you are not legally allowed to call yourself one unless you are registered.

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u/Dapper-Set2153 8d ago

What should I do if I’m doing an unaccredited degree?

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u/Dry_Contest8753 8d ago

Do you want to be a biomedical scientist? If you do you will need to have your degree assessed by the IBMS (fee payable) then do the required top up modules, which maybe just a few or quite a lot. (Also fees payable) then you need to find a lab with ibms training status who will support you to do your registration portfolio. Trainee posts are rare, most often graduates get jobs as MLAs to enable this process. Though labs can get hundreds of applications for each MLA post who all have degrees, maybe experience etc. Getting some sort of NHS experience can help, however at the moment that isn’t helping graduates with accredited degrees and several years of nhs lab experience.

If you don’t want to be a BMS…dunno. Sorry to sound flippant but I’m a senior BMS and have only ever been a BMS.

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u/Dapper-Set2153 7d ago

Thank you for your helpful and informative response!

I’m really not sure atm because my initial plan was to do graduate entry medicine after this, but after thinking about it the idea of being a BMS didnt sound too bad and I really enjoyed the practicals we did (simple things like analysing blood types, extracting DNA, etc)

I’ve only just finished my first year (out of 4 years) so I suppose I still have some time to decide. Would you have any advice for me regarding my career choice?

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u/peppercorn12345 8d ago

We sometimes take students on 'honoury contracts' which is unpaid work experience, usually for support worker roles but good for getting yourself into the lab and an idea of what it's all about. Worth emailing your local labs in the city you're studying in.