Medical Laboratory Jobs in London

Hokuto

Hello. I am thinking of moving to London because I find it difficult to find a laboratory-based job in Ireland. I have a degree in Biomedical Science and I graduated last year. I would like to work either as a medical scientist or a laboratory assistant. I wonder if there's more opportunities available in London rather than Ireland? What's the employment climate like regarding to the medical laboratory sector?

r3nu4l

When you say MedLab are you talking about hospital based MedLabs? Or would you be willing to work in Industry?

Is there a particular reason why you are considering London over other parts of the UK? Cambridge has a huge number of biotech and pharma companies as well as Addenbrooke's hospital for more traditional MedLab work.

Hokuto

Yes, I was referring to hospital based med labs as I have a degree on Biomedical Science. Having said that I would like to work in laboratories which aren't necessarily medical based (e.g pharma, food industry). I was thinking of finding work in London initially because of the number of hospitals with their own medical laboratories that were located in the city. I reckon that it'll be much easier to find work there rather than in Ireland.
I would like to give Cambridge a try though, thanks for the tip! I would look through all the companies and ask around, hoping there will be a glimmer of light in the cloud of my unemployment blues!

r3nu4l

Check that your MedLab qualifications are valid over in the UK and that you only have to register rather than doing any new exams

As for companies in Cambridge there is Cambridge science Park, Granta Park (that's a google result, there's no centralised page listing companies there) and the Babraham Institute (academic).

Note that the 'jobs' sections on their websites aren't up to date. You're better off contacting companies individually by email or phone.

Other than that there is the University and the Genome campus housing the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institure (sequenced 1/3 of the human genome) and the European Bioinformatics Institute. Neither of the latter are good for 'wet-lab' scientists these days. Sanger axed most of their wet-lab research a couple of years ago to give greater resource to the computational biology side.

Hokuto

Cheers for that r3nu4l. Well in order for me to work in the UK as a medical scientist I have to register first to the HPC (Health Professions Council) and the wait could be for months. I have applied for a few laboratory assistant jobs which does not require me to register to any professional body (Newcastle, London, Cambridge).
Maybe it's better for me to contact whoever's in charge by phone as e-mails are generally ignored

djpbarry

www.jobs.ac.uk is a good site for science/academic/laboratory jobs.

Hokuto

djpbarry: Cheers for that!
I've just gotten myself an interview for a medical scientist job in Drogheda via the HSE. I hope that I will get through the interview(s) and possibly land myself a job. If I am not successful than to the UK I will go!