Entry-level career paths in the life sciences: generic skills in Dutch job postings

Figures & data

Table 1. Overview of requested previous education: domain and degree.

Variable	Options from job postings	#	%
Education domain	Scientific	15	8.4
	Life Sciences or … (other field(s))	54	30.2
	Life Sciences	24	13.4
	Specific Life Sciences discipline or … (other discipline(s))	48	26.8
	Specific Life Sciences discipline	7	3.9
	No data/ no requirements	31	17.3
Education degree	University Master	60	33.5
	University Bachelor or Master	40	22.3
	Higher education (University of Applied Sciences/ University Master)	32	17.9
	University Bachelor	21	11.7
	University of Applied Sciences	9	5.1
	Degree	5	2.8
	College advance	1	0.6
	No data	11	6.1

Table 2. Codebook based on the categorisation of Dunne (in Bennett et al., 1999) with the generic skill name and the illustration in terms of ‘student is skilled in’. An asterisk (*) denoted an additional generic skill to the categorisation, a circumflex accent (^) indicated that a generic skill was placed in a different management of-category.

Management of self-category
Time-management	Estimate the time necessary to perform a task.
Goal-setting	Set a personal goal to work on.
Responsibility	Take responsibility over own work / learning, self-motivate.
Listening	Understand others by listening to others.
Learning	Develop / carry out strategies to learn new things.
Flexibility	Deal with new situations / ambiguity, think outside the box.
Transferability	Transfer knowledge / skills, etc. to new situations.
Planning	Plan actions to reach a (long-term) goal.
Reflecting	Critically think about own actions / consequences / intentions.
Handling feedback	Use received feedback in an effective manner.
Coping with stress	Handle and cope with stress.
Initiative*	Take initiative, work independently, be proactive.
Accuracy*	Work accurately, make few to none mistakes.
Organising*	Organise / structure work effectively, do administration work.
Research*	Perform research cycle activities, experiment, use methods.
Management of others-category
Agreeing	Meet deadlines, work reliable, do what was promised.
Respecting	Accept others, be open to other perspectives / opinions.
Adapting	Adjust to others’ / teams’ / clients’ needs, desires, or decisions.
Justifying	Justify and /or show determination of views or actions.
Leadership	Take the lead, assign tasks, make decisions, manage others.
Negotiating	Reach the middle ground, create a win-win situation.
Giving feedback	Offer useful feedback to others.
Collaborating	Working / learning with others (e.g. different backgrounds).
Supporting	Creating learning opportunities for others, helping others to learn.
Interpersonal*	Develop / maintain relationships, social skills, use empathy.
Management of information-category
Selecting	Select / gather information.
Technology	Use technology (e.g. software, programming skills).
Media	Use media, data visualisation.
Data handling	Represent / document data, use statistics / modelling techniques.
Language	Master a language.
Interpreting	Understand information and /or data, draw conclusions.
Communicating	Present, write, discuss information.
Critical	Critically review information.
Creativity	Use information creatively.
Analysing^	Think analytically, analyse (e.g. data), examine, identify problems.
Management of tasks-category
Key features	Identify important aspects of a task.
Conceptualising	Understand the requirements and content of a task.
Prioritising	Define / sequence the important aspects for task completion.
Options	Formulate different options to successfully complete a task.
Executing	Execute procedures, actions, organisation, implementation.
Assessing	Assess the progress / result of a task.
Problem solving*	Solve a problem, solution driven.
Result driven*	Focus on the result, goal oriented.
Details*	Pay attention to details in a task / work.
Efficient*	Complete a task efficiently / effectively.
Project-management*	Manage or organise a project.

Table 3. Nine career paths including their abbreviations, illustrations, and prevalence.

Career path	Abbreviation	Illustration	Number of job postings (% of total)
Life sciences industry	LSI	Non-academic research institutes, for example biopharma and biotech companies.	38 (20.7%)
2. PhD-student	PhD	A paid position between 3–5 years resulting in a doctoral degree.	33 (17.9%)
3. Quality compliance	QC	Includes quality assurance, quality control, quality compliance and regulatory affairs functions.	27 (14.7%)
4. Research-related	RR	No research execution, but related to research, for example clinical research organisations and project-manager functions.	22 (12.0%)
5. Sales & business	SB	Sales jobs, account managers, and business development jobs in life sciences contexts.	21 (11.4%)
6. Communication/ education	CE	Jobs in communication or education, such as teaching roles in university.	13 (7.1%)
7. Information technology	IT	Software development and coding (e.g. statistical analyses).	11 (6.0%)
8. Consultancy	Con	Consultancy and advisor roles in life sciences contexts.	6 (3.3%)
9. Policy	Pol	Working on policy processes, such as policy documents and educational processes.	2 (1.1%)

Table 4. Prevalence of the four generic skills categories requested at least once in the total number of job postings (N = 179) with the highest occurring generic skills for each category.

Generic skills category	In # of job postings and prevalence (%)	Highest occurring generic skill	In # of job postings and prevalence (%)	Ranking of total
Information	162 (90.5%)	Language	124 (69.3%)	1
		Communicating	105 (58.7%)	2
		Analysing	24 (13.4%)	7
		Technology	21 (11.7%)	9
		Creativity	19 (10.6%)	10
Others	96 (53.6%)	Collaborating	74 (41.3%)	3
		Interpersonal	30 (16.8%)	6
		Adapting	12 (6.7%)	15
Self	94 (52.5%)	Initiative	58 (32.4%)	4
		Organising	38 (21.2%)	5
		Flexibility	17 (9.5%)	11
Tasks	52 (29.1%)	Result driven	21 (11.7%)	8
		Details	13 (7.3%)	13
		Problem solving	9 (5.0%)	18

Figure 1. Number of generic skills (between 0 and 14) found in all job postings (N = 179).

Figure 2. (a–h). Seven cluster compositions of the management of self (top left), management of others (top right), management of information (bottom left), and management of tasks (bottom right) categories. Striped blocks indicate an ‘indifferent’ category, where both job postings including and excluding this category are part of the cluster.

Table 5. Cluster prevalence and composition interpretation, where X represents the generic skills category being part of the cluster. X between brackets indicates an ‘indifferent’ category, where both job postings including and excluding this category are part of the cluster.

Clusters	Prevalence		Management of
Job posting requesting skills:	#	%	Self	Others	Information	Tasks
All (except information) (Figure 2(a))	32	17.9	X	X	(X)	X
No tasks (Figure 2(b))	36	20.1	X	X	X
No others (and tasks) (Figure 2(c))	20	11.2	X		X	(X)
No self (and others) (Figure 2(d))	11	6.1		(X)	X	X
Others & information (Figure 2(e))	22	12.3		X	X
Self (and others) only (Figure 2(f))	16	8.9	X	(X)
Information only (Figure 2(g))	42	23.5			X

Table 6. Prevalence of the seven generic skills clusters in the five most often found career paths: life sciences industry (LSI), PhD-student (PhD), quality compliance (QC), research-related (RR), sales & business (SB).

Job posting requesting:	LSI		PhD		QC		RR		SB
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Information only	7	18.4	9	27.3	12	44.4	1	4.5	6	28.6
No tasks	7	18.4	6	18.2	4	14.8	3	13.6	5	23.8
All (or no information)	5	13.2	6	18.2	3	11.1	6	27.3	4	19.0
Others & information	4	10.5	5	15.2	3	11.1	7	31.8	1	4.8
No others (and tasks)	6	15.8	3	9.1	2	7.4	1	4.5	4	19.0
Self (and others) only	4	10.5	4	12.1	2	7.4	2	9.1	1	4.8
No self (and others)	5	13.2	0	0	1	3.7	2	9.1	0	0
Total	38	100	33	100	27	100	22	100	21	100

Figure 3. Percentages of the five most often found career paths and the top ten requested generic skills.

Figure 4. Percentages of the top ten requested generic skills in the five most often found career paths.

Table 7. Percentages and ranking of job postings requesting the overall top ten generic skills for the five most often found career paths.

	LSI (n = 38)		PhD (n = 33)		QC (n = 27)		RR (n = 22)		SB (n = 21)
Generic skill	%	Rank	%	Rank	%	Rank	%	Rank	%	Rank
Language	57.9	1	66.7	2	85.2	1	68.2	2	95.2	1
Communicating	47.4	2	69.7	1	63.0	2	72.7	1	42.9	2
Collaborating	44.7	3	51.5	3	37.0	3	54.5	3	19.0	6
Initiative	34.2	4	36.4	4	22.2	4	27.3	6	33.3	3
Organising	15.8	6	27.3	5	18.5	5	36.4	5	19.0	6
Interpersonal	2.6	>10	15.2	8	11.1	8	40.9	4	33.3	3
Analysing	7.9	>10	6.1	>10	14.8	6	13.6	9	4.8	>10
Result driven	13.2	8	3.0	>10	7.4	>10	4.5	>10	23.8	5
Technology	2.6	>10	24.2	6	14.8	6	13.6	9	0	n.a.
Creativity	5.3	>10	18.2	7	3.7	>10	18.2	7	9.5	>10

Bennett, N., Dunne, E., & Carré, C. (1999). Patterns of core and generic skill provision in higher education. Higher Education, 37(1), https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003451727126

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Data availability

Data is available in the repository via https://figshare.com/projects/Generic_skills_in_Life_Sciences_careers/155255