Name: __________________

Career Research Guide Worksheet

Make sure you have completed the career exploration and have a good idea of the career that interests you!

Use point form or sentences. Make sure it is in our OWN words! Do

not copy from the Internet.
Your job title (be specific): Biochemist
Job overview/What they do (Provide a paragraph description of the job. What would a typical day
on the job look like?):
A biochemist studies the chemical processes and transformations in a living organism. This may
be curing a disease, genetically modifying food to get the best possible traits or many other
interesting fields in biochemistry. The field is very broad so a typical day is hard to say but most
entry level biochemists start doing lab work for a year or two testing samples and using
equipment like molecular microscopes and spectrometers to work with samples . After this most
will enter into research or into pharmaceutical work .

Working conditions (Hours you can expect to work? Risk of injuries? Time of day/time of year?
Indoors/outdoors? Clothing required? Etc):
hours are usually regular 9 to 5 but depending on the research it may be needed to stay and
work evenings or on weekends. Biochemists work indoors and do wear protective clothing at all
times when openly working.

Salary (what wage can you expect to earn?):

starting biochemists will earn about 40,000 but this increases rapidly with about 5 years
experience you will earn about 80,000 and some experienced biochemists can earn over 100,000
dollars a year

Future outlook (will this job be in demand in the future? Why/why not?):
future outlook for this career is very good with a projected growth of 30 percent form 2010 to
2020

Post-Secondary Institute/Training Program #1

University of British Columbia

Location and name of program: (Where the school is located. What is the name of the program? Also
tell us why this school appeals to you)
Vancouver BC biochemistry
this school appeals to me because it is still in the province has a very good reputation and I would like to
get out of Kelowna.

Cost: (first year AND total cost of program, including tuition, books, and supplies
for everything for a year including tuition, books, housing, food and transportation it would cost me about
21,000 dollars for the total program it would be 84,000
Pre-requisites of program: English,Biology,Chemistry, Pre calculus with about a 3.5 GPA to get in

What are 3 related occupations you could take if this one didnt work out for you (what would you
do if you dont end up doing this career and why?):
geneticist ,forensic scientist or a toxicologist would all be good related occupations because I
could do all these with a degree in biochemistry.

And most importantly

Why are you interested in this career? (How long have you been interested in it? What led you
to wanting this job? How does it suit/fit your personality, interests, characteristics, strengths,
etc?):

I am interested in this job because I love biology and chemistry and it is a practical job with a
good salary and job growth.