Create life-saving innovations and shape local communities by joining Thermo Fisher Scientific
"At Thermo Fisher Scientific, you can advance your career at a pace and in a direction that works for you,” says Dan Crowley, a Process Chemist at the company's Cork site.
Whether it’s finally returning to the office after almost two years of working from home, or getting back into the swing of things after a well-earned vacation over the summer, we’ve all been there – settling in or readjusting to your workplace can be tough.
There are arguably few groups it’s tougher for, however, than the graduating classes of recent years. Not only are they emerging from university into a harsh ‘real world’ post-pandemic where the cost of living crisis looms large, they are also entering the “new normal” or working life – a hybrid, flexible, confusing and experimental beast that, still in its early days, doesn’t quite know what it wants to be or how to get there.
It can be overwhelming for the workforce veterans nearing retirement, and it can be downright terrifying for people taking the very first steps of their career during these trying times.
Amidst all this chaos, however, emerges companies like Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science. They are striving to provide clear options and career paths for young people throughout Ireland, by creating diverse roles in science and encouraging students to take up STEM activities from school through third level and into their professional lives.
With over 100,000 employees worldwide, Thermo Fisher’s mission is to enable their customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. They support customers in accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, increasing productivity in their laboratories, and improving patient health through diagnostics or the development and manufacture of life-changing therapies. At their Cork campus, they develop and manufacture pharmaceutical products that change lives, treating conditions such as Breast Cancer, Psoriasis, HIV, Parkinson’s Disease and many more. To achieve this, they currently have 500 colleagues working for them, with plans to keep growing those numbers and recruit more.
Aoife Foley, a Senior Development Chemist at Thermo Fisher, is advancing her own graduate career in Cork at Thermo Fisher’s Ringaskiddy campus. She was first drawn towards the position because she “wanted a role with a purpose, where [her] work would make a difference.”
While that has certainly been the case so far, she’s also discovered many other benefits to working for Thermo Fisher. “The scale is really exciting - we've got over 90 chemists and process engineers working in our laboratories and production facilities. As a contract development and manufacturing organisation, we serve multiple customers from large pharma companies to niche biotechs. Being able to see such a variety of projects has allowed me to gain a well-rounded knowledge in a relatively short space of time. It’s definitely been a rewarding start to my career.”
These views are echoed by Process Engineer Sarah Kelly, who also joined Thermo Fisher as a graduate. “There’s a really strong focus on research and development in our work,” she says. “I'm involved in the manufacturing of clinical trial drugs to treat conditions like psoriasis, breast cancer and Covid-19 – it’s really fulfilling and fascinating to see such life-changing drugs being developed and scaled up here in Cork. There’s always something new happening, you definitely need a willingness to learn if you work here, as well as the ability to multitask.”
This multitasking and diversity of work that comes with Thermo Fisher’s graduate roles is what really encouraged Patrick O’Sullivan, Senior Development Chemist, to apply; “Some of my peers in other companies might work on a handful of products over the course of their career while I’m working on several a year,” he shares. “There's a really collaborative atmosphere here, and a lot of focus on training and development. We get the opportunity to contribute on multiple elements of development and production while also gaining continued experience in improving a wide variety of chemistry. There’s always a new interesting problem to solve!”
While for Process Chemist Dan Crowley it wasn’t just the experience he’d gain that encouraged him to join the Thermo Fisher team, but rather the opportunities for career progression that would also become available. “There are dedicated technical and managerial career ladders and pathways at Thermo Fisher where you can advance your career at a pace and in a direction that works for you. I joined in September 2020 as a Development Chemist and already have moved to a Process Chemistry role,” he explains. “Thermo Fisher has been ideal for my career post-university as I have been provided with exciting opportunities to develop my career that might not have been possible in other companies.”
This passion and enthusiasm for the work they do aren’t just traits that are specific to Thermo Fisher’s newer employees, however. Siobhan Creedon, Thermo Fisher’s Director of Process Development, has been working for the company for almost three decades – joining straight from completing her PhD in UCC.
“I’ve been working at this site for 26 years, and I’ve seen it change and expand so much over those years,” she reflects. “Over the last three years, we have evolved and now deal with so many more projects with a much higher technical element. We have more chemists, more engineers and more analytical chemists and are doing more of the early development work than we would have ever done before. This means a lot more hands-on lab work – so from that perspective, in the last three years, the site has become a really interesting place for scientists and engineers to work because they can get such a diverse and positive experience very quickly. I've been very lucky myself in many respects with my career here, and I think that the graduates joining us now also will have a similar experience – there are so many opportunities for learning and development, whether they want to progress in a technical track, a manager track, and so on.
“My own role is very varied because I sit on the site leadership team. On a typical day I would meet with the managers in my team to review how projects are progressing and any issues that we need to address. Some days we might meet with customers. On other days we might be planning the development of the Cork site - what's the next year looking like? The next five? We're also linking in daily on how production is going. We work across a whole range of projects, from very early stages of development all the way up to full commercial supply. For example, part of the work might entail developing new products, starting the process in the laboratory, scaling it up, bringing it out onto the plants, and then seeing those go through regulatory approvals before becoming a commercial product. It's a huge breadth of customers with many different backgrounds.”
The team surrounding Siobhan at Thermo Fisher, meanwhile, is just as varied as the customers they serve; “There are roles for a wide variety of people - we have people from all over the world working here and we have a particularly good gender balance on site as well,” she explains. “There’s a great atmosphere here too, where everyone looks out for each other. For our graduates in particular, we're very aware that it's a big transition moving from university to a manufacturing site so we make sure they have the support they need from more experienced members of staff - somebody to check in with them and to help them through that transition.”
As well as caring for its employees, the company is also hugely dedicated to looking out for the community around them. Thermo Fisher’s Community Action Council in Cork is something that Siobhan is particularly proud of. “Our mission starts close to home,”she explains. “We are supporting the local community in lots of different ways, from our annual Community Partnership Grant and colleague Volunteer Days, to partnering with local schools to inspire the next generation of STEM leaders.”
The area where they are keen to make the most impact is, naturally, in the pursuit of science. “We want to support industry in Ireland and we want to make sure that our site continues the work it has been doing for over 40 years,” Siobhan vows. “We want to make sure that the next generation are made aware of the huge opportunities there are in STEM for their future. I know when I finished in UCC, there weren't that many work placements. I had no idea what was out there. I really liked science, but I didn't know what that would translate to in the end. The more information that we can get out there to younger people who have that interest in STEM the better. It's just for the common good, really.”
If you want to be part of that common good, and join the team at Thermo Fisher as they create more life-saving medicines and innovations, there are a few boxes you should tick.
“Candidates need to have the fundamentals - they have to have that base in chemistry, analytical chemistry or engineering,” advises Siobhan. “Beyond that, the key thing for us is a willingness to get involved - being able to work as part of the team and being able to communicate with people. That's vital.
“You will have all types of different personality types, but some people might prefer to work in a laboratory environment; some people might want a more managerial role and some people might want to work in more of a production environment. We have roles that will fit each of those candidates.”
To find out more, visit www.jobs.thermofisher.com
