Six years of AstraZeneca’s graduate training programme

Back in 2013 AstraZeneca opened its doors to the first intake of its graduate training scheme. In 2016 we revisited some of those graduates to see what they did next. Now a further three years down the line, we caught up with them again to discover how their careers, and the graduate scheme they took part in, have progressed.

Clare was one of the original seven UK recruits to join the graduate programme in Innovative Medicines and Early Development, at AstraZeneca’s Alderley Park site in Cheshire, UK (the site has since closed). The scheme intended to remedy a shortage of early career talent in the company by bringing new graduates into its research and development (R&D) teams, and has since been renamed the R&D programme.

Clare began the graduate programme knowing she wanted to be a medical chemist and, after completing the scheme, successfully found a role in the company’s oncology R&D department. Today she is still at AstraZeneca, now working at the company’s Cambridge site in the UK. She has been promoted to senior research scientist and is enjoying her time at the company as much as ever. ‘I’m progressing up through the medicinal chemistry career path. It definitely was the right career choice for me,’ she says.