Business Administration and Bioentrepreneurship postgraduate personal statement example

Personal statement example

Every Monday at the community pharmacy where I work as a dispensary assistant, I check the temperatures logged on the fridge that holds insulin pens and vaccines. It is a small task, but it has made me think about how much of a medicine's value depends on things that happen after the science is finished: storage, supply, pricing, and whether anyone can afford to keep a product on the shelf. I want to study business administration alongside bioentrepreneurship because I would like to understand that second half of the story as seriously as I studied the first.

My undergraduate degree was in biochemistry, and I graduated with a 2:1. I enjoyed protein chemistry most, particularly the practical classes where a technique either worked or plainly did not. For my final-year project I measured how well commercial lactase enzyme kept its activity in oat and soya drinks stored at different temperatures over three weeks. Using a standard colorimetric assay, I found that activity fell more quickly in the oat drinks, though my sample sizes were small and I was careful in my write-up not to claim more than the data allowed. What stayed with me was a conversation with my supervisor about why a company would or would not bother reformulating a product over a result like mine. I realised I had no framework for answering that question, and I wanted one.

Since graduating I have worked full time at the pharmacy. My role is ordinary but busy: preparing prescriptions for the pharmacist to check, managing stock rotation, and handling calls with wholesalers when items are out of stock. Shortages taught me more about supply chains than any textbook. When a common medicine was unavailable for several weeks, I kept a simple spreadsheet of which suppliers had stock and at what price, which the pharmacist used to decide when to order. I also noticed how a small price change from a manufacturer could alter what a pharmacy chose to stock. These are modest observations, and I do not mistake them for an understanding of the pharmaceutical industry, but they made questions of cost and incentive feel concrete.

To prepare for postgraduate study, I have been reading outside my subject. Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma was useful for thinking about why established firms can struggle to adopt new technologies, and I have been working through a free online introductory accounting course so that financial statements are less unfamiliar. I have also started reading biotech company annual reports, which I find difficult in places but increasingly readable.

Outside work, I help coordinate the volunteer rota for my local parkrun. Making sure that marshals, timekeepers and tail walkers turn up every Saturday involves reminders, swaps and the occasional last-minute gap that I fill myself. It is unglamorous, but it has given me practice in organising people who owe me nothing, which I suspect matters in any small venture. I also bake sourdough most weekends, which is mostly a pleasure, though keeping a starter alive has given me an affectionate respect for living systems that refuse to follow instructions.

I am drawn to a programme that combines business training with the life sciences because I do not want to abandon science; I want to work where scientific results meet decisions about funding, regulation and markets. I would particularly like to learn how early-stage biotechnology ideas are evaluated, how intellectual property shapes what gets developed, and how teams with different expertise communicate. I bring a laboratory background, a habit of careful record-keeping, and practical experience of a part of healthcare that patients actually see. I would welcome the chance to build the business knowledge I currently lack, and to work alongside people whose backgrounds differ from mine.