The medical and healthcare sector focuses on the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of illness. It offers a huge range of job roles to graduates looking for a dynamic and well-paid career.

This sector is extremely large, with a huge variety of clinical, administrative and commercial jobs in both public and private industry. The sector has been the subject of a lot of change and review in recent years as attempts are made to increase quality and efficiency.

The job opportunities can be divided into several broad categories:

Clinical roles

Jobs such as dentistry, medicine, nursing and radiology focus on diagnosing and treating patients. Researching existing conditions and developing new treatments is also a very large clinical field.

Administrative or technical roles

Organisations in this sector tend to be very large and there are a huge amount of back-up/support services related to running them. Job opportunities include human resources, information technology, waste management, finance and purchasing.

Commercial roles

There are numerous roles within sales, marketing and development of health related products. The medical devices and pharmaceutical sectors is very big in Ireland.

This sector is regarded as fast paced, interesting and dynamic, and it can also be very well paid. The people working in this sector are dealing with people’s lives and this adds a huge sense of importance to the role. Usually there is good career progression and many opportunities to specialise, particularly in the clinical arena. There is also the opportunity to work internationally.

If you’re considering this career sector you should be able to demonstrate high levels of commitment, hard work and attention to detail. It is vital to appreciate the nature of the continuous learning throughout your career. It is a very people oriented sector so communication skills and compassion are also requirements.

Medical and healthcare FAQs: everything you need to know about getting a job in medical and healthcare.