Living in Portugal, but I have no problem in going to other coutries
I just finished by Biology’s bachelor’s degree.
I’m good at maths, logic and programming. Haskell, Matlab and I’m doing the The Odin Project course.
Would like to earn to give
I think something informatics-related would be a good carrer for me. Since I have no formal education on informatics but have a Biology’s degree I’m thinking about doing a Masters on Bioinformatics. But I’m afraid that after finishing it I could only get a job with no great impact on society and with not-so-good earnings, compared with other informatics related jobs.
How much positive impact does bioinformatic’s research has on the world?
Would the Masters raise the chances of getting a really well paid job, to do ‘earning to give’, compared with just getting a informatics job after doing self-learning? The Masters is two-years long and costs about 1000 €/year.
I’m currently doing a PhD in bioinformatics after doing a B.S. in biology. This probably isn’t where I would have ended up if I could do it all over again, but it’s a great way to get into a more quantitative field from a life sciences background. I took little math and no computer science in college, but I got into my PhD program on the strength of my biology experience. Now I’m using my PhD to make up for the skills I lack.
I did consider doing a masters, but I think a PhD offers much more career capital and prestige than a masters or certification. It also leaves more options open: for example, I’ve considered working for a funding agency like NSF. This would be impossible without a PhD. In my experience, biotech masters students were noticeably less sophisticated than the PhD students. They took fairly easy classes and did little research. Most PhDs in the U.S. are free and pay you a stipend. Compare that to masters degrees, which can cost $40K or more at a private university.
I’m doing bioinformatics at present. It seems to pay similarly to programming. Have you considered just doing programming / software development? That is usually more dependent on technical skill than credentialisation. Data science or data engineering could also be feasible if you like maths.
Maybe, although you already have a bachelor’s and might later have a better idea about a preferred masters.
Bioinformatics could help bring about better medicines or biomedical research generally, and could help with the identification of synthetic pathogens from a risk reduction point of view. So it’s not without impact.
Hi, Ben. :)
What about Bioinformatics?
Living in Portugal, but I have no problem in going to other coutries
I just finished by Biology’s bachelor’s degree.
I’m good at maths, logic and programming. Haskell, Matlab and I’m doing the The Odin Project course.
Would like to earn to give
I think something informatics-related would be a good carrer for me. Since I have no formal education on informatics but have a Biology’s degree I’m thinking about doing a Masters on Bioinformatics. But I’m afraid that after finishing it I could only get a job with no great impact on society and with not-so-good earnings, compared with other informatics related jobs.
How much positive impact does bioinformatic’s research has on the world?
Would the Masters raise the chances of getting a really well paid job, to do ‘earning to give’, compared with just getting a informatics job after doing self-learning? The Masters is two-years long and costs about 1000 €/year.
Thanks!
I’m currently doing a PhD in bioinformatics after doing a B.S. in biology. This probably isn’t where I would have ended up if I could do it all over again, but it’s a great way to get into a more quantitative field from a life sciences background. I took little math and no computer science in college, but I got into my PhD program on the strength of my biology experience. Now I’m using my PhD to make up for the skills I lack.
I did consider doing a masters, but I think a PhD offers much more career capital and prestige than a masters or certification. It also leaves more options open: for example, I’ve considered working for a funding agency like NSF. This would be impossible without a PhD. In my experience, biotech masters students were noticeably less sophisticated than the PhD students. They took fairly easy classes and did little research. Most PhDs in the U.S. are free and pay you a stipend. Compare that to masters degrees, which can cost $40K or more at a private university.
I’m doing bioinformatics at present. It seems to pay similarly to programming. Have you considered just doing programming / software development? That is usually more dependent on technical skill than credentialisation. Data science or data engineering could also be feasible if you like maths.
But isn’t a total lack of formal education a barrier to many jobs and to a high salary?
What about the impact of bioinformatics on society? How much good could a person do in research focused on bioinformatics?
Maybe, although you already have a bachelor’s and might later have a better idea about a preferred masters.
Bioinformatics could help bring about better medicines or biomedical research generally, and could help with the identification of synthetic pathogens from a risk reduction point of view. So it’s not without impact.