[BiO BB] Career Advice

Joel Dudley Joel.Dudley at DevelopOnline.com
Fri Oct 5 12:29:21 EDT 2001


I am in almost the exact same predicament as yourself. I have a degree in
microbiology but was hired as a Unix programmer out of school. Since I work
for a .com the future is always uncertain and hiring guidelines for the good
Bioinformatics jobs are strict. As a result I am taking on some consulting
jobs so I can work locally and go back for my masters in Computational
Biosciences at Arizona State. This will on ly take me 2 years and put me in
the postion I want to be in. IT/Programming jobs will always be available
and will always provide a good wage. However, if you truly have a passion
for bioinformatics I suggest you take the time to go back for a masters or
PhD in computational biology because the payoff is a lifetime doing
something that you really want to do. Just my 2 cents.

- Joel

-----Original Message-----
From: pkerrwall at yahoo.com [mailto:pkerrwall at yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2001 6:37 AM
To: bio_bulletin_board at bioinformatics.org
Subject: [BiO BB] Career Advice


Hello all,

I've been a member of this list for nearly 6 months
and would like to thank everyone for letting me pick
at your brains during this time.  I need help with a
career question.  

I graduated from college with undergraduate degrees in
Chemical Engineering and Zoology.  After graduation, I
got a job as a software developer and have been
working with the same company for the last year and a
half doing java server-side development, DB
Administration, and GUI Development.  My company is
about to go under and I've been looking for a job in
bioinformatics with no luck.  I usuall get the same
responses - need graduate degree, need more IT
experience, need Biotech experience, or local
candidates only (I would live in Louisiana).  

I currently have 2 career opportunities:  1) I can get
a job with an IT company doing EJB Development or 2) I
can get a job with an Energy company doing controls
(there will be software/web development associated
with the work).  I'm interested in the EJB development
b/c i've never developed in a 3-tier architecture and
I'm interested in the controls job b/c I miss the
math, statistics, and flow charts.  If I take one of
these jobs, I definetely want my next job to be in a
bioinformatics discipline.  Any suggestions on which
would be better for my carrer are appreciated.

Thanks,

Kerr Wall

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