u/TheCaptainCog

Hi! I've come for some advice from the internet. Bad idea, I know.

I'm a PhD grad in bioinformatics and I've been struggling to find a job. I've applied to hundreds of positions, tried reaching out to people in companies/places I want to work at, and tailoring my resume for each role.

The few interviews I have gotten, there's been a prevailing theme. The company/lab wants a laundry list of things. They want someone who can do scRNA-seq, bulk RNA-seq, NGS (long and short read), application of ML and deep learning models, multivariate statistical models, protein modeling, bisulfite sequencing, lncRNA seq, miRNAseq, ATAC-seq, CHIPseq, GWAS, phylogenetics, selection analysis, pipeline engineering, workflow in nextflow, HPC, website and database maintenance/design, R, python, SQL, C++, java script, CSS... I know how to do most of these but not ALL of them at an expert level. I for sure can learn them because I have a strong background in similar methods. I got a technical interview for the position where I was asked specific things about all of the analyses (for example, what metrics would make you distrust the results of ATAC-seq?). I answered most of the questions well but ones like that I blanked on because I don't have a ton of experience with them. Afterwards, the recruiter for this job told me they wouldn't continue with my application because although I have strong skills in 3/4 of the stuff, they want a candidate who has expert knowledge across all of these disciplines. When I told them that I setup the computational section in my lab and had to learn all of the skills quickly so I know I can easily learn and tailor things, they said they want someone who already has expert knowledge of everything.

It wasn't a senior role I was applying for, simply a staff bioinformatician/computational biologist role.

Is the competition so fierce that companies are only hiring people who know everything? How do people even know everything? Anyone have any advice?

I was just curious how other people vacation.

Typically when I'm staying on site, I'll visit a park in the morning for rope drop, stay for lunch, leave the park around 2-3ish to swim at the resort, hang out for a while, if I have club level eat at 5, then go to a park around 6-7 until close. So around 7-8 hours a day spent at the park with a nice swim break and rest overnight.

How does everyone else's vacation look?

Title. Maybe I'm super jaded, but I think I need to vent somewhere. Hopefully this resonates with people and deters others from making the same mistakes I've made. I'll share my experience of why I think a PhD is worthless and completely detrimental to both career and mental health.

The PhD is a large undertaking where you learn a lot of good skills. Usually by yourself with no help. But these skills could be learned by actually working somewhere and making money at the same time.

I spent a lot of time leading my research project because my professor was new. I setup the computational section of my lab. I figured out all the methods. I made my project from scratch after my prof's idea failed miserably. I trained undergrads. I helped people from other labs. I was the computational guy. Where did that land me? Nowhere. What help did I get? Barely anything. In fact, my prof doesn't give a shit about my inability to find a job. He shipped me out and said, "ok, next!"

I got papers though. That's awesome, right? Well no. Papers are worthless outside of academia. And even in academia, they're not very valuable. I have three first author pubs in journals with IF>4. Doesn't matter. Nobody cares. The culmination of my 5 years of phd is three papers nobody cares about, depression, and over $20k debt. The depression and bitterness was free though! :)

I have applied to over 500 positions in over a year after I finished my PhD. I've gotten 5 interviews. Two of them were AI interviewers, one the position was "cancelled" and two where the recruiter ghosted me. I've reworked my resume 20+ times. I have 10 different copies for different jobs I'm targeting. I change it constantly to match keywords. I've gotten feedback from friends, family, career counsellors, profs, etc. The result? No job. I'm over 30 and still living with my parents because I can't afford to move out. I'm currently working a minimum wage grocery job. Someone with a PhD and a Masters is only qualified to work retail.

What about networking, though?!?! Well 90% of my network are also looking for jobs. The 10% who got positions are doing post-docs or some other academia related thing. My network is useless as well. I've been to so many networking events. I've made so many connections. They're all looking for jobs too.

I'm too over-educated for most entry level now. I'm not experienced enough for senior level. Recruiters have literally told me they don't hire PhDs because, 'We're difficult to work with,' or, 'you'll want more money than we have to pay you.' What's left for me, then?

So to sum up: doing a PhD has actively cost me over $100k, left me in $20k debt, benefited me in no way for my career, and has given me depression and burnout. And it's not like I can go to therapy. I have no money!!!

So to those who want to do a PhD: don't. It's not worth it. It will actively hurt your self-esteem and career prospects. My story isn't unique - it's the norm today.

I'm a 30s male. Been on dating apps for 3ish years and I haven't had much success. I'm trying to figure out why. One of the things I realize is I don't know what a good or successful conversation actually looks like.

The majority of my matches are me asking questions and the person responding with one sentence answers or responding after 3-4 days. This includes after I've asked them on a date and they've accepted.

For example, I was asking a girl what hobbies or things she does in her free time, and she told me, "probably sleeping." :/

Am I bad at this? Lmao of course. Am I unattractive and lack charisma? Probably. So all you attractive successful people, I wanna know what an actual good conversation looks like.

I've been mulling over this for a while and I'm at a point where I'm at an impasse. I have been job hunting for the past year and been unable to find anything so far. I have a potential opportunity for a 3 year post-doc. However, I am not sure if it makes sense for me.

Pros:

• It's at a research hospital, so hopefully make good connections
• it's on good research
• I would get good skills
• it gives me some sort of employment right now

Cons:

• I'm in my thirties, and 3 years of uncertainty is a long time
• my goal is to get into industry, not get trapped in academia
• it doesn't offer a lot of money (going rate is $60,000).

Any advice would be appreciated

Edit: I've come to the decision to let the professor know what my career plan is and to see what they say. I assume he will deny me after this, but I think honesty is the best policy. Even if it screws me over.