Hi all, I have a BS in bio, MS in biomedical science, and almost an MS in biomed informatics. I’m having trouble knowing how to break into the industry and land a job. I have experience in research at an academic hospital but can’t figure out a way to pivot and which roles to target. My focus is data science and AI.
Any advice or tips would be very appreciated.
is bioinformatics (with ai) the way to go?
thanks
P.S. by 2100 is fine by me also.
I’m a senior genetics major graduating in December. I love research and bioinformatics, and I’ve spent the last three years in research (two doing independent projects). This summer I’m working as a research technician in two labs and will be an author on one upcoming paper and should be included on another. I’ve had supportive mentors and enough experience to know that I genuinely love research, am capable of complete independence, and can fully see myself pursuing research for the rest of my life.
The problem is that the closer I get to graduation, the more scared I am about going straight into a PhD, or even pursuing the academic life as a whole. I also really value having a fulfilling life outside of work and a robust social life. I love spending time with friends, traveling, hiking, and exercising, and I’m worried a PhD could consume my twenties, especially with the financial strain and stories I’ve heard from people who had miserable experiences.
I’m considering taking a gap year (or more), but I’m not sure what jobs are available besides academic research technician positions or what that path would realistically look like.
For those who’ve been in a similar position:
Did you go straight into a PhD or take time off?
If you took a gap year, what did you do?
If you started a PhD young, were you still able to have a fulfilling social life and maintain hobbies, or did it feel like you sacrificed those years?
I completed my Masters in Bioinformatics in May 2025. And for the past 1 year I have applied to many jobs. But despite having an amazing resume( few recruiters said so). I keep doing bad at interviews. I do prepare a lot before it but somehow always end up forgetting one or two things. My self confidence is at the bottom and that is making it worse. Any suggestions on how to prepare or what i can do to ace the interview.
Also my previous experience has been in oncology but i want to switch to metagenomics. And for some reason my answer does not seem enough.
I’m a BSc Biotechnology student at the University of Prince Edward Island, and I’ll be starting my second year this fall.
My long term goal is to work in bioinformatics. Since not many universities offer bioinformatics as a bachelor’s degree, I chose biotechnology with the plan of doing a Master’s in Bioinformatics after I finish my bachelor’s.
For the fall , I need to choose between two statistics courses:
• STATS 1210, which is designed for life sciences students.
• STATS 1910, which includes a lab component and teaches R.
I’ve attached screenshots of the course descriptions.
For people who work in bioinformatics or are currently studying it, which course would be the better choice if my goal is to pursue a Master’s in Bioinformatics and eventually work in the field?
I’m not very strong in mathematics, so that’s another factor I’m considering.
Although STATS 1210 is designed for life sciences, STATS 1910 includes programming in R, which seems useful for bioinformatics. Would taking STATS 1910 be more beneficial in the long run despite being more math focused?
Also, how important is R compared to Python in bioinformatics today? If you were starting from scratch, which language would you prioritize learning first?
I’d really appreciate any advice from people in the field.
Thanks!
Curious what people in bioinformatics are seeing on the ground. I've been tracking life sciences job postings and noticed something interesting- Data & AI roles are now nearly tied with Research & Discovery positions in terms of hiring volume. A year ago that gap was much wider.
Are you seeing this shift in your own job search or at your institution? Is this computational roles being added alongside wet lab, or actually replacing traditional R&D positions?
I'm currently in my second year of BSc in Zoology. I originally chose this subject partly out of interest and partly because I didn’t have many options at the time. I thought i actually like wildlife and field works. but after participating in a volunteer role in an amphibian conservation field study, I realized it just sucks. this kind of outdoor, field-based work is not for me long term. I’ve come to understand that I’m more suited to a desk-based, analytical, white collar type of career. That’s why I’ve recently started feeling interested in bioinformatics.
However, there are a few concerns:
• i currently have zero programming knowledge • My university curriculum has little to no bioinformatics/computational biology courses. • if I pursue this path, I’ll likely have to self learn everything or rely on doing a Master’s in bioinformatics later.
My long-term goal is to pursue higher studies abroad, ideally with a scholarship, so I want to make sure I’m making the right decision now. So now I’m feeling quite confused.
Okay so I started working in a neuroscience lab for research in one cellular molecule and I’m the mainly technical person while others use the tool. It’s only like my first month but why is even part of the existing analysis pipeline on its last life. i have a bio, stats and CS degree and tbh most of the tools Ive used in these fields work and my work in industry is always through a paid software/company Or me just adopting the existing workflow.
please make me feel sane because I have lots of work to do
I analyzed 6,677 life sciences job postings from 500+ organizations worldwide (June 22–29). Here are a few hiring trends that surprised me:
Top hiring companies: Eurofins, AbbVie, Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, and Thermo Fisher Scientific.
I compile these trends weekly by analyzing publicly posted jobs across 500+ life sciences organizations. Happy to answer questions about methodology or dig into a specific company, function, or therapeutic area.
Hi everyone,
I'm currently a medical student with a long-term goal of pursuing a PhD in a top lab working on machine learning applications in translational medicine (particularly neurological disorders).
Right now, I know the basics of ML. I've completed a few Coursera courses, implemented some personal projects, and have basic Python experience. However, I'm struggling to figure out how to take the next step. I want to build the kind of skills and portfolio that would make me competitive for world-class research labs.
For those of you working in ML for healthcare, computational biology, or related fields, what would you recommend focusing on? Should I prioritize open source contributions, reproducing papers, Kaggle, research internships, reading papers, or something else?
Also, if anyone here works in this space, I'd love to connect, learn from your experience, and see if there might be opportunities to collaborate on research or open source projects.
Thanks in advance!
I will soon graduate with a bachelor's degree in biology. And I'm considering bioinformatics as a field for my master's degree and career. But I have concerns about the future of this field and job opportunities. Very few people around me are knowledgeable about it. I ask knowledgeable and experienced people whether I should pursue a career in this field. If I'm going to pursue it, Can you explain me which sub-fields have promising futures. Thank you in advance.
i m currently an undergraduate forensic science student and halfway through the degree i've realised that my real interest lies in molecular biology and at the same time i m also fascinated by bioinformatics and currently working on building a bioinformatics project but i worry that due to my forensic science background, i wont be accepted for ms bioinformatics/biomedical science abroad. what should i do? any recommendations would help:(
I’m a biotechnology masters grad with a bachelor’s in biology based in the UK. Got two pretty solid internships with one being a pathologist intern and another working at the environment agency. Since graduating I’ve done lots of things outside of industry e.g. coaching qualifications leading to working as a pt, going into sales and becoming a filmer and editor. This is all whilst applying for entry level lab tech roles since I’m really passionate about building my wet-lab skills. I’m still applying to this day (it’s been over a year and a half). I’m starting to become a bit sceptical about wether this career path is for me, but it is a passion and I’m willing to give it one more push. This is a plea just to find any way to break into the lab technician industry. At this point idgaf about pay I just want experience to get my foot in the door.
I'm 17F and live in india i gave neet this year for the first time and i funked it really bad, i don't wanna take a drop year what are the career options in bioinformatics and how do I pursue it + give me the idea about salary i should be expecting by each passing year or any other advices
DTU BIOTECH VS BPIT CSE
I'm a 12th pass student choosing between CSE at a tier-3 college or Biotech at DTU. If you have a moment, I'd love to ask: (1) Is a fully-funded PhD abroad realistic with a DTU Biotech background? (2) Is the stipend enough to be independent? (3) Which is more stressful day-to-day: a PhD or a corporate job? (4) Are high-paying industry roles really available after a computational/dry-lab PhD, or is the 5-6 year time investment not worth it? No rush. Thanks for your time.
Hi folks
I finished my Master's in bioinformatics in Dec 2024. I still don't have a job. I have wanted to a more software dev type bioinformatics role, so I bounced around learning Java and trying to work on my own personal projects ( Bioinformatics projects are so hard to reverse engineer...). I have currently landed on taking the Clinical Data Science Specialization offered by Coursera to try to get that certificate under my belt, and I'm realizing projects working with the playground patient data sets may be easier for me to achieve to add to my resume since I have been slowly progressing on anything else. Maybe I am just slow or maybe this is normal. I am not sure.
If is possible to start out with a more health informatics type role, and then eventually transition into a more "software writing" type role?
Also, has anyone here been out of a job for over a year and still landed one? Similar question, did anyone who finished school in 2025 land a job? At all?
It's already june passed not even resisted in any collage. I want to do b tech bioinformatics and really hard to choose college which is best and i can't connect with any bioinformatics students i just wondering chatgpt only and too much confusion. I saw juit , amity , vit , dy patil and idk is it good or also any other good option for colleges please help me to go right place.
I’m a rising third-year cancer systems biology PhD student at an R1 university in the U.S. I work primarily in R, but have been learning Python as well. I can also work with high power computing clusters, submitting/scheduling jobs, basic stuff. I do wet lab experiments and constantly learn the lab techniques to stay up to date.
Any recommendations to make myself employable in three years? Is there anything specific you think would be useful for me?
Hi there! I'm a software engineer with around 3 years of experience. I've got a BS in Bio, BS in Comp Sci. Im also pursuing an MS in CS! I used to work in healthcare as well (not that relevant i guess but just throwing it out there)
Now, how can i hop into a bioinformatics role? I've seen SOME advice but its mostly catered to folks that are lacking in some realm. Considering I've got both sides of the coin, what's a good way to shore up my application? I have seen roles but they seem very stats-heavy. Is that the majority of roles?
I see lots of folks mentioning MS/PHD in bioinformatics on job posts in linkedin. However, I'm posting just to get some curated fresh insight. As opposed to spamming claude/chatgpt with questions.
Would love to hear your input
So, I've graduated high school from CBSE, with Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Informatics (Informatics replaced Math for me). Naturally the intention (due to parental influence, same old, same old) was to do Medicine. I got into the foundation year program of a university, but found out a few days ago that said university wasn't the best for Medicine. Along with that information, I sort of got a mini-career guidance counselling session, and since my Chemistry and Physics aren't great, and after learning a bit more on what the journey in pursuing a career in Medicine is like, I don't think I want to do Medicine.
I vaguely knew of other careers like Bioinformatics, and after doing a bit of research on it, I think it has piqued my interest. In all honesty, Biology is my favorite subject, and I've been getting more of a growing interest in tech (which I didn't think I'd ever have since I basically chose Informatics as an escape hatch from Math) but I'm open to studying something more if I absolutely need to. I know it's a long-shot that any Bio-related career would have a similar amount of pay to that of a doctor, but I'd love for your guys' recommendations or suggestions (while also factoring in job security, flexibility, competition, workload, A.I. influence, and Business potential). Also, what bachelor's should I pursue in university for said careers, and if I need electives for some of them, do lmk what I'd have to choose.
I will be taking career counselling too, I just want as much info as possible. Thanks in advance.
