Harry Erwin (herwin at gmu.edu) wrote:
: I'm trying to help my son find an entry-level position in computational
: biology in the USA. He has a new degree in biomedical science, a
: background in C++ programming, and a senior project that computed
: primer-template bonding temperatures using a nearest-neighbor algorithm.
: He's deferring grad school until he knows what specialized field he
: wants to work in. He's been e-mailing resumes to the human resources
: offices of companies on the web, but I have the impression that he's
: getting lost in the hundreds of resumes they must get that way. I'm
: sure there's a lot of research labs that could use his skills, but most
: of them don't post their openings on the web. Is there a better way to
: do this?
:: --
: Harry Erwin, Web Page: http://mason.gmu.edu/~herwin: Senior Software Analyst supporting the FAA, PhD candidate in
: computational neuroscience--modeling how bats echolocate--and
: lecturer for CS 211 (data structures and advanced C++).
:
Harry, you may want to check the bionet.jobs.offered group. There's
usually an assortment of computational biology positions to be had.
There's a real need for computational biologists, though many of the
positions do seek someone with a few years lab experience and many
require a Ph.D. If I had to give my personal opinion, it would be that
unless your son is desperately interested in getting a Ph.D., try to get
into a computational position with his present qualifications (plus some
lab experience) or a Masters degree at most. I wouldn't advise anyone to get
a Ph.D. simply to get into computational biology, and in fact with
the current career/funding structure, I wouldn't advise anyone to get a bio
Ph.D., period. If he wants any real financial/career stability, stick with the
computing/biocomputing, which in career terms has 'outs' into mainstream
commerce. Most of the Ph.D. computational biology positions advertised by
companies (and all the ones that I have been contacted about)
are usually looking for someone to do very light programming
(PERL scripting, etc) and a ton of data analysis, which your son may or may
not find interesting. Any real programmer worth his salt won't find such
a situation very satisfying, so your son needs to really think this through.
Good luck with your search.
--
ALL VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE MY PERSONAL VIEWS AND NOT THOSE OF MY EMPLOYER
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Computational Biology Group
The Burnham Institute
(formerly La Jolla Cancer Research Inst.)
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Email: greg at franklin.ljcrf.eduhttp://franklin.ljcrf.edu/greghttp://www.greg.com/
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