6

Yesterday, I was talking to a guy who has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry, got sacked from academia because of Covid related fund cuts, and he is not being able to find jobs in the industry because, what I realized, his proficiency is poor or nonexistent with computers.

Now, consider another candidate whose research field is related to genes and proteins, working with supercomputers and simulations, and has a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics.

What prospects will the second person have if he wants to switch from academia to industry?

How easy or difficult will it be for the second person to switch from academia to industry?

What factors help the switch?

user366312
  • 5,654
  • 6
  • 45
  • 97
  • You'll have to give us more information than BioXXX. If you want real advice you'll have to be very specific. Generally being able to use a computer is a good thing in any job. – sevensevens Feb 28 '22 at 02:49
  • This is still pretty vague. If you're having trouble with a job search. Post the actual problems you are having. – sevensevens Feb 28 '22 at 02:59
  • You said "his proficiency is poor or nonexistent with computers" and "the candidate to be working with supercomputers and simulations". What does this contradiction mean? –  Feb 28 '22 at 03:05
  • 2
    I don't understand why people are downvoting it. It is an important question. – learner Feb 28 '22 at 03:30
  • For what it's worth: I've done it and for me it was quite easy. I've now been in industry for 5-6 years and am in a position to hire people, and I can tell you there is great demand for bioinformatics skills in industry these days, especially if you know NGS. But that isn't even essential: my PhD work was in gene prediction and comparative genomics, followed by a postdoc in system biology (PPI networks), and I landed a job analyzing NGS data with no prior NGS experience. – terdon Feb 28 '22 at 14:52

2 Answers2

8

I speak as someone a PhD in theoretical chemistry, who has landed a trainee position in industry with a promise of making it permanent after two years.

Doing a PhD in a narrow research field feels a lot like digging yourself a hole, where the hole gets deeper for every year. And a deep hole is hard to get out from... unless you have tools to make a ladder. Luckily you have most likely gained these tools from your PhD work. My ladder has been a desire for working with data, and becoming quite proficient in a a few programming languages. I code the best in Python, but I have some experience with c++ as well. What is your ladder?

I am by no means an expert in bioinformatics, but I think there are some similarities to my "old" field. The bioinformaticians I know do a lot of programming, often in Python, to develop analysis pipelines and web interfaces to new bioinformatics tools. Perhaps you have done this as well. Perhaps you have collected a lot of data from existing tools, and you have had to clean this data, explore it, learn to know it, and visualize it. These skills are relevant to the industry.

Also keep in mind that the industry does not value the same things as academia. While an academic application probably would focus on your research and all of your highly cited publications, the industry does not really care about these things per se. My experience is that they far more value what concrete skills you bring to the table, because your skills will be what brings value to the company. So think about your transferable skills, and try to imagine in what types of positions your currently transferable skills become essential skills.

I would say that a lot of PhDs do not realize just how attractive to the industry they are. Compare yourself to a recently graduated MSc or BSc. Studying is not the same as pursuing a PhD. Doing a PhD means to persevere in a high-stress environment working toward long-term goals, often with quite little short-term encouragement. You learn a lot about yourself as a person: What drives you? What do you value in life? In other words you have gained life experience, which means that you have become wiser. Most MSc/BSc graduates have not obtained this (at least this is my experience, both from talking to students and from remembering how I was myself at that time). This sets you out from the crowd of BSc/MSc graduates, if you are able to convey this in a good way in your cover letter.

Working in academia is curiosity driven and comes with a lot of freedom. I have come to accept that perhaps no industry job will offer me these things to the same extent. But, there are more important things in life. A secure job with reliable income makes it easier to provide for a family, and makes it easier to plan ahead. Bringing value to a company I respect is a lot more meaningful to me than doing basic research that may or may not bear fruits in 20 years.

So don't think of industry as a "Plan B", but rather as a "Plan A2". If you have successfully obtained a PhD in bioinformatics, then I am 100% sure you will be able to land an interesting job in the industry. Perhaps not working as a bioinformatician (although there are plenty of pharma-companies that would value such skills, I assume), but at least working with the skills you have obtained during your PhD applied to other fields.

Yoda
  • 1,537
  • 2
  • 10
  • 13
2

Being a student of Masters in Bioinformatics in my final research phase with my stream being 'Translational Bioinformatics' dealing with Microarray and NGS, RNA-Seq related things, now working on Machine Learning related project and as a Associate Researcher in an Healthcare Industry, I can say that the the second person with PhD in Bioinformatics can easily secure job in Industry. There are many healthcare industries hiring Bioinformaticians. My 2 senior graduate fellows with Masters in Bioinformatics are working in a Healthcare company and working on a project that demands expertise of Genes, Proteins, supercomputers, Linux, Unix, R language, etc. So, don't worry. If a Masters graduate can do it, A PhD can also do it. :)

Optimus
  • 21
  • 2