[BiO BB] Career Question

[jfreeman]

Dear Brian et al.,

The best approach, if you are willing to take the temporary pay cut, is
to work as the IT guy in a prominent lab for a few years.  Your skill in
IT will be welcome, if you are willing to work at academic rates, but
after a few years you will have enough exposure to go out into the
pharmaceutical market.  Finding the right lab to work for is a difficult
part of your due diligence, a suggestion is to go to a bioinformatics
conference and see who is presenting and ask them if they need your
skill set.

A good book to start with:

Developing Bioinformatics Computer Skills

http://www.half.com/cat/buy/prod.cgi?cpid=1056094268&domain_id=1856&meta_id=1

Good luck,

Jim Freeman
Senior Scientist
Variagenics, Inc.

Brian Rankin wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I'm interested in moving into the field of bioinformatics.  My background is
> pure Information Technology; I've been working with and managing large
> systems (Solaris/Oracle/networking/security) for over 12 years.  I've always
> had a strong interest in science and biology, and it seems logical that
> bioinformatics may be the place for me.  However: I don't have any formal
> training or degree in a biological field (I have an MBA).
> 
> Is there any way I can move into bioinformatics, using my current skillset?
> All advice greatly appreciated.
> 
> Sincerely, Brian Rankin
> 
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