Talk:Research centers

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My name is Walter. My career has been in the Pharma/BioTech and IT Space. I realize Boston, NC, TX and CA are the big hitters in this area. I live in Illinois. I have had advanced education at Washington University in St. Louis. St. Louis seems like town going nowhere.

Are there any "best" places to escape to as a Midwesterner? I love the some of the CA companies, but many of them contain people who all they do is work - no Sunday's off.

I'm also convinced that all the requests requiring Ph.D.'s with a laundry list of "dream candidates" is almost laughable. Who has the money to pursue that type of career.

What is the general take of Pharma/BioTech, Computational Biology, Bioinformatics?

From what I see and read, it seems to be taking off. Really? Many people in this area seem to "grandfather" in. Face it, who can afford all this education. Or am I missing something?

Respectfully

W. Roper

University of Illinois

roperw@uisalumni.org

Hi Walter,
You're forgetting the DC-Bethesda area as a bioinformatics hot spot in the US ;-) And I've never heard anyone complain before that Californians spend too much time in the office :-P Unless you meant Canadians.
I have heard a number of those who come from a CS/IT background complain about the Ph.D. expectation in the field of bioinformatics. I always attribute that expectation to the origin of the field, which was with life scientists who knew how to program. And the natural sciences of course foster an expectation that "scientists" will have a doctorate (conversely, an advanced education in CS is usually thought to limit opportunities).
But, I think if you look at the announcements that are posted in our Career Center (http://www.bioinformatics.org/jobs), you will find a number of positions that require a BS or MS. And, honestly, I think experience can weigh more heavily with an employer when they're looking for someone with extremely unusual skills. For example, if there may be only 10 people in the whole country who know X, Y and Z, should it disqualify them to not have 4 more years of school? --Jeff 03:01, 1 September 2009 (UTC)
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