[Bioperl-l] Is it worth it?

[Sean Davis]

On 2/26/06 10:12 PM, "Joel Dudley" <joel at macresearcher.com> wrote:

> It seems to me that your mind is already made up. By asking such a
> question I think it's safe to say a PhD program in Bioinformatics
> would not be your cup of tea. This is not to be negative. If you like
> bioinformatics, do bioinformatics. Join an open-source project, or
> start one of your own. If you live in a town with a University, find
> a lab that needs bioinformatics work and volunteer your time. If you
> really have a passion for bioinformatics, just do bioinformatics and
> your path will become clear, opportunities will arise, your salary
> will be what you need. Just my two shekels of course.

I would second this sentiment.  Most of the folks that I know that are doing
bioinformatics are doing it WITHOUT a degree in it.  The trick is to have
both computational skills AND domain-specific knowledge.  Just find a
project that will require you to gain some domain-specific knowledge (which
can actually happen pretty quickly) and go for it.  As Joel said, there are
dozens of open source projects that would love a helping hand.  If you need
more face-time, do as Joel suggests and work with a local university (or
even high school) to design some web-based tools or something like that to
do things that would be either educational or novel.

Sean