[Bioperl-l] Is it worth it?

[Stephen Gordon Lenk]

Gee golly ollie, this is good advice. I face the same issues, but am much older (53). I am taking a Sloan MS in 
Bioinformatics while working full time at the car parts company. I bring what I have newly learned at school to 
work (Perl especially, in which I build and share tools even as far away as exotic India (smile)). I take what I have 
from work (discipline, experience, work ethic) and apply it to open source and shared school projects. The 
world has given me a lot; I enjoy giving back. Why not take an MS in Biology/Bioinformatics at your pace and 
see where it leads. I have no idea if I will EVER have a JOB in Bioinformatics, so I just live it day by day. Plug 
follows - see MCPrimers at CPAN for PCR primer design for molecular cloning with site-directed mutagenesis. I 
did this as an outgrowth of a Rectech class I took. 



----- Original Message -----
From: Sean Davis <sdavis2 at mail.nih.gov>
Date: Monday, February 27, 2006 6:39 am
Subject: Re: [Bioperl-l] Is it worth it?

> 
> 
> 
> 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
> 
> 
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