Hi All,
A little about me - I have a MS in Medical Genetics from India and 4 years of work experience both wet lab and dry lab in the same field in molecular research and as scientific curator. I moved to the US and recently graduated MS Bioinformatics from Johns Hopkins University. It has been a 6 years gap since I worked after moving (due to lack of work, permit, having a baby and then including my masters course). I have been having a tough time finding positions with the limited experience I have here in US. I have a very good background in biology part of the field but Programming is new to me and I have been working on python, R, Matlab, Tableau etc.
With the educational background I have and the work experience the kind of positions I see in the firld of bioinformatics ask for more experience with programming. How do I go about it. Other positions are entirely technical or scientist positions look for a PHD. Do I build up on programming skills or should i consider phd for positions with better pay scale.
All the molecular biology positions that I have been applying to or curator positions have not responded and I am stuck. Kindly guide me. I am open to any advice. I just need a path and I am willing to work for it.
Thank You
I don't know the details of the current science jobs situation in the US but I would imagine that at the moment many institutions and companies would have put a hiring freeze in place. Regarding the PhD vs programming job question, I think the choice has to be yours based on where you see yourself in 10 years. Think about what you'd like to be doing in 5-10 years and take the path that is most likely to take you there.
There are a number of Bioinformatics courses available on Coursera that include programming; https://www.coursera.org/search?query=bioinformatics&
You might try going through some of these, and building up a GitHub profile with programming examples of tools or workflows you have made (de novo, not coursework but could be inspired by techniques used in courses).
If your major deficit is programming, then having a GitHub profile with code samples is a great resume booster.