I'm a recent CS grad with a minor in Stats and absolutely no experience in the industry. I only have academic related stuff related to CS as far as that goes. Part of this is I started to regret being a CS major during junior year and wondering if I should had done life science instead. However, I became more interest in the CS major when I picked up different interests.
My interests are in data mining (just recently bought a book about applying data mining techinuqes for the web and biological databases). In my AI class, I got interested in game simulation, machine learning, and neural networks.
Now, I have been applying for some temporary entry-level SW testing job - the only job I seem to be qualified for. Meanwhile, I'm enhancing my web application skills (xml, php, mysql, etc). I'm applying to entry-level jobs (even if it paids 8/hr) just to get my foot in the door.
However, I do not know if I want to continue just being a plain ol' CS programmer doing web development or software applications for the rest of my life.
Recently, there was an internship opening to work at a biotech company for those with CS background and an interest in bio. I'm interested in bioinformatics that combines my programming experience and solving biological information writing programs and tools. The problem is though, my knowledge of biology is very minimal.
This may require me to go back to school again and get a M.S degree in Bioinformatics, which I'm not sure is a good idea depending on the future job market of it. It seems most of the biotech jobs require 3-10+ years of industry experience. So, how the heck is a recent Bioinformatics grad suppose to get started? With a CS background, it seems to can apply to any job that require programming (database, web developer, SE, etc). But for Bioinformatics, can it be apply to other jobs in the non-biotech field?
Just in case, it becomes difficult to get a good job with a background in Bioinformatics, would I still get jobs in the biology field? I may even go back to being a CS person again if my Bioinformatics degree do not get me far. What would employer think of a person with a Bioinformatics degree applying for some entry-level non-science programming job? I don't mind doing some entry-level web application again if my Bioinformatics degree and the market goes downhill. The reason I want to get into biostats/bioinformatics is to gain some non-CS interest in the SE/programming field in biology.
So, the main question, would going to grad school for Bioinformatics in about a few years be good? Or, just a waste of time and better time would could be spent improving my technical skills?