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by clmcleod 1312 days ago
> That said: a lot of the comments are spot on. You're working in a field where the hard scientists and business people rule and you're a helper

This definitely was the culture when I started working in the field 6 years ago. However, the culture has shifted (at least where I work) to where biologists and engineers are equal partners that work together on solving these problems. For those organizations that are not this way, I think they’re going to have to change if they want to innovate.
2 comments
jghn 1312 days ago
Agreed. Huge change over the last 10-15 years. My first job in the space had a view that obviously a mere software developer wouldn't be paid more than even a postdoc scientist. And as postdocs weren't paid all that well, you see where this is going.

These days more biotech companies are computationally/software focused. They understand that to pull in strong talent they're not operating in the same academic science world.

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pclmulqdq 1312 days ago
That may be the case for engineers with PhDs and scientific credentials, but I'm not so sure that is true of normal developers who did not play the academic game. I'm not going to take a job based on the eventuality of a culture shift, and I don't think you should either.

This isn't just genomics, by the way. Scientific computing folks are very similar.

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AlbertCory 1312 days ago
That's always been my impression, but it does sound like "software eats the world" has had some effect. At least in some places.

Looking at it from their point of view: CS people tend to think that "everything is just information, and now that we're here you're all going to be working for us."

You can see why a PhD in mol bio would resent that. Everything is not just information.

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