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by _yb2s 1123 days ago
Look into working as a SWE on research projects at a university or government lab. You can find places where you are working with competent passionate people from diverse backgrounds, and it can be rewarding and fun. Pay is substantially less than FAANG but worth it… especially if it comes with a pension and great benefits
1 comments
throwawaysleep 1123 days ago
Just expect to be treated as an brainless execution monkey at those places. I have done it in the past and quit after 4 months. Have a new grad of mine who took a 1 year contract with a lab and I want him to quit within 6 months as the kinds of people who tend to become researchers are also jerks.
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_yb2s 1123 days ago
Each lab is like a different small company and they have very different cultures. There are plenty of kind and passionate researchers that treat people with respect, and there are also plenty of aggressive and abusive narcissists. Unfortunately, it can take a while to tell which is which until you are there a while.
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EddieEngineers 1123 days ago
> the kinds of people who tend to become researchers are also jerks

Blanket statements like this are ridiculous.

> Just expect to be treated as an brainless execution monkey at those places

Each lab has a different vibe - some will suck, some will be awesome. Totally depends on where you end up just like a startup.

> I have done it in the past and quit after 4 months

Sounds like you got unlucky.

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pugworthy 1123 days ago
Agree with your rebuttal. I worked for 17 years in the university environment as a Sr. Faculty Research Assistant. Loved it for the most part. Yes, there are assholes (that's DOCTOR asshole to you buddy), but you can choose them as much as they choose you.
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_yb2s 1122 days ago
> you can choose them as much as they choose you

The last part is key, and many people don't realize it. Don't accept abuse or poor treatment. It is very very hard to hire competent computational people in bioinformatics because of the low salaries, and PIs know this. No matter how junior you are, or how big of a mistake you may have made once in a while- you need to enforce hard boundaries about being treated with dignity and respect, and leave if they can't be met. I got stuck in this trap for years, being abused by jerks and thinking I deserved it (low self esteem)... not realizing that they were lucky to find me, and would be very hard pressed to find someone else that could do what they needed.

It's also important to have an open mind, and work to understand the subject matter at hand you are working with. If you make an effort to understand what you are working on in more depth, even if it's not your main area of expertise, your work will be much higher quality, and you will get a lot more respect.

Personally, I started out as a SWE in academia, and slowly learned the subject matter I had been working with until I started to have as much understanding and new ideas as the PIs I was working with. I then eventually got a PhD and became a PI myself.

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