[zaptheimpaler]

How does a software engineer transition into bioinformatics or computational biology? I've taken some online courses on bioinformatics and have some experience in large distributed jobs but these jobs seem few and far in between and generally want M.S/PhDs in bioinformatics. Is it really a field that's not viable to enter without an MS?

[jltsiren]

Doing a Master's and/or PhD in bioinformatics is probably the easiest way. It's a pretty specialized field, and the first couple of years are usually spent learning the basics. You are unlikely to find anyone willing to hire you to a real job to do that.

[samuell]

I think the challenge is learning enough of the biology outside of academia. I think it is fully possible, e.g. from books and videos ... but will take a lot of determination.

For the bioinformatics part, I think something like the "Genomics data science" specialization on Coursera should be a pretty good start.

[jakobnissen]

I'm not sure what's the best strategy to get hired, but professionally, you need to learn as much biology as you can. Cell biology, molecular biology, genetics, physiology. My experience has been that there are a bunch of software engineers in bioinfo already who fall short on the biology side. Differentiate yourself from those.