[xb]

I was a Life Sciences PhD student for 6 years and started a postdoc, but then jumped ship and became a software developer for a non-science company. My salary is more than 2x as high as what I was making as a postdoc, and 3x greater than what I had been living on as a grad student. The salary thing is huge. From my point of view, research science was becoming a luxury/hobby profession of people whose spouses make a lot of money or who are independently wealthy.

The only two solutions I see are either funding for NIH and basic sciences drastically increases (my preferred solution), or there is some breakthrough which makes biotech and life sciences industry more profitable and able to hire all the entry level PhDs.

Notice how the engineering and physics PhDs make up only a small fraction of the donut chart? That's because those folks graduate with skills that are desirable to industry because they can translate into profit. The biotech industry does not need smart and inexperienced idea people. The biotech industry prefers very senior level scientists with proven track records of profitability, and worker drones who have bachelors or masters degrees who are not on the scientist track.

[IndianAstronaut]

When I started my bio PhD, people were looking at me in puzzlement when I started spending more time programming and doing math. Now that I am in the software industry, a lot of them are asking me how to get a job.

>From my point of view, research science was becoming a luxury/hobby profession of people whose spouses make a lot of money or who are independently wealthy.

Up through the 19th century, this was primarily the case. Of course back then there was a lot of low hanging fruit as compared to now.

[will_work4tears]

My sister recently finished a postdoc and her and her husband moved to the SF area (Mountain View), and quickly realized she couldn't do another one (that limit mentioned in the article I'm gathering). She's not had any luck finding a job in her niche (Virology), and I suggested she hop on a bootcamp type training for software development. She's right there where it's hopping, she could pull it off (she's smarter than I am and I manage).

She's fallen off the face of the earth I guess. I've tried contacting her a few times over the last month or two and never get a response. Maybe she's busy doing just that. Hopefully, the way she was talking finding an Industry job with her PhD is hard.

[xb]

I am in Seattle, which does not have the thriving biotech scene of the bay area or Boston, but thankfully the cost of living is significantly lower than either.

I had essentially zero chance of landing a biotech position, similarly because my niche was not in demand by any local company. Even the positions I did see were not very desirable and the competition from other PhDs and postdocs was fierce.

I was lucky to have some extra time toward the end of grad school to pick up some coding skills. The labor market for software developers is ridiculous in Seattle, and it took me under 2 weeks to find a full time position. I considered bootcamps also, but decided to give it a shot trying to get hired with just my existing experience. The though of starting a bootcamp where my 6 years of research experience was all for naught was pretty depressing, so I really feel for your sister. I have another PhD friend who is in the exact same boat.

My conclusion was to not fight the tide of the labor market. I think in the future biotech will be really profitable and there will be a lot more jobs, but right now all of the jobs are in software, at least around here.

[will_work4tears]

Also in the Seattle area (Tacoma, really). There does seem to be a lot of activity up north there, I get calls from recruiters all the time, but I just can't swing that commute at this time - or work all of the hours above 40 I'm assuming I'd have to work. It doesn't surprise me that the labor market is pretty ridiculous for developers though. It's pretty awesome that you picked up coding and got a job that fast, it's pretty good news for my sister if she decides to go that route.