Ask HN: So I've finished College. Now what?

If you want to stay in biotech you should go to graduate school. The entry level bioinformatics jobs available to someone with an undergraduate degree are really lame. I know this because I have done them.

A startup with your friends would be the most fun. However I think a lot of money in biotech still comes from grants and pharmas so you might want a grad degree or someone with a grad degree in your startup.

Can you be more specific as to what you mean when you say lame? Do you mean that I'll basically end up being the guy who does all of the boring-routine work and won't be able to use my creativity or something? Or are you referring to the scandalously low, poverty-like wage companies try to force us into. One company I worked for paid me $10 an hour as an 'intern', but gave my peers (who had just graduated and were really no more experienced than me other than a degree) something around $25-$30.

I ask because at this point I feel like an industry day job is a very possible option.

In my experience it was a lot of java infrastructure work that was very far removed from biology. It was the same sort of thing that one would do at a bank or insurance company.

The pay was fine, but lower than other industries. I think this is because of the high percentage of academics in the field. PhDs in the sciences have worked for $17,000 a year for so long that $60,000 a year seems like a king's ransom.

In Biotech or Bioinfo industry, real work is done only by PhD or Masters. So, if you want to enter the industry, go to graduate school.

I am not sure how easy would it be to start a biotech startup at your stage because biotech startups require a lot of funding to get started. However, you can always start a bioinformatics startup which is akin the web/software startups. But even with Bioinfo startups, it is hard to monetize because the culture of open source bioinfo tools is quite prevelant in academia and industry.

But even with Bioinfo startups, it is hard to monetize because the culture of open source bioinfo tools is quite prevelant in academia and industry.

I actually think it's harder to monetize because you have so few customers. If you make a bioinformatics tool, there's probably a few hundred potential companies that may need it, and probably only a few dozen of them are actually interested. Thus many of the tools become grant-funded open source projects because there's hardly anyone to sell to in the first place.

23andMe is interesting because they are the only bioinformatics startup I've heard of that also sells to consumers.

Yeah, I kind of felt the same way. One would have a hard time selling bioinformatics. One would have a much easier time selling information derived from bioinformatics. A very important point to be made indeed, especially since most of the bioinformatics packages and software I use are free (and I would love to keep it that way!). In fact, the open source community is vital to the field; otherwise everyone would just keep having to re-invent the wheel.

Just to keep everyone up to date, I talked to a few professors this afternoon about grad school. The condensed version of what they said is that given my major, I can choose to research in a field that applies bioinformatics (i.e. evolution, molecular biology, etc), or I can study bioinformatics itself (making better tools, optimizing algorithms, etc).

That's mostly true for research software.

But there's a ton of cash floating around for process improvements in the for profit biotech/healthtech sector.

That may not be much more exciting then business apps, but it pays the bills and it's still interesting work.

Both graduate school and a startup are good ideas.

This being the worst economy since 1930, graduate school may be the way to go.

You can also do both at same time.

The only predicament I have about applying to grad school is that I am afraid my GPA is not very competitive. It is past the minimal requirements, but I am afraid its not enough (seeing that I've been rejected from a few schools already). My GREs are average/above average. Nothing spectacular though. I have great relationships with my professors, but it doesn't seem like recommendation letters are doing any good. Another thing is that I am already going to a university which has a good reputation, and if I go to grad school it will probably be something a little less prestigious. Given that tidbit of info -- if I get into the industry now, I may be better off than if I did down the line with a graduate degree (from a mediocre school). Plus, I may be able to get into the schools I've been rejected from within the next two years (given I have 2 years of industry experience...I hope).

I don't mean to come off as looking down on your suggestion. I'm just playing the devils advocate here. Personally, I find I can better analyze things that way.

Thanks to all of you who have replied so far, I really appreciate the help.

If there is more you need to learn and you can stomach the thought of more schooling, go for it.

The issue is your field. If you just had a B.S. and you were doing computer science, I'd say go for startups, but the barriers to entry for biotech firms are much higher. Typically they fund professors and Ph.D's and not undergrads.

My family is in the biotech/pharma side, and I'm on the computer science side, fyi just to add credibility to my argument.

Well, if I did go forward with the start-up, I know I'd be able to get PhDs on board (mostly because I am best friends with a few). I'd be happy to do so if it guaranteed funding (I know, but then again, a start-up can never expect to get guaranteed funding). But then again, a lot depends on the product one is trying to sell and the way its pitched, right?

What are your ideas for a biotech startup? I've always wanted to do one of those but I don't know any biotechnology. The community here will tell you to do the startup.

Well, I don't want to give too much away, but I suppose I can humor you guys :-D. I think it may be more of a web start-up than a biotech start-up to be honest. It's a web start-up with a biotech foundation, if you will. We are basically taking our knowledge of genetics, (insert mass biotech-major curriculum here), and bioinformatics to people via the internet. It'll be full of cool stuff that joe the plumber will be interested, if not curious, in knowing. The only issue is that we haven't found a way to make any sort of income off of this yet without inconveniencing potential users :-(, which is one of the main reasons we have yet to put the wheels into motion on this project. I'm afraid we have only minimal business experience.

How about something with genes and chemicals? maybe an improved crop plant? I wish I knew how to do that.

We could do something with genes, chemicals, and crops, but there are a lot of obstacles (more than we'd like to deal with). The main issue (for me at least) is the mass amount of time and research it will take to work with that sort of science. We could do it, but in my opinion I may as well go to grad school because I'd probably be doing the same sort of research anyway (but getting a Phd at the end of it).

Plus, people are only now coming around to not looking at GMO foods as alien-mutant-degenerate crops. Europe is still very much against it.

My current job is to take the sorghum and maize genome and to analyze the genes (basically figuring out which genes they share, when they diverged, and how that can be applied to improving their yield).

wow, that sounds really fascinating. computer science may have been the wrong major for me :-(

Generally speaking, if your approach is genuinely good and the problem you're solving is important (ie, nontrivial), you're not hurting much by talking about it. If it's really that easy to replicate and you have no special twist, it might not be as great as you think. Just my $.02.