/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.5336894]

What's the most useful and/or well-paying biological field that doesn't involve med school?

[Anonymous No.5336911]

Biotechnology, biochemistry, molecular biology...
If you live in a tropical country, ecology is also useful.

[Anonymous No.5337077]

bump for interest

[Anonymous No.5337079]

>>5336894
Define useful?

What do you consider well-paying?

[Anonymous No.5337104]

>>5337079
>useful
Jobs relating to the specific field are in higher demand than others, so obtaining a degree in that field (or even just taking a few classes) would be more useful.
>well-paying
Just relative to other jobs in the biological field. To me, anything above $60,000 within 5 years is great, although I'm not sure how realistic that is.

[Anonymous No.5337116]

Although it is less biology than anything, I think bioinformatics could be a good direction to go in.

I am a PhD student in microbial biology/ecology/molecular evolution. I haven't put much thought into what I want to do for a career... it changes all the time. Academia? Private? Government? Lots of pros and cons to them all.

I'll worry about it when the time comes.

[Anonymous No.5337130]

>>5337116
Oh god, I'm a fourth year biology undergrad and I'm having a crisis trying to figure out what I want to do. I don't know how you can deal with it.

Then again, I have a severe lack of motivation due to not knowing what I want to do, and it's visibly affecting my performance in school. Since you're on your Ph.D, I guess you don't have that problem.

[Anonymous No.5337143]

>>5337130
Why not carcinology?
Why not Zoidberg?

[Anonymous No.5337157]

>>5337130
Yeah, I can be blase about it because I just started my first year of my PhD and have solid funding for the next few years... so I'm just focusing on my project and not concerned with what to do next.

After my undergrad I knew I was going to do a MSc., so I didn't worry either. But after the MSc. I wanted to take a year off before my PhD. I was pretty anxious for a few months and I remember it was not a fun time at all.

The worst part was I wasted 3 months worrying and frantically checking for jobs and sending C.V.s out. If you have some down time, make sure you do something productive and for yourself.

[Anonymous No.5337183]

>>5337143
I actually at first really wanted to study cephalopods or crustaceans, but zoology in general seems like a less certain and underpaid career path. I wish I could say money wasn't a factor and I had the passion to go for my dreams regardless of the risks, but neither are true.

>>5337157
I was going to take at least a year off after my bachelor's before even thinking about my master's since I've been so stressed for the last two years. I honestly feel like I'm just not cut out for college most of the time, but at the same time I'm hoping that I only feel that way because of stress.

I just feel like if I had a more clear sense of direction I could focus better. As it is, I have a final tomorrow and it just now crossed my mind that I haven't even bothered to skim over my notes yet.

[Anonymous No.5337230]

>>5337183
I fucked around BIG TIME for my first 2 years of university and I even considered dropping out after my first year.

I took a class in my third year that truly inspired me, and I feel very luck for that. I probably would have dropped out or finished my degree and not know what to do next.

All I can say is follow your passion, and if you do not know what that is... keep looking. Going to grad school if you aren't truly interested is not a good idea. You could learn to love it or at least tolerate it and succeed, but chances are you will not have a good time.

[Anonymous No.5337324]

>>5337230
Thanks. It does help to know that not everyone just knows immediately what they're passionate about. Seeing people on campus, it seems like everyone else has at least a vague outline of what they want to do.

[Anonymous No.5337346]

In relation to these definitions
>>5337104
how does microbiology look?

[Anonymous No.5337370]

Anyone taken Cell Bio or Developmental Bio? What's the essence of the class? I heard you had to memorize a bunch of pathways for Cell Bio and that's great and everything but I hope it's nothing like Metabolism. That was a lot of pathway research, and I barely passed.

[Anonymous No.5337386]

>>5337370
The course I'm taking now has focused a lot on the ATP cycle and photosynthesis/cellular respiration for the middle portion, but it of course varies from school to school. You'd be better off asking one of your professors or other students.

[Anonymous No.5337397]

>>5337130
>Oh god, I'm a fourth year biology undergrad and I'm having a crisis trying to figure out what I want to do.

Come here, you.

[Anonymous No.5337418]

Just do what you're good at, /sci/. I know everyone makes fun of the special snowflake theory, but everyone is good at something very specific and if you know what that is, hone in on it and do it.

[Anonymous No.5337426]

>>5337418
The only subject I've ever been particularly good at is English.

The thing is, I would like to get a real job someday.

[Anonymous No.5337428]

>>5337397
3rd year Biochem undergrad here
>Want to go to grad school
>fucked up my GPA last year

[Anonymous No.5337429]

>>5337428
>caring about your 1st and 2nd year gpa when only your last 60 credits are looked at for grad school admission
wut

[Anonymous No.5337433]

>>5337428
I wish my GPA was the issue and not the fact that I'm a shut in and have maybe one letter of recommendation I can get.

[Anonymous No.5337435]

>>5337426

I know that feel. I would have gone into CS but I was bad at it.

[Anonymous No.5337437]

There is a FUCK TON of money in pharmaceuticals, I would say go down that path, although these big pharma companies control so much, you might not have much freedom with that kind of career path.

Another thing is genetics, there could be a lot of shit you can do with that if you spend enough time on it, you just have to decide what you want to spend your life researching, because at this rate you won't have enough time to really do much else.

It's a hard choice, I'm a bio major as well and I need to specialize soon, I'm thinking about specializing in microbiology because that gives me a lot of opportunities to work in a lab which sounds like a super chill as fuck profession, a lot better than being a wildlife or zoology major where I have to spend all my time outside in mucky swamps, fuck that.
There's always teaching high school science.

[Anonymous No.5337438]

>>5337433
Both of those are issues for me.

>biology major
>most biology and chemistry classes I have a B or C in
>only professor that might even know my name teaches classes I've received consistent Cs in

[Anonymous No.5337439]

>>5337433
who needs letters of rec when you have the grades for it?

[Anonymous No.5337440]

>>5337433
>I wish my GPA was the issue and not the fact that I'm a shut in and have maybe one letter of recommendation I can get.
I have to say, doing my BSc./MSc. at a small university totally helped in this respect.

My undergrad marks ranged from holy-shit-retard-low to 98%. My MSc. marks were all 90s, but that is expected.

But my letters of recommendation are top notch. I actually have well-written personal letters that are glowing and are not simply "Insert Name Here" stock letters.

I remember talking to a friend who was having issues with letters of rec. and he said, "yeah but dude you KNOW your profs, my profs don't even know my name because I am 1/1000 in a room".

[Anonymous No.5337442]

>>5337437
Speaking of teaching, I don't think I would mind it if I could get over being extremely shaky, out of breath, and absent-minded when I have to do public speaking. I know no one cares, but I just can't stop those symptoms popping up every time.

[Anonymous No.5337443]

>>5337439
People who think references and connections mean more than how autistic you are

Which is everyone

[Anonymous No.5337446]

>>5337439
Letters of rec are VERY important for grad school man.

Marks don't really matter in a way. I mean yeah, you need to have a certain average, but you always assume there are people who did just as well or way better than you GPA-wise.

It is the letters of rec., research experience, etc. that makes you stand out. Marks are just numbers on paper, they don't mean much to most supervisors who are looking for quality researchers.

[Anonymous No.5337448]

>>5337438

what really matters, even though I'm against it and pro-education, is "experience". get some of that and you'll be golden.

[Anonymous No.5337452]

>>5337442
I get really nervous too, and I've TA'd a bunch and given at around 6 talks at conferences. I am always nervous as FUCK like the morning of the conference and it gets worse and worse until the the minute I open my mouth. When I start talking I become a great speaker (IF I am prepared).

I don't know if it ever gets easier.

[Anonymous No.5337454]

>>5337448
But how do I do that? I've asked other biology professors if they have any research opportunities available, and they're all full or just not offering anything.

[Anonymous No.5337458]

>>5337452
I wish I was that way. I'm similar except that it only gets worse as I go on, and sometimes I just have to stop early because I can't breathe properly enough for my voice to carry at all.

[Anonymous No.5337459]

>>5337454
I dunno man... when they say no ask if their PhD students need a hand? If you could do ANYTHING, even help with their lit review or do basic data collection.

That might be a good route to take. They may not want to bother training or 'wasting time' on a new student, but dumping you off on a grad student could sound good.

Try that.

[Anonymous No.5337460]

There is a FUCK TON of money in pharmaceuticals, I would say go down that path, although these big pharma companies control so much, you might not have much freedom with that kind of career path.

Another thing is genetics, there could be a lot of shit you can do with that if you spend enough time on it, you just have to decide what you want to spend your life researching, because at this rate you won't have enough time to really do much else.

It's a hard choice, I'm a bio major as well and I need to specialize soon, I'm thinking about specializing in microbiology because that gives me a lot of opportunities to work in a lab which sounds like a super chill as fuck profession, a lot better than being a wildlife or zoology major where I have to spend all my time outside in mucky swamps, fuck that.
There's always teaching high school science.

[Anonymous No.5337466]

>>5337458
Yeah, that's tough man. Up until the talk my stomach hurts, I get a little shaky, I start sweating, my dick retracts (lol).

It's funny though... I gave a talk in the summer to 200 people and was like that until I stood up and gave my presentation, which went really well.

But in September I gave a small seminar at my lab in front of 30 people and was not prepared at all. I was nervous as fuck, shaky voice, etc. even though I knew everyone in the room well. It was embarassing.

[Anonymous No.5337467]

>>5337460
O-okay.

[Anonymous No.5337471]

I got suckered into getting a degree in marine biology.

Whatever you do, don't specialize into an area that almost always requires a graduate degree until you get a graduate degree.

[Anonymous No.5337474]

>>5337460
>Teaching highschool science
Although it seems like it'd be fun for a month or two

[Anonymous No.5337475]

>>5337471
Yeah I can see marine biology being like that.

But do you enjoy it? Do you want to do grad school in that field?

[Anonymous No.5337490]

bioinformatics.

Have something on your resume about bioinformatics - see if you can get a Minor in it, or do a summer research project in it, or something. It is increasing in demand *constantly*, even 10 years after the human genome project and laptops-faster-than-Crays.

Also for bio, be familiar, ie a class or project in it, with these programming languages:
C/C++
Perl
Python or Ruby or some other modern lang

You need C. Not Java, not C#, but C. You need Perl, not because it's pretty or versatile or readable, but because it is heavily optimized to parse large data sets. And you need some flavor of the month so that you can actually work with programs biologists write.

Do this and you will be 4 steps ahead of every other Bio BSc in the job market.

[Anonymous No.5337496]

>>5337475
I wasn't planning on it. I was hoping I could land some sort of lower-level research position or even just work on a NOAA boat or something, but it looks like I'm going to have to go to graduate school soon if I want to put my degree to use.

I mean, I always figured I would do it eventually, but I was hoping I could beef my resume up a little and get some first-hand experience first. I felt kind of like a lost sheep for most of college.

[Anonymous No.5337504]

>>5337490
It's funny you should mention that, I was a computer science major before I switched to biology. Would a biology major with a computer science minor suffice? I took two courses in C++ and casually learned a bit of Ruby before I went to university.

[Anonymous No.5337507]

>>5337496
>I felt kind of like a lost sheep for most of college.

[Anonymous No.5337506]

>>5337490
Yeah, if OP is into computers at all bioinformatics would be the way to go.

Part of my project involves pyrosequencing and the amount of sequences generated is incredible. Automating pipelines and making the data usable is critical, and with genomic sequencing and other tools become cheaper we are going to need peopel to deal with the wave of data.

[Anonymous No.5337509]

>>5337490

why is programming relevant?

[Anonymous No.5337513]

>>5337504
I know that there are actual bioinformatics or computer-biology degrees these days. Look into it, maybe you could switch around to get a degree with a nice title with a bioinformatics spin on it.

Don't underestimate the need for bioinformatics guys. If you like computers and biology you should seriously consider this area.

[Anonymous No.5337518]

>>5337513
My university just doesn't offer one. We have general biology, biomedical science, ecology, marine biology, pre-med, and medical technology. I'm trying to avoid transferring because I'm terrified of having to stay in school even longer than I already have to due to lost transfer credits (not to mention I may still have another year left on my scholarship after this year).

[Anonymous No.5337529]

>>5337518
Then take as many computer courses as you can - talk to bioinformatics dudes and see what the best options would be. Try to get experience in a research project or something like that.

See if it interests you. If it does, and you are good at it, you will probably have a lot of employment options.

[Anonymous No.5337546]

>>5337529
Tell me more about bioinformatics, as far as typical tasks for a typical job in the area go.

Aside from how boring the introductory lectures were, the main reason I quit CS is because I couldn't imagine myself sitting in front of a computer all day staring at databases for bank software or some other shit I didn't care about. To be honest, I think I just wanted to make video games.

[Anonymous No.5337587]

I wish I had the attention span to just major in physics.

[Anonymous No.5337667]

How dumb would I be if I majored in zoology?

[Anonymous No.5337673]

>>5337667
Not dumb at all. Wildlife biology and conservation is huge.

[Anonymous No.5337681]

>>5337673
Really? I thought it would be in very low demand compared to more technical majors.

[Anonymous No.5337692]

>>5337442
The sad thing is you're still probably cooler and a better teacher than at least 2/3rds of the current teachers out there, which are fucked up housewives with nothing better to do.
In my state they will let anyone teach math or science if you have a degree that's related, you don't even have to have any teaching experience, and it's because there is such a shortage of math and science teachers.

[Anonymous No.5337716]

>>5337681

It is, don't let people fool you.

[Anonymous No.5337762]

>>5337370
I'm taking developmental biology right now. Shit ton of memorization. You learn a lot of stuff about the embryo. And so many fucking genes and signaling pathways.

That being said, I have learned A LOT this semester. Definitely a worthwhile class if you are looking to add depth to your knowledge in molecular biology.

[Anonymous No.5337771]

>>5337459
>ask PhD students
>ding ding ding

Seriously, unless you've taken a class where there's like 5 students and you personally interact with them on a frequent basis, it is pretty hard to get chummy with a professor.

PhD students are all doing experiments and they all need help doing them, that is where undergrads come in.

talk to grad stuents, get in with them, and you'll have a research position that can blossum into a lot of other things. Plus you'll get to know professors more easily and they will be inclined to think you aren't some run-of-the-mill flaky undergrad looking to boost their resume and get paid while doing no work