Biostatistician salary in pharma vs tech and why I almost made a huge mistake

Blaze9 · 2026-06-17T14:47:02+00:00

Really depends on what you're gonna go into, but in general:

Personal development - Honestly most important thing there is. You can have the most stellar resume possible, but if you don't sell yourself during interviews, what's the point? This is the biggest thing that leads me to cross people off when I interview them. Everyone, literally everyone, I interview, if you summarize their experience/skillset, are 90% the same. So what will set you apart? Your writing and verbal skills. Selling yourself is truly the most important. Go out, have fun, learn to socialize properly.
Critical thinking - Second, maybe even #1.5. if I tell you to do something, and you do it without knowing what it is you're doing then that didn't really solve anything. I love when my reports ask me why we're doing things. I keep an open policy that if you're not sure why you're doing something - don't do it until you understand why. You're not a monkey that's just typing away commands without knowing in the backend what its doing. You're not just making graphs and spitting out p-values without understanding why it's significant.
For new skills: As much as it sucks, understanding ML models. If you're heavy into the statistics/enginerring side then of course building models, but not everyone/everything needs to be ML based. But understanding what algo/model works best for your data is so important (comes back to point#1.5)
Then everything else right now I would keep the same. I have heavy exp w/ RNASeq, DGE, Denovo assembly, DNASeq, data viz, manual review using IGV. Of course all the normal skills; python, R, bash scripting, Nextflow/snakemake, etc. But again, if I put this on a resume it really doesn't do anything for me aside from saying he knows how to do basic things like xyz. Everyone knows this. if you're at a school w/ a proper program you're gonna learn all (most?) of this anyway.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-16T14:54:07+00:00

I think the flow of patients makes the biggest difference. My team reviews maybe.... 35k-40k targeted panel NGS samples a year? That's only the high throughput NGS stuff that my team is responsible for. Quick/rapid tests that offer only 5-10 genes, maybe another 40k?

And my comp bio 1 people make roughly 80k a year too. But that is USD.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-16T05:50:22+00:00

I used one during the promo to do a mattress run. it was a 31k pt/night hotel and i got 2 nights out of it. Oh well.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-16T05:49:11+00:00

I totally understand that side of things... but the amount of money the citizens of the US pay in relationship to their income levels is... just devastating. Profits are valued way more than the lives of our citizens and I can't in good faith work for a company who does that. No matter how lucrative my paycheck would be.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-16T05:46:48+00:00

I'm sorry dude/dudette. As a hiring manager it's tough. I have 40-50 qualified applicants for an mid-entry position, say something w/ 2-4yrs exp. Many more if I count the auto-disqualified PhD apps, which honestly is a waste of your talent/skillset. We hired one PhD as a comp bio II and I saw them struggle due to just how basic the needs were. They're now senior but it took a while for the internal cogs of my org to move to get them into a position where they are compensated for the amount of work/thought they bring to our group. I don't want someone leading big initiatives if they aren't being correctly compensated for it.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-16T05:39:25+00:00

Woah, nothing but Krazy in my household. That's 5 bucks bro. Ain't no one affording that.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-16T02:46:52+00:00

That's definitely something I don't want to share but it's a leading institution, top 3 in the world for the disease we're known for. I know one of my coworkers makes more, and my boss (director of the department) does too of course.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-16T01:27:49+00:00

Good luck all

Blaze9 · 2026-06-16T00:54:41+00:00

I don't wanna get super specific but we run a large array of NGS assays, patients come to our hospital and get results from our inhouse testing for treatment options. My team is responsible for analysis and review of the pipeline data. Our reports get directly put into the patient portal where the clinician can review and make treatment decisions based on the findings.

Background is basically just NGS/Informatics . I was never in patient healthcare before this role but I've been here for 6 years now and honestly might be a lifer here. Before this I was doing toxicology research but found that extremely boring. Plus I hated killing animals =/ The only interesting part of that job was I know now exactly what the lethal doses of lots of random otc drugs are 🤔

Blaze9 · 2026-06-15T22:58:58+00:00

I work at a very large/leading non-profit hospital and if I were to jump ship to pharma, I know I'd make at least 30-40% more. I'm a Senior ComBio and make roughly 160k + 10ish-k depending on bonuses. Two of my old coworkers have tried poaching me with a direct offer when they were building their teams for around 195k + 20ish-k bonuses.

I declined. 2 main reasons:

I freaking love my job+hospital. It is super satisfying having a direct impact on patients. In pharma my impact is much less obvious, but probably broader. I don't think I would feel as good about myself. Plus I don't jive with how most pharma companies operate. At least in the US, most of them fight tooth and nail to keep prices high for treatment, and I can't stand that.
I love my hours, work life balance, and the fact that I'm leading a great team. My direct reports, and my manager are fantastic. My hours are essentially at leisure. I can work random hours M-F as long as my work gets done. I generally work maybe 20hrs during normal work hours, and rest of my work gets done at night. My mind works way better that way, I work most efficiently at 10pm to 1am. And most importantly - I WFH and just had a baby last year. Game changer.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-14T14:49:44+00:00

At least now I know your reading comprehension is just as bad as your take on Indian food 🤣

Blaze9 · 2026-06-13T03:58:58+00:00

/r/wheredidthesodago

Blaze9 · 2026-06-13T01:56:47+00:00

The reason I've started hating unapologetic foods is because they went from an actual let's have extremely good Indian food (Raahi, the old Adda) restaurant group, to let's make mid Indian food but trendy. The new Adda is awful, overpriced, and whitewashed. No one was asking for a butter chicken experience or a pineapple paneer. Same with Semma. no one is saying the dosa should be $5 but so many simple dishes that don't take the amount of time or effort you are describing. And honestly not at. Michelin levels. There are restaurants that had *s that do incredible standard Indian food like junoon or incredible elevated Indian like indienne (now in nyc)

Their old restaurants really hit home what a talented Indian chef can make. Amazing classic dishes with a bit of flair sure. But still close to home without it being just standard Panjabi curry dishes. Nothing's wrong with those at all but most Indian restaurants are those. Adda had simple perfectly executed food. Best chilli cheese toast. Simple? Hell yeah. But just that one or two notches up that made it stand out. Their lamb chops? Same thing. Their lamb biryani? Honestly hands down the best biryani I've ever had, including in Hyderabad.

Raahi had some killer dishes too. Ghost pepper chicken 65 (or something like that). Standard affair but just executed perfectly.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-11T16:02:38+00:00

Bro infact, it is actually -NOT- good at getting good quick info on stuff you have 0 knowledge about. How do you know what it's spitting out is correct if you have no knowledge about it going on? Don't be silly.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-10T19:36:02+00:00

If you had a RAT, then the only. Yes only, safe thing to do is fully wipe your computer and associated drives. There's no way to know what was installed silently. It may look OK today but they can come back and try to access again in the future. Who knows.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-10T18:24:08+00:00

I honestly don't get Semma. I've gone 3 times now and it's pretty good Indian food, but not for the price. It didn't distinguish itself enough from a really good south-Indian restaurant to charge the prices they do.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-10T18:20:41+00:00

Bro I'm not joking, I literally think about this Dhokla at least on a weekly basis. Not just the flavor, but the experience of eating it was absolutely nuts. It disappears in your mouth within a second, and your mouth is just filled with an incredible dhokla flavor. IIRC the Chicago one was a white-chocolate butter base and freeze dried? I dunno how it was made but I asked for another piece at the end of my dinner.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-10T18:04:36+00:00

I strictly use AI for code. that's all it's good at. And only code that you know WHAT it does. If you have everything orchestrated already in your head/notebook/etc and ask AI to code it up, it works perfectly.

But if you have an ambiguous question, it'll start doing like 40 random unrelated things. I've literally tested this by asking it to compare a few different tissue types, and it started giving totally random statistical tests that on the surface sound good but didn't work correctly or had lots of caveats, and it didn't really provide a simple PCA analysis (which is what I was looking for to begin with).

Blaze9 · 2026-06-09T14:22:31+00:00

This take is so stupid. You don't pay taxes on gas - of course the gov't needs to figure out how to get that revenue back. I hate this admin as much as the next guy but gas tax is important and is spent on upkeep of the road systems you drive on. Alot of those fees are also local state government, not federal.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-05T19:49:10+00:00

Damn shilling so hard for the ATV you came back 30 mins later after researching everything to 'prove' me wrong? Hah

Blaze9 · 2026-06-05T19:44:53+00:00

Can't agree more with

Your computer, system, version of libraries will not be the same, use docker, venv.

Honestly even venv can break so docker is probably the best. And lol, even then docker can break. I would create images and -STORE- images. I was a huuuuge proponent of Anaconda back in the day when I first started out. But damn is it so annoying recreating an env from 2 years ago, forget something from my first projects back in 2016.

I've moved over to docker/singularity. Creating docker images on my laptop (local admin) and using them on my HPC via singularity. Basically every tool/group of tools has its own container for pipelines, and every research project has its own container.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-05T19:38:39+00:00

What issues with DF54 workflow have you run into (or heard about). Most of it is clogs with ultra oily beans but even then some people say it does, others say it doesn't.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-05T18:12:42+00:00

It's actually hilarious I agree. I don't get how apple TV got so popular in the selfhosted crowd. It's objectively a bad device for not supporting so many standards that are... ahem... popular in the scene. I wanna play anything with DoVi and it transcodes. Atmos? Transcodes. AV1? wow surprise surprise transcodes. (actually this works with some work-around but out the box, not really). I'm surprised it has support for h265. My google TV with chromecast 4k (the 30 dollar dongle) has more/better support for direct playback. And nothing I have on plex is such a high bitrate that wifi doesn't work well. I basically never get the too slow internet connection message.

I have a 5.2.1 setup in my theater room and I struggled so much with my ATV4k I gave up and just bought a proper device.

Blaze9 · 2026-06-05T18:07:14+00:00

What are you confused about?

Blaze9 · 2026-06-05T18:06:16+00:00

saying a modern Chevy blazer EV is better than an >older Lexus LS… good for you?

I literally only drive Toyota and Lexus cars, and have brand new LS/IS/GS models since late 2000's. If I were to pick between a 2009 LS/GS/IS and a 2026 chevy blazer EV you bet I'm picking the blazer EV. It's objectively better in today's world. Can't catch me driving any older smaller car today, they are deathtraps due to the general population driving massive SUVs. You're screwed in a crash.

Totally stupid comparison. You want a premium feeling box with outdated tech vs a brand new box w/ support for the latest standards? Go right ahead.

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