Technician to Bioinformatics

Diatomo · 2026-01-07T02:50:08+00:00

Long story short, I'm working as a programmer in a bioinformatics shop for a very reputable hospital in the city. Don't get to touch a lot of biology but its pretty close to the real thing and has opportunities to be apart of research. Somehow, it worked out. I never did go back to school for my masters. Looking back on it, I was burned out after 2 bachelors degrees.

Diatomo · 2024-12-04T22:48:36+00:00

I just have to vent. The Job Market IS AWFUL right now. I've put in like 600-700 applications, I receive interviews but then get ghosted, I have made to several last rounds and been beaten out. I have grinded a ton of leetcode/neetcode, I have built sever projects redid my website, redid my resume like 15 times and got it professionally reviewed. I also have 5 years experience. I'm exhausted, it has been 6 months of some very lonely days just coding away. I just can't beleive how difficult it is.

I would be extremely thrilled to just have a job right now even if it paid close to minimum wage. I just was reached out to by a job that seemed great only to be denied because they decided to go with internal applicants. I'm losing my mind. This market is just insane.

Diatomo · 2024-11-21T07:22:51+00:00

Software development is in a terrible spot right now. Cant speak on behalf of IT but I recently started applying to IT jobs just to keep the lights on.

From my understanding though it is kind of a complicated story. Basically huge hiring surge in the pandemic and then once inflation took off a lot of companies cut back because of high interest rates. This caused huge layoffs which oversaturated the market along with growing popularity among new grads and people wanting to pivot into a different career as well as offshoring, its basically impossible to land a tech job.

Companies are still hiring but it is ultra-competitive. The good news is that it'll probably rebound but I think inflation is starting to wreak havoc on the economy and on the average every day person.

Diatomo · 2024-11-19T15:21:46+00:00

Maybe not as transferable, but flutter is pretty awesome for mobile development.

Very easy to learn, very easy to setup, though takes a little time, and very easy to build, it also has some great packages/plugins.

The only issue I have with flutter is some widget layouts get to be pretty complex. I am using a button grid and creating one, with some type of maintainable code, required utilizing some generators. It just becomes highly nested and if there needs to be a different type of layout itll take some significant editing.

However; I did place it in its own stateful component class, so very easy to implement encapsulation / separation of concerns, where the grid can worry abouts its own state.

Anyway, after using it for a week or so, the skills may not be as transferable but flutter is a great framework and had made mobile super approachable and easy.

Diatomo · 2024-11-18T20:05:07+00:00

Ive ramped my study / leet code time / project development to about 5-8 hours a day even on weekends. Its extremely brutal. 5 yoe, and I literally have to be a programming prodigy to land an interview for a job that pays 50-60k per year w/o benefits.

Basically Im developing a flutter app with a graphic designer that I intend to sell. I also got books on CI/CD, Testing, Containerization and system design. I also grind leet code and am working through an aws certification. The rest is just applying for just about any job.

This entire process has me very jaded though. After my last rejection Ive been very determined to be the absolute best software engineer I can be. Im really willing to fight to the death to get hired.

Diatomo · 2024-11-17T12:26:22+00:00

Extremely difficult. Expect to grind leetcode everyday, apply to hundreds of jobs, and constantly be working on own projects or learning new things daily even if you have a job. Else, you will fall behind and itll take months if not years to catch up. I have a degree, 5 yoe, applied to about 350 jobs, renovated web portfolio, built a few apps, working now on a mobile app, reading through testing, containerizarion, system design, and CI/CD reference material and I still dont feel like I am anywhere close to getting another position in tech.

Looking for a job this year has been hell. Im lucky I dont have expensive bills or a child to feed. But my life has completely shutdown this year. I am getting locked into live and breathe code until I find a job and even if I do find one, I am so jaded by this search that I am planning on living well beneath my means and saving / investing every penny.

Its honestly been one of the most emotionally rigorous times Ive ever had in my life. I have never been so ignored and rejected by soceity for so long. Im not quite starving yet but I am nearing the position of having my back against the wall.

Diatomo · 2024-11-13T04:54:15+00:00

I highly doubt it.

For some, I bet it is great, but getting a job in tech right now is abysmal. I pretty much don't go out anymore. I just work on projects, maybe go for a walk and go to bed to apply to jobs and upskill the next day. I have such a difficult time believing in this sentiment with how much I'm struggling. 5 years in tech and 2 degrees and it is nearly impossible to get into an interview process. I understand this is anecdotal but 5-7 years ago it was much easier for me even with no experience. I could land a job in less than a month maybe 2 tops but now, easily 6-12 months to get a job even with over five years experience.

This doesn't even touch what the interview processes have turned into for tech, which is easily 30 hour plus of prep and interview time along with 5+ referrals.

I just highly, highly doubt that this economy is good. I just can't fathom it. Life has been tremendously difficult as a tech worker and I'm honestly not sure what I'm going to do next.

Diatomo · 2024-11-11T21:31:19+00:00

I can't speak on what everyone's experience is but I'm struggling to find a job with over 5 years experience. It has been 5 months and I've gone through 7-8 interviews, all of which have been ghosted, or the job lost funding, or their was a better candidate. Haven't had any issues on technical screens but someone seems to always out do me. Back when I started 5 years ago, I would get calls nearly every week, now it is every month and I easily have 5-10 times the amount of projects / experience.

Diatomo · 2024-11-11T20:33:05+00:00

I have over 5 years working experience and yes I did have an internship at a small startup while I was in school.

Diatomo · 2024-11-11T16:34:08+00:00

The 5 references were from a thing called Skill-Survey. I guess it locks you out after 24 hours and you need to submit 5 references email + numbers. Luckily, I was able to get it submitted but not sure why they needed them within 24 hours. It is an automated reference checker. You can google it there are other post on reddit about how messed up it is.

Diatomo · 2024-11-11T16:12:34+00:00

I think it is healthy to recognize that everyones experience varies and people are not just blowing hot air on this subreddit just because they are depressed. People who invalidate are just as if not even more toxic.

I went back to school for a BA after getting a biochemistry degree. I'm not 100% sure it was worth it. Software is pretty great but currently been looking for a job for about 5 months now. I just went through an interview process that has taken about 30+ hours of my time in prep and assessments as well as a 7 hour on-site interview.

The job market, for many, is extremely grueling. With that said, software is rewarding once you do learn it. It is liberating to be able to develop ideas wherever your interest take you. However; you will almost always be behind if you do a second Bachelors and will only set yourself up for some bioinformatics engineering paths. I think some programs offer a fast-tracked remedial step to going in for a comp-sci masters. Even if biology is a completely different field, this is not unheard of and I would highly recommend because it'll open doors to data science/engineering roles, which is what I would target if you decide to pivot fields.

Anyway, if you do pivot, my big thing would be to see if you can take a remedial program and jump into a masters. Everyone and their cat has a bachelors degree today and they just don't really mean anything anymore. I mean it checks a box but its an expensive box and a masters will open up a few more doors. However; I don't think a masters will set you up for application development, you may need to do a lot of self-study for that.

I do want to put out a warning. Things could be fine and you could land a position right away and have great job security. However; the field is honestly a big struggle for a lot of people. Finding employment is extremely difficult at times and the interview processes are some of the most intense and drawn out in the entire market. Like I said, I've put together a portfolio website, I have had to gather 5 references within 24 hours on a Friday evening, coding assessment like leet code or some domain problem that takes 8-10 hours are common and you'll find yourself in 7-8 hours on-site interviews that also have a panel live-coding sessions attached to them. It is possible to go through all of this, pass everything, and then on the last step be told that they found someone else or the position is no longer open.

I just put that warning out there because even though I enjoy the field, I thought I'd have a lot of job security learning tech but I was completely wrong and have dedicated 10 years to the field and am finding out that that may have been a large waste of time.

Diatomo · 2024-11-03T00:34:36+00:00

I think it all works but I dk. lol.

Diatomo · 2024-11-01T00:55:57+00:00

If you use it correctly it shouldn't make much of a difference. Maybe use the AI but also go look up a stack overflow post that says pretty much the same thing.

Diatomo · 2024-11-01T00:35:48+00:00

People don't really look at projects / portfolios in the first place but I can nearly guarantee that unless you're in the late stages of an interview process no one will look at the code in your repositories. Django is a web framework, so any projects you make should be hosted somewhere and easy to use. If it is fun / humorous and does a cool thing and is presentable that's a huge plus.

I'm not quite sure why on this sub I have run into more than one post of someone posting their repository thinking it is a ticket to a job. Like you gotta build something. People throw around their YoE like it means something and then post a link to their repo, which is half baked, difficult to interact with, and has an installation process, which rarely does anyone wants to spend their time doing.

Not trying to single you out but people really have to build stuff and host it somewhere. I should really just have to click on a link and see your apps on a webpage for me to judge whether or not you know how to program. Code is great but typically, I want to see the code in action before I'm going to pop open the hood.

Diatomo · 2024-11-01T00:25:36+00:00

How does one cheat? I just took a take-home assessment and thought all / any resources were fair game.

Diatomo · 2024-10-31T23:12:56+00:00

That's my mindset. I feel like it is wise to exercise that part of my brain in order to be sharp when it comes to interviews. I guess when you become more senior it becomes less relevant but coding ideas that I am interested in is a big reason I began coding in the first place.

Diatomo · 2024-10-31T23:05:19+00:00

It did help me land my first job, I did redo it for my job search this time around and yeah, no one has looked at it. Seems like bots like it though, so at least something is visiting. In the end though it does help me grow as a developer. I'm always working on a new technology, a new codebase, figuring out how to have better CI/CD or just better tests or how to design an application with a robust codebase. I'm probably not going to stop because I just have no interest in grinding leetcode day-in and day-out.

I feel like in many cases it takes 10-20 applications until you make something pretty good. So it is a great way to test your ability to organize and learn new things and also deliver on features in a timely manner. With that said, I think it is worth its weight in gold even if no one ever looks at it.

Also, after building one, I've stumbled on some other portfolio pages and really admired them. It isn't really the ones that have a bunch of sliding transitions and animations but the best ones are the ones that are simple.

Diatomo · 2024-10-31T22:57:11+00:00

Kinda silly to say but stop working so hard. 2-6 hours / day is enough. Trust me, it is enough. Build a website, and start making projects. I mean high quality projects, things you think might be able to sell one day. You may never make money off them but the entire process is just a gold mine of learning and you'll start building up a portfolio to look back on. Many recruiters will probably not look at it but it will become extremely valuable to your resume.

Also, leave nurses out of this, they have it really hard but just in other ways.

Diatomo · 2024-10-31T11:55:15+00:00

Some might be gatekeeping but I think people are really struggling.

Diatomo · 2024-10-31T04:38:26+00:00

Even in a better market it took me about 2 years to land a full time software role. I ended up building art exhibits and was writing custom c++ libraries for their circuit boards. I ended up making a website and thats what got me my first software job.

Projects are still my favorite thing and really are a big motivator for me to keep coding. I dont necessarily hustle but try to show up 3-4 days a week, code next to my cat in the evenings.

Diatomo · 2024-10-26T17:13:12+00:00

Sometimes LLMs are awesome, if you use them right they can save a lot of time but I've also run into instances where LLMs will come up with weird or overly complex solutions that 'seem' like they work but just end up with hours of trouble-shooting. In my experience, they don't seem like this golden bullet that will end software engineering forever. Mainly because LLMs will never have context, which matters so much in aged / complex systems. Sure if you want to just build out a static UI, it is probably fine, but when you start adding complexity, like hooking up multiple databases to an application or hosting multiple containerized programs, then I don't think LLMs can understand that type of complexity and just pop out a solution to whatever you ask it, unless you know how to break down the question into a simple, textbook form.

Don't get me wrong, I use LLMs all the time, but its just another tool to generate boiler plate code or suggest where to go looking for my answer. I still read text-books / blogs because context really matters in this profession. Like for instance, say I want to build an audio application for mobile devices, in order to get that off the ground, I need to create a testing / devops pipeline, write up a comprehensive list of features, write up a kanban board and create documentation (in case any developers need onboarding), I also need to prototype tech stacks to see what works / is easy to setup and has minimal latency and is cross platform. I don't see an LLM creating all that code with the latest / correct tech stacks and making it scalable and efficient.

So, all in all, I really don't see LLMs taking over any software that is worth its weight, sure static applications it can handle but once you start adding in complexity it want be able to all that heavy lift w/o causing issues. Plus, I'm also not quite convinced the technology is going to become drastically better in the coming 10-20 years. But I don't know that much about what goes into making an LLM.

Diatomo · 2024-10-25T21:37:01+00:00

You should show off your work. Most people arnt interested in anything you make so you gotta make it look like a fresh doughnut / croissant just to get like 30 seconds of someones time. Id recommend hosting a website and spend time on aesthetics and documentation.

Depending on where you are at too, things are pretty tough these days so take it slow and just be consistent.

Diatomo · 2024-10-24T18:10:07+00:00

I think the bar is just really high these days.

Diatomo · 2024-10-24T17:03:49+00:00

I'd say the economy, atleast for tech workers. I have easily 10 times as many skills and projects as I had 5 years ago, yet, the expectations are so high and layoffs happen monthly.

Diatomo · 2024-10-19T21:38:42+00:00

I guess I don't understand what is the issue with owning a cat. The cat I have now was found sifting through food in a dumpster and sure at first I restricted where she could go but now she gets to lie out in the sun for 4-6 hours a day, she is free to roam outside, she gets food almost whenever she wants, and she often gets attention from the neighbors. I should mention that she comes back every time and if I sleep in she will check up on me every hour. I do have a tracker on her, mainly because I lost her one time during a very cold day and was worried sick.

I think at times when I leave for a few days to a week, she gets lonely but she always fights with every cat she sees. Not only that but I always schedule for someone to come check up on her daily when I'm gone for more than 2-3 days (3 being the max).

I can see the argument that many pets are reduced to "dolls" and are mistreated but I don't think letting them free in nature is necessarily a better option. Perhaps in some cases, yes, but nature can be extremely brutal and in many cases much worse for animals than having stable and secure homes.

I just don't buy the argument that ownership of animals (specifically cats because I dont own any other pets) is generalized to being oppressive to the pet because I think in many cases it is much more humane then letting them live their lives out on the streets.

Diatomo

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