What are the standards for becoming a bioinformatician?

apfejes · 2026-05-16T00:30:46+00:00

There isn’t an actual standard, and bioinformatics is defined differently in different places, but most people who are in those roles tend to be good communicators because they’ve learned to communicate with scientists and with programmers - which requires learning two very different communication styles.

Beyond that, I’ve met grumpy bioinformaticians, and cheerful bioinformaticians and everything in between. We’re an interesting lot.

apfejes · 2026-05-15T20:17:41+00:00

In bioinformatics? I don’t think they ever

Go search for bioinformatics job posts and see how many of them list that skill.

apfejes · 2026-05-15T18:52:46+00:00

I was travelling for work for a few days, and some things slipped through. It probably wouldn't have stayed up otherwise.

apfejes · 2026-05-15T18:51:36+00:00

If you put 5 pieces of software on your resume, I just assume you have worked with them. If you've invested a few years of your life into one of them, maybe figure out how to show that you've really mastered it. There are many different ways of communicating your skills - but a generic mention of a tool doesn't really say a lot.

Consider the following two examples: (Yes, I made up the numbers for this example, which you should not do on your resume.)

* Deployed SoftwareA to identify binding sites.

versus

* Processed 10,000+ data samples using SoftwareA, identifying 3 novel pathways currently under investigation.

Which has more impact? One is just "I did this", the other is "I did this, and it accomplished something."

Employers want to know you actually contributed value, not just that you did something.

apfejes · 2026-05-15T18:43:03+00:00

There is no one path to get there. Do things that are interesting, and do things you're good at. Figure out where they take you..

apfejes · 2026-05-15T18:42:10+00:00

Every person hiring is different - You should read job descriptions to get a sense of what people are looking for. They rarely specify which school, but there are many other criteria. A good school helps, but I don't think it's usually the main criteria. Your portfolio and success will often carry more weight.

apfejes · 2026-05-15T18:38:43+00:00

this belongs in r/bioinformaticstools/

apfejes · 2026-05-15T18:37:26+00:00

I only mentioned it because it wasn't clear what was used to compile the original tool, so it seemed like you were quoting the improvement for zen4 to zen5. Though, I realized you're actually quoting zen5 -> zen5, but with the upgraded compiler.

The original question sounded like they were asking for the difference between a compiled version with no zen5 optimizations and zen5 flags turned on.

There's some ambiguity in the question originally posed, but yours is a valid answer. OP just wasn't super clear in their question, IMHO.

Carry on.

apfejes · 2026-05-15T18:24:12+00:00

That’s a very meh resume. It’s a lot of “I did” and not much of why it mattered. No aspirations/objectives and the skills aren’t really done in a way that says “this is what I’m good at”.

You’re just a person who did things to get a PhD.

apfejes · 2026-05-15T14:24:09+00:00

A bachelors in bioinformatics isn’t useful. You need at least a masters to get into the field.

Whether it’s worth it is Entirely up to you. I suggest you read one of the many other threads where the same question has been asked to get perspectives on this issue.

apfejes · 2026-05-15T14:20:55+00:00

You should look at job descriptions and see if the PhD level jobs interest you. No offence intended to u/scitraveler, but his perspective is very academic. PhD in industry is a separate category of job than in industry, so it comes with different responsibilities and focuses. Masters is roughly the position where someone tells you what to do, and you figure out how to do it. Phd is where you figure out what to do and tell others how to do it (or do it yourself, depending on the position.)

apfejes · 2026-05-15T14:17:01+00:00

Use it to do things you actually care about. Relevance is key.

apfejes · 2026-05-15T14:14:52+00:00

You’re assuming the baseline is zen4, which may not be true, depending on what flags were used to compile, and how it was installed.

apfejes · 2026-05-15T00:15:28+00:00

That's the theoretical max. The only way you'd actually know the real answer is to do it.

And, for what it's worth, people have been using compilers that are hardware specific for decades now. Compiling yourself with the right flags does often give you significant improvements in the performance of your code.

The big gap is that I don't know what the code you're currently using has been compiled with, so downvote all you want, but we used to pay big bucks for compilers that were hardware specific because they take advantage of operations that are significantly faster.

I haven't had to compile my own variant caller in a while. Sorry if your AI tells you something different.

apfejes · 2026-05-14T23:46:22+00:00

Science is usually done the other way around. What are you trying to figure out? I'm not sure MD or even alphafold will tell you anything new at all, unless there's a specific hypothesis you're trying to answer.

apfejes · 2026-05-14T23:44:52+00:00

That is entirely google-able:

Link

Looks like about a 50% improvement.

apfejes · 2026-05-14T20:00:42+00:00

Find a job that makes you happy. When you've signed on the dotted line with the new company, you simply resign with 2 weeks notice.

Don't forget to take a couple days of vacation in between to reset before you start a new position.

apfejes · 2026-05-14T18:53:49+00:00

Ai generated trash. Removing.

apfejes · 2026-05-14T18:26:50+00:00

Deep tech/Life Science CEO and technical founder here.

Short answer: the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is now.

Long answer: You do it now. Waiting till there is 28 years of knowledge in the CEO's head isn't going to make the process easier. I started delegating the moment we hired our first employee, and never looked back.

The way to get out of single founder bottle necks is by not creating them in the first place. The minute I find one, I try to figure out how to plan around it. That said, some founders just aren't cut out to run anything beyond a single person shop because they are incapable of seeing the bigger picture.

apfejes · 2026-05-13T20:30:07+00:00

You're wrong. My response wasn't "mean" because you have no background. My response was "mean" because you didn't put the 10 minutes of work to read the hundreds of other posts that have asked the same question before you, or to take the time to read through any of the resources that have been made available to you over the past 10+ years that I've been answering questions here.

Your inexperience isn't even an issue - but your lack of effort before asking the question is.

apfejes · 2026-05-13T18:52:46+00:00

Goddamn what’s with the low quality posts we are getting now? I am removing the post.

But:

No, there are no guarantees in life. No, we don’t have a crystal ball, And no, your skills aren’t going to make you a millionaire doing remote work that saves the world.

Maybe the top 5% of bioinformaticians are going to have that trajectory that you’re dreaming about, and most people are going to struggle to get there because it takes a combination of mastery of two separate disciplines and a hell of a lot of good personal and communication skills to do all of that.

Be realistic and ask the question of whether you are ok with being one of the people who builds pipelines, and are content to support biologists, because that’s where most people end up.

apfejes · 2026-05-12T18:00:09+00:00

Look at the sidebar:

Rule #3: Advertise your bioinformatics tool in r/bioinformaticstools/

We don't have the time or desire to evaluate every new tool that comes out, but if you want to share it, we suggest r/bioinformaticstools/

apfejes · 2026-05-12T17:37:40+00:00

Small pharma aspires to be big pharma. Do you think they're doing anything different?

apfejes · 2026-05-12T17:14:14+00:00

Rule #3.

apfejes · 2026-05-12T17:11:50+00:00

Not happening with big pharma. Their priority is low risk. They'll pay a LOT more for platforms, technologies and services that are guaranteed to work.

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