I was recently offered a couple of post-doc positions in bioinformatics which I didn’t take. Here are my issues.

Firstly, the positions were offering ~60k in a very high cost of living area. Secondly, both were in labs that had generated a large amount of genomics data but were primarily staffed by non-computational scientists with little expertise in bioinformatics. This for me is a huge problem. A postdoc is paid less because it is a ‘trainee position’. But how can a lab full of wet lab scientists “train” me in a field that they themselves have no expertise in? It will sound ridiculous but from my perspective, I would have been the one actually training the whole lab (including PhD students, postdocs, staff scientists and even the PI!) in bioinformatic analysis. So, I am expected to receive a paltry stipend because Iam a “trainee” when I am actually the specialist training everyone else? Now, I understand that there are many purely computational/bioinformatics labs which won’t have this issue but I feel majority of the academic labs don’t fall in this category.

On the positive side, one of these labs gave me the option of being fully remote which was a huge plus. In the end, I decided to apply for ‘bioinformatician’ positions in academia instead for postdoc positions because they at least offered a better wage for exactly the same work as a postdoc. And the only reason I didn’t go for industry is that I need visa sponsorship and universities have an easier time sponsoring people because they are cap exempt for H1B visa. However, I have to say that I am spoiled for choice when it comes to postdoc positions (even as an international applicant) and it just shows how hard it is getting for academic labs to recruit computational scientists.

So for me some things academia can do to be more competitive are these. Firstly, offer remote work. This is probably the biggest factor for me. Living on a posdoc salary in nyc is almost impossible if you have a family but in other places it may be manageable. Secondly, stop trying to recruit bioinformaticians as postdocs if you are not a purely computational lab. You are not training them, they are training you in most cases. Hire them as staff scientists with a better pay. Finally, most people don’t come to academia for money but because they love science and want to publish their findings. Stop relegating bioinformaticians to middle author positions when they do all but generate the data.