Career transition into bioinformatics and data science? - Postdoc or no postdoc

I am close to completing my PhD in Nutritional Sciences. Pre-PhD I did research in developmental biology, tissue engineering and molecular biology in general. To say the least, my background is very broad.

Since the beginning of my PhD program, I realized I wanted to pursue a career in data science. Throughout my PhD I have invested innumerable hours to acquire skills in programming and data analysis (understanding HPC environments, coding in R, Python, specific bioinformatic tools for my area of work and some others outside my area of work that I learned but have not applied in my own work). I have a big passion for my research topic but no interest in developing an academic career.

I took a long time to complete my Phd in part because of the extra skills I was acquiring and because of personal reasons. My original plan was to obtain a postdoctoral position at THE leading academic research laboratory in my field of study, the interview process has been working out for me but if I got it I know it would be an amazing opportunity that could come at a very high economic and personal cost since it involves a move cross country and postponing the opportunity to earn more money for my family in the short term.

I am starting my job search in industry and looking at what prospects I actually have for a bioinformatics career in industry since my PhD is not in a Bioinformatics or Computational Biology program.

For those of you who have careers in Bioinformatics, my questions are:

How can I overcome the lack of a Bioinformatics PhD in my current applications for industry jobs? I am a little insecure since not all my bioinformatics skills are sharp since I have not had the chance to apply all of them to my current research, but I am confident I would be able to tackle any challenge I was given. It may take longer for me than for others, but I would get it done and I am willing to invest the time doing the work to get to proficiency.

If given the opportunity of a postdoc at the lab with the biggest name in the field, would it be "worth" the sacrifices and investment required? or should I just jump into industry if given the chance and start building a career there.

Any advice is welcome! Thanks for reading :)

Topic career

Category Data Science

About

Geeks Mental is a community that publishes articles and tutorials about Web, Android, Data Science, new techniques and Linux security.