I’m curious what people think about job prospects for a student graduating with a master of science in molecular biology with an emphasis in applied genomics.
With the increasing involvement of biotechnology in pretty much every area of science and medicine, and biotech companies popping up all over, it seems to me that the job prospects are pretty good. It also seems to be an area that’s expanding at an increasing rate which will require more and more qualified help in the future.
Or maybe I’m just seeing what I would like to see. What do you think?
Are you trying to decide whether to pursue an MS or not? Do you already have a bachelor’s degree? Where do you live? I’m sure you’re aware of this, but some cities have more opportunities than others.
Yes, I’m deciding which graduate program to pursue. I’m finishing my bachelor of science in biology. As far as the cities, I’m not really concerned with my specific location. I’m looking more for the general outlook across the United States. I have access to some good research universities for graduate school, and I’m basically deciding between this and more specific technical degrees.
I’m doing a PhD in molecular biology now. I don’t think MS degrees are totally worthless, but I can tell you that when I was looking for a job seven years ago, most ads that mentioned MS degrees said “either a master’s degree or two years of work experience”. So you could pay for two years to get a degree, or you could work for two years and get experience, and end up in the same boat. To have a real career in biology, you need a PhD, which is why I am where I am now.
I spent six years working a job that required a BS, and there’s no way I could ever do that for my whole life. Others could. Incidentally, there was a guy under me who had a master’s; this was the best job he could find.
Interesting. I was considering dong the PhD, but was kind of hoping to simply finish quicker and start working. I’m still weighing all of my options though. Thank you very much for the reply.
A MS won’t get you very far in research. In academia, an MS pretty much just qualifies you to be a lab manager or senior lab tech (which you can also qualify for with a few years of relevant experience). After that, there’s not a whole lot of room for advancement – you could probably move over into administration, but if you want to do research, you need a PhD.
I vaguely understand that there are more opportunities for someone with a MS in industry, but I can’t give you anything more specific than that.
I think more than likely, you will get to grad school and change your mind. Grad school is hard work, but it is also not a bad life. You effectively get paid to go to school. You can afford a small apartment and live on burrito’s and Bud Light. You make good friends with others in your class and occasionally go out for a good time. I would go back to grad school in a heart beat, if I didn’t have a family and obligations.
One of my kids is currently a sophomore in MCB, and the impression I get from her is that an MS is pretty much just a step along the way to your PhD. That is, if you want to do research, instead of just working in or managing a lab.
Most of the people in my PhD program, if not all of them, didn’t bother with an MS. They, like me, went from MS to PhD. If we quit halfway through, they’ll give us a pity MS degree as a consolation prize.
I really don’t know. As someone with a BS in biochemistry, this is my understanding.
An MS in a natural science or life science field is basically just the same as a BS + 2 years work experience. In some fields of industry, the MS may offer advantages, but not a whole lot over the BS.
The PhD gives you better work options, but overqualifies you in much of industry. I don’t know if there is a glut of PhDs, but I wouldn’t be surprised if tons of people got the PhD thinking they’d go into academia, then found out what a closed off world professional academia can be and flooded industry instead.
I have considered a PhD in molecular or cellular biology, but the idea of 80 hour workweeks makes me a sad panda. If I could find a program that only required 50-60 hours a week of classes, homework, research and studying I’d do it.
Incidentally, if you are looking for work in biotech my impression are the best cities are San Diego, Boston and Raleigh. At least in the US.
I agree that an MS in biology is not worth as much as a master’s degree in other fields, in that jobs are often advertised for MS or BS with 2 or more years of experience. However, being a research technician or lab manager (with a BS or MS) is a good job, IMO. It is a research job, in most cases, although with less responsibility than most PhD jobs, and a lot less prestige. Often, there’s also administrative responsibility for things like ordering supplies, dealing with vendors and possibly organizing the lab. As for the research itself, in some cases the technician works with one or a few supervisory researchers (usually PhDs or PhD students) who design the experiments and assign specific tasks to the technician. In a good situation, the technician will be involved enough to understand what the results mean. In other less fun jobs, a technician may primarily be responsible for producing materials needed for other people’s research (e.g., cell lines, purified proteins), or running the same type of assay(s) over and over again, or he/she will not be involved enough to understand what the results mean. But, in a few labs, a technician who has demonstrated a lot of aptitude for research may be allowed to do research pretty independently (these situations are probably rare, but I have seen this in multiple university labs). For someone who isn’t interested in writing grants or competing for tenure in academia, or doesn’t aspire to run a research group in industry, being a technician is a good job.
If you aren’t sure that you want a PhD, I would encourage you to work in a lab for a while to make sure that you really want to make the commitment that’s necessary for a PhD program. When I was getting my PhD, there were a fair number of students who were ambivalent about being there and they got fed up and angry about working so hard for so little money. I agree that grad school is a great time of life if you want to be there, but it’s usually not so fun for people who aren’t really committed to getting a PhD.
San Francisco is at least as good as any of the cities mentioned. Seattle and Philadelphia/New Jersey are also good. There are also large biotech companies in other places (e.g., LA/Thousand Oaks, CA and in Maryland near DC).
ETA: I would say that the biotech industry has been around long enough that the bigger companies aren’t going away. Between industry and academia, there will always be jobs. If you work for a startup company, there is a risk that the company will fold and you will need to look for another job.
I disagree with some of the advice here. In many ways the MS is in a better position for a career than the PhD (and this is coming from a PhD in biotech). I don’t know about academia, but I know a lot about the biotech industry career situation.
The PhD won’t be considered for MS level jobs. You will be “overqualified” and your CV will not even be looked at for it. Some people actually hide their PhD.
There are probably more MS level positions in biotech than PhD. Now, you likely won’t be running your own lab, but you will have more doors open to you. With the glut of PhDs, we have our pick of hundreds of CVs whenever a position comes open.
Is “applied genomics” something like bioinformatics? I’m unfamiliar with the term. A lot of the computational stuff for bioinformatics is becoming less useful. Companies don’t need a team of people to run their bioinformatics. It’s much cheaper for me to just use a contract research organization to do the work for me than have a person on staff.
My advice, is find the job you want and figure out the degree you need to get it. Too many people get PhDs because they like science, and then have no idea what they’re going to do with it in the end.
And, as others have pointed out, if you decide on the MS, don’t go for one of the MS programs that you pay for. Apply for the PhD, and drop out after your qualifying exam. You’ll get the MS, and be paid to do it.
And you city list is off. In rough order: San Francisco and surrounding (by far the number 1), Boston/Jersey (tied for 2 depending on the field), San Diego, North Carolina, Seattle, and then some scattered stuff.
So far I’ve been thinking the MS is probably a better fit for me, although you’re probably right about starting with the PhD instead of paying for the MS. I know the PhD carries much more prestige, and a future nobel prize will probably be ruled out without it. However, my primary goal is simply to contribute as much as possible to a field that has an increasingly real capability of improving lives and increasing understanding, while somehow making a comfortable living in the process. I guess my biggest concern has been whether or not I would actually be able to contribute significantly with an MS, instead of just taking orders and performing prescribed tasks. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem taking orders and doing what it takes to get the job done, I just feel that I have something to offer to the overall process. I’ll be giving this a lot of thought in the near future.
The “applied genomics” part does involve some bioinformatics. It also just means this program specifically focuses on a variety of recent procedures and techniques involved in molecular biology and biotechnology. This particular program is facilitated by the medical school at my university. Another program I’ve considered is an MS in biotechnology through the biology department, which has a larger research focused aspect. I’m not sure it really matter between these two programs though. I think they would both take me to pretty much the same place.
I was basing my list off of this Forbes list I saw a while back and remembered SD was no. 1 with NC and MA near the top.
However looking at it again, 3 of the top 10 cities are in the bay area. So that is pretty decent. San Jose, SF and Oakland all in the top 10.
Does anyone know anything about international work in biotech? My impression is east Asia is trying to take the lead in biotech (South Korea, China, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan). Have any US born and US trained researchers considered moving to those areas, or are they already flooded with domestic workers?
I was wondering if they meant literally “San Francisco”, which doesn’t have a whole lot of biotech. Most of it is south of the city (like Genentech, obviously, which doesn’t actually qualify as “San Francisco”, but with something like 12000 employees, is pretty substantial!).
Whenever I end up on the job market, I get offers in Singapore. I’ve never taken them very seriously, but they have some nice labs with some pretty big names.
I know they built biopolis and were trying to recruit US researchers for that. But it seems east asia would already be flooded with people trained in biology, chemistry, biotechnology, etc.