Tips On Landing Your First Job In Bioinformatics As A Graduate

Date: 15/01/2025

Here I’ve compiled some tips on getting a position as a bioinformatics graduate. And also as someone keenly interested in working in bioinformatics - an autodidact as far as computer programming and learning your way around the command line.

Do something in the meantime

Immediately after graduation, it’s important that you find something to do whilst you're searching for jobs. It goes without saying that prior to graduation you should have already been courting opportunities for jobs, internships, graduate schemes or even a year in industry through a gap year if it wasn’t a part of your degree course.

Research

In an article I wrote about getting a position in research, I mention things like seeking opportunities to shadow researchers and get involved in ongoing research in a relevant department of your university. A key part of this is networking and having a willingness to learn and work which you need to demonstrate by showing interest in the research of your professors.

Open-source projects

If you’re particularly confident and you understand and have used specific open-source software for your dissertation or various coursework during your degree, you could potentially make helpful contributions to the development and maintenance of these open-source software.

For example, if the software you’ve used is hosted on GitHub, you could:

1. Fork the repository
2. Clone the forked remote repository to your local PC
3. Modify the code for improvement
4. Test it as robustly as you can
5. Then open a merge/pull request on the original repository, detailing what your changes have done and how you think it improves the program and the testing you’ve done.

Preparing a Portfolio

Websites like Kaggle in the area of Machine Learning and other AI, offer the opportunity to analyse readily available datasets. There are numerous tutorials online on how to make use of the many methods and models in this area. You can run jobs on your computer or write notebooks using Google Colab.

Iterative Refinement

If you’ve been struggling with getting responses from employers, no feedback, then your applications, your CV, and your cover letter need to be subjected to iterative improvement.

Internal improvements:

• Create a spreadsheet or an inline database in apps like Notion and fill it with key information about the job/application. E.g., Job title, Organization, Deadline date, Salary, Status of application (e.g. applied, interview #1, offer, etc.), Your CV (and Cover letter if relevant).
• As you apply for new jobs and as your job applications progress, you need to be updating this table. (I have seen people with 50 - 100 rows in their table of applications before they landed their first job)
• If you are invited to interviews, make sure that you reflect a little on the interview, jotting things down which you felt you couldn’t answer well or at all. You’ll then be able to go back and fill the gaps in your knowledge or understanding.
• As you do this, you will be honing your applications and adapting to your niche in the economic environment.

External improvements:

• You can ask family and friends to proofread your CV and cover letters before sending them off.
• You can ask people in your academic/professional network, acquaintances, and former peers in university, college, etc.
• You can leverage your university’s career team; they’re usually there to help you with your CV, and you can be doing this in the final year of study.
• You can seek out mentorship on platforms like LinkedIn and ADPList.

Getting your foot in the door

Some points to consider:

• Again, if you’ve been able to get a response from employers, ensure that you have alerts and notifications on so that you’re one of the top 15 candidates applying.
• Try to look out for entry-level positions. £25k - £32k p/a.
• Be willing to move across the country.
• Be willing to migrate at least as far as the continent.
• Leverage your connection with your professors and teachers. Many go through university in a virtually anonymous manner. It’s a shame because in reality, you should thank professors after lectures and seminars that were particularly helpful and you should engage them with questions whenever you have some to ask.
• There may be opportunities to volunteer as a demonstrator in their tutorials/seminars.