IDG's running this new conference, BioITWorld, starting in Boston, so, since it's close, I'm here, (Right now on a couch on the exhibit floor, actually) and will be both days, modulo a visit to O'Reilly and Sasuga Books tomorrow. Perl's big in the BioInformatics realm, and this looks to be a good chance to both get a feel for how perl's used and works for people, and to do some fundraising for the Perl Foundation.
Pity it's kind of difficult to actually get in contact with the people using perl--the exhibit floor's mostly vendor sales folks.
Anyway, if anyone's here, look me up and say Hi.
Anyway, I've been on the lookout for jobs out on the East Coast. I'm just wondering how you like the Boston area and if you had any recommendations for ideal areas/suburbs to live in.
Looking at the postings for Bioinformatics centric jobs, it looks like most want their candidates to be double majors in biology and programming, something I don't think is a very reasonable expectation (though, what do I know? For all I know there are *tons* of Biology majors who've picked up Perl along the way).
Do you have a feel for how strict those folks are with regards to having a Biology/Life Sciences background as a prerequisite? Or could the essentials be learned on the job (or with a semester class)?
Good luck with the plug for the Perl Foundation.
Thanks.
Re:Some questions
Elian on 2002-03-13T20:02:09
Alas, I can't be all that much help. I don't live in the Boston area (at least not for East Coast values of 'area') and I don't have a whole lot of biology knowledge. Not much for squishy things, alas.:)
Judging from the folks here, though, a strong information/signal processing or algorithmic background would stand you in good stead, as would a good statistics or mathematics background. When you get down to the bioinformatics level, it's almost all information.
