Career advice: MSc or take a chance - (Apr/08/2015 )

Hello

I have a pretty huge decision to make regarding the direction I take my career and would like to get advice from you guys.

I'm a Botanist that has just completed my first Postdoc. I'm not a very ambitious person; I love science but I can't really see myself being a research leader I just want to make sure I'm in a position that I can do research for the rest of my career. Unfortunately my Postdoc was a complete bust and I was lucky to come out of it with just one low impact paper (which I have yet to finish writing). I’m now working as a curator at a leading bioinformatics Institute but I miss doing my own research and I’m not enjoying it as much as I thought I would.

I can’t really quit my current job as I have commitments plus my partner left their job to move here so I can’t really ask them to move again.

So as I see it I have two options:

1. I do have an interest in bioinformatics and I can see that the increasing data from genome sequencing will increase the need for bioinformatics. So I could do a long-distance, part-time MSc in Bioinformatics and take advantage of working in a bioinformatics institute to attend lots of courses then when my contract ends I could look for a position in bioinformatics research. The disadvantages of this is that an MSc is a lot of money and I’ll still be behind a computer all day
2. My PhD project was really interesting and there were a lot of questions left unanswered – questions if answered would be high-impact research. There is a possibility that I could approach my supervisors to try and secure funding for some part-time, unpaid research with a collaborator who has a lab nearby. As I see it this will be as much work as doing an MSc at home and it will hopefully enable us to get funding for a long-term research project in my area of interest after my contract here has finished. The disadvantages of this is that my supervisors might say no, nothing may come out of the project (it’s all just speculation at the moment), I may have to find the funding, and I may not get any funding.    

So what do you guys think? I'd appreciate any advice you can offer.

As I see it I can either play is safe or take a huge gamble.

P.S. Sorry for the long post but I'm really torn between the two options.

Hi, I think it's all depend on yourself. Anyway, it's your own life to live. I  know it's very hard to make decisions especially you have to choose from two important things that might influence your whole life. It seems that you really love bioinformatics. On the other hand, you have passion in your research. If you really want to do it, fund is not really a problem. You can persuade your supervisors. If this don't work, you can ask others for help. Anyway, Good luck. Listen to your heart and make decision.

Hi Wunder, 

It can be quite tough to decide whether to stick to something that you currently have or jump ship and go to something you really like, given our own individual circumstances. I am reading this book called the Dalai Lama's cat and in one of the chapters it says that we usually end up in such circumstances where we cannot make up our mind, because of fear of failure. We are afraid that the decision that we take may not end up leading us where we want to be and its natural to take the less risky route to where we want to get :)  So, the first thing to do, it keep faith in yourself, no matter what happens! 

Without being too philosophical to you, I would say you could the following

1. Speak to your ex-supervisor and also the collaborator about your plan B. you can tell them how much you really like the field and how much you want to get back to the bench. Your supervisor might be out of funding, but the collaborator might have a few funds to spare. There is always hope that something will work out there and you might have some useful results at the end of the period. 

2. The Bioinfo bit, yes, it seems promising but personally, I cannot see myself or anybody sitting on a computer the whole day doing Biology! (Computer programmers are a different breed!) But I do not think that an M.Sc is required to learn more. bioinfo is something that keeps evolving and you need to learn yourself and adapt to changes. I have not seen any PIs head to the university again to learn Bioinfo tricks. besides, you will have to spend from your pocket for the M,Sc and if you have relocated recently, this might add a little bit of monetary strain. 

3. No matter what advice you decide to take off the internet, speak to your partner about it and discuss it in detail, since he/she is going to be a part of what happens next, not us :) 

Like Samantha said, you can always ask others for help, if you require funding and you do need to follow your heart so that you can back yourself up, when needed! 

All the best! May the best decision win! and do keep us posted!   :)