It's true that companies that deal with scientific data tend to look for
IT hybrids who not only understand both systems and science, but also
who have worked in supercomputer environments supporting extraordinarily
large amounts of data. In lieu of that, they often hire PhDs in Computer
Science who have opted to go into the application of technology vs.
research and development. The reason: With a PhD behind them, they share
the same academic, research-oriented perspective and experience as the
users they support.
For example, at Celera Corp., the Rockville, Md., company that mapped
the human genome, the CIO looks for IT professionals who "can understand
and manage scale." In an October, 2001, interview published in
Computerworld (see "Helping to Map the Code of Life" at
http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/story/
0,10801,64917,00.html), John Reynders said, "We have over a terabyte of
storage in a single Oracle database, so we're asking people to manage
systems that are one to two orders of magnitude larger than they've ever
seen before. ... Someone may call from [research], and we'll move,
without blinking an eye, more data between two boxes than exists at most
companies."
Celera's supercomputer system, which supported one of the most
important, and data-intensive, scientific discoveries of all time,
consisted of 800 interconnected Compaq Alpha-based, 64-bit systems, each
of which could perform over 250 billion sequence comparisons per hour.
Working in that environment, Reynders said, requires both mental agility
and a focus on customer service. "You have to understand the user and
their requirements, which are driven by their research agenda," Reynders
explained.
Reynders noted that he didn't expect to find all the ingredients he
needs - an understanding of genomics, ability to deal with scale,
agility, and a customer-driven focus - in a single individual. He puts
each new recruit through a two-day boot camp on genomics, and strives to
build a team of people that, together, possess the qualities he needs.
To that end, he draws from a variety of different sources when hiring.
"Different IT environments bring different characteristics to the team,"
Reynders said in the October 22, 2001, issue of Computerworld. "From the
academic environment we get a level of creativity and research
understanding. From the government sector, we see people who have been
exposed to the scale - the largest computers in the world sit in
government agencies, so they have an appreciation of our scale and
mission. From industry we get the attention to quality and customer
focus. So we draw from all these communities to build our IT culture."
The developer seeking to break into the biotech industry (who for this
newsletter will be called Robert) has been doing database development,
in both the OLTP and DSS environments, for the last nine years of his
21-year IT career. He has experience with data architecture as well as
data repositories.
In that regard, he seems to have the requisite technical skills. And,
coming from an end-user-oriented IT environment, he also likely has the
customer focus that a research-driven company would need. However, he
may lack the exposure to the scale of a supercomputing environment, and
although he has specialized in database development, he may lack
experience with scientific data.
To break into this arena, Robert will probably need to seek a
transitional position in a related industry that would expose him to the
type of data and supercomputing scale that biotech companies require.
With one or two years of IT experience in a similar industry that is
easier to break into, he could then go after his dream job.
Environments that might provide that transitional step include
pharmaceuticals companies, government research labs, or large academic
computing environments. Some IT leaders in these areas include
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., New York; Eli Lilly Co., Indianapolis; Abbott
Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill.; American Home Products Corp., Madison,
N.J.; Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, N.J.; Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif.; the National Energy Research
Scientific Computing Center (NERSC of the Ernest Orlando Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif.; Sandia National
Laboratories, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. On the academic side,
he might look to large universities with strong research and development
facilities, such as the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and others.
At the same time, Robert should sign up for some university-level
courses that would expose him to current biotechnology research. This
would not only arm him on the subject matter and prepare him to talk the
talk of the biotech field; it would also demonstrate his commitment to
forging an IT career in this growing field.
Finally, since Robert already has significant database design and
development experience, garnering a toehold in the biotech arena could
also be a matter of simply retooling his resume. Rather than a listing
of the positions that he has held, Robert's resume should reflect, at
the top, large-scale database projects he has worked on, the type of
data involved, and the benefits those projects achieved for his users
and his company. (For more information on customizing your resume for
specific positions, please see the IT Career Advisor "Revamping Your
Resume," at http://www.itworld.com/nl/it_career_adv/01282002/.)
Like Robert, anyone seeking to embark on an industry-specific IT career
path should follow these same steps:
- Do your research into the common IT requirements at the leading
companies in your industry of choice.
- Assess what you bring to the party as well as what you lack.
- Look for a position in a complementary environment that would
expose you to the same IT requirements if you can't get the job
of your choice straight away.
- Take courses that would fill in some of the subject-matter gaps in
your background.
- Revamp your resume to focus on your assets that would most benefit
an IT organization in your target industry.
