I just visited an old favorite blog of mine – the excellent “In the Pipeline” by Derek Lowe.

By going through the last 5 or so pages, it’s clear what the hiring state in the industry that once was:

To balance that, there was one positive news item:

These blog posts cover the span from July 2016 to September 2016.

Now, this is no hard data, but it gives me an “anecdotal nudge” that the field/industry is in atrophy. When is the last time you saw any of the computer-science shops with similar headlines? “Google cuts down on software engineers,” “Facebook reorganizes and lays off data scientists,” anybody? It simply doesn’t happen—not at this scale.

If you’re a young student, grad, or post-grad in life sciences, consider your options carefully. Academia is marred by fierce competition over small resources. There is a saying in StarCraft 2: “When ahead, get more ahead.” When you know how to code, get better at how you code.