Molecular Biology of the Cell got me extremely excited about genetics and bioinformatics, highly, highly recommend this book to any software person I meet who is interested in biology.
As to the work environment, it seems to be extremely varied depending on the lab and team your on. I came from a number of years doing web development in marketing and finance before joining an R1 university research lab, and in many ways the day-to-day is quite similar in both fields. You are not the 'go-to' person for most things, but with that said, even as an individual contributor I feel my voice is heard on technical decisions where appropriate. As for pay, it's the biggest aspect that will make me leave at some point. If you do not have a PhD, or even a degree in my case, you can't expect to get paid a lot. As to the speculation on the satisfaction of the work, it is indeed deeply satisfying!
I got to have a conversation with one of the hero donors that gave a kidney biopsy after a life-saving transplant. It's hard to overstate just how impactful your work feels when talking to someone like that. Even as a small cog in the larger machine (our lab is around 50 strong with many people being at the top of their sub-fields), the end results of the effort will be massive improvements in individuals quality of life, this alone makes it quite easy to get out of bed in the morning.
Any particular edition of Molecular Biology of the Cell you’d recommend? I just looked up the 7th edition on Amazon (seems like the latest) and it’s $300 USD. Oof.
I've still got my 3rd edition copy (from 1999 when I was an undergrad molecular biologist). Most of the basic biochemistry and molecular biology will be exactly the same--it hasn't changed much if at all. While there have been lots of additional details added over the last two decades, the fundamentals are unchanged for the most part.
This wouldn't apply to other fields such as Immunology (Janeway's Immunobiology) where I have purchased multiple copies of the years due to the field changing so fast.
As to the work environment, it seems to be extremely varied depending on the lab and team your on. I came from a number of years doing web development in marketing and finance before joining an R1 university research lab, and in many ways the day-to-day is quite similar in both fields. You are not the 'go-to' person for most things, but with that said, even as an individual contributor I feel my voice is heard on technical decisions where appropriate. As for pay, it's the biggest aspect that will make me leave at some point. If you do not have a PhD, or even a degree in my case, you can't expect to get paid a lot. As to the speculation on the satisfaction of the work, it is indeed deeply satisfying!
I got to have a conversation with one of the hero donors that gave a kidney biopsy after a life-saving transplant. It's hard to overstate just how impactful your work feels when talking to someone like that. Even as a small cog in the larger machine (our lab is around 50 strong with many people being at the top of their sub-fields), the end results of the effort will be massive improvements in individuals quality of life, this alone makes it quite easy to get out of bed in the morning.