I am a Master's degree student in a general Applied Biology program, and I just discovered Bioinformatics last semester. I did really well in class, and have been pursuing it in addition to my graduate research, which is organismal wet-lab type stuff, completely unrelated. I have one more semester before I graduate, and I am trying to figure out how I am going to get into the Bioinformatics field. I don't have any major research experience, though I excelled on my in-class projects and exams. The Bioinformatics side-project that I am participating in will eventually be published, but not until after I graduate, so I will not have any publications on my resume. I think I have two main options here:

• try to find an entry level job in Bioinformatics
• look for a PhD program in Bioinformatics

Without any major lab research in the topic, or publications, I am not sure how easy either of those will be, or which will be the better option. I was looking at some of the other posts on here about this, but it seems that most people started their Masters/PhD/careers with an interest in Bioinformatics; I found the field halfway through my Masters, long past the point of being able to switch tracks.

Also, I am trying to come up with an idea of what sort of career I want to pursue. At the moment, I like the idea of collaborating and doing data-analysis for wet-lab researchers. I am getting a little fed up with my lab-bench work, I think I wouldn't mind moving my research skills to be more computer oriented. However, I do not have a lot of knowledge of what Bioinformatics jobs are like, and where this all fits into the current job market.