<p>Hi guys, I'm interested in taking up a bioinformatics minor (I'm a statistics major) because I hope to pursue a career in biostatistics/bioinformatics. I have some flexibility in choosing which classes to take for my minor, so my question is: which programming language/database knowledge is best to have under my belt? </p>
<p>As of now I only have a basic knowledge of R and C.</p>
<p>My son is in this field and has been exploring future job options and, since I am in a related field, we have discussed extensively. Here is what I would suggest to get a broad set of skills:
- You should get experience in a scripting language like Perl or Python. (My son’s computer science courses mostly used Python, so he picked that up there.)
- You should get experience in a data analysis tool like MatLab or R. (My son had to teach himself R for a summer research position last year. He is now using MatLab extensively, though.) However, if your interest is biostatistics, you might want to learn some SAS. (He is not doing that, but I work in pharma and it’s used extensively.)
- C++ or Java would be good to know. (Java is a little easier to learn.)
- Lastly, knowing some SQL would be helpful.</p>
<p>Not sure if you will see this response, but I hope it’s helpful if you do.</p>