Coursework and Resume

[Shirafune]

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So I'm taking a statistics class entitled "Advanced Statistics for Biologists" in which we learn more statistics than our introductory course offers such as programming in R. I am interested in a career in research (clinical or bench), but don't think this class will be adequate to tackle all the complexity of real data.

Just wondering how to list this as a skill on my resume. There's obviously a big difference in those who ran 1 Western for a lab class and those who run them more regularly in a lab...

Also, any resources where I can learn biologically relevant R programming skills? Or maybe researchers use Prism or other graphing/stats tools more often than R...?

 

[ZedsDed]

I think this is a bit esoteric for this forum. Maybe try some of the other ones. However if anyone can answer, I solute you

 

[lifetothefullest]

You're right - most science papers generally do not use R. It doesn't do many of the things that more advanced, complex packages do. Usually STATA and SPSS are common as well as MATLAB. Of these, I personally prefer MATLAB as it's pretty versatile and it's a nice skill to have.

With regard to your resume, you'd list R programming skills in the skill section.

I also don't understand your point with regard to Westerns... Westerns are generally qualitative in nature.

 

[Shirafune]

You're right - most science papers generally do not use R. It doesn't do many of the things that more advanced, complex packages do. Usually STATA and SPSS are common as well as MATLAB. Of these, I personally prefer MATLAB as it's pretty versatile and it's a nice skill to have.

With regard to your resume, you'd list R programming skills in the skill section.

I also don't understand your point with regard to Westerns... Westerns are generally qualitative in nature.

I meant it as an analogy to my skills in R. I don't deal with R on a usual basis, so I would be pretty novice at it for things beyond my class. I was just concerned at listing it as a skill because I wouldn't be that skillful. I would feel the same concern if I were a student that ran a single Western for a lab course.

 

[mimelim]

So I'm taking a statistics class entitled "Advanced Statistics for Biologists" in which we learn more statistics than our introductory course offers such as programming in R. I am interested in a career in research (clinical or bench), but don't think this class will be adequate to tackle all the complexity of real data.

Just wondering how to list this as a skill on my resume. There's obviously a big difference in those who ran 1 Western for a lab class and those who run them more regularly in a lab...

Also, any resources where I can learn biologically relevant R programming skills? Or maybe researchers use Prism or other graphing/stats tools more often than R...?

I think this is a bit esoteric for this forum. Maybe try some of the other ones. However if anyone can answer, I solute you

You're right - most science papers generally do not use R. It doesn't do many of the things that more advanced, complex packages do. Usually STATA and SPSS are common as well as MATLAB. Of these, I personally prefer MATLAB as it's pretty versatile and it's a nice skill to have.

With regard to your resume, you'd list R programming skills in the skill section.

I also don't understand your point with regard to Westerns... Westerns are generally qualitative in nature.

R is not widely used in medicine, but it is the standard in virtually every other discipline. We actually built several R packages designed for clinical research in the past 4 months. Will be presented at several different conferences this year. In my mind there is no question that R will be the dominant software used for statistics in medicine in the coming years. In the same way that it is widely used everywhere else, the fact that it is open source, free and no more difficult to use than the packages that costs thousands of dollars makes it a no brainer. The best way to learn how to use R or any other statistical package is to actually play around with a data set and have someone you can bounce questions off of. A lot of it is self study and exploration. I'd offer you a position with us for the Summer, but I already am baby sitting 5 students 😉 and two of whom are proficient in R (they actually taught two of us the basics of R this semester over skype).

Also, I am not aware of much, if anything that R can't do that STATA or SPSS can. One of our students is Applied Mathematics/Statistics at Harvard and R is the only thing that they use in their department. Honestly, if it does everything that Harvard Statistics wants it to (encompassing the people who do biostats for MGH/B&W), it should cover what most people need it to...

 

[Goro]

It's medical school, not a job at Genentech or Eli Lilly.

So I'm taking a statistics class entitled "Advanced Statistics for Biologists" in which we learn more statistics than our introductory course offers such as programming in R. I am interested in a career in research (clinical or bench), but don't think this class will be adequate to tackle all the complexity of real data.

Just wondering how to list this as a skill on my resume. There's obviously a big difference in those who ran 1 Western for a lab class and those who run them more regularly in a lab...

Also, any resources where I can learn biologically relevant R programming skills? Or maybe researchers use Prism or other graphing/stats tools more often than R...?

 

[mimelim]

It's medical school, not a job at Genentech or Eli Lilly.

Sorry, I should have also noted that in my post. What I said is only relevant if you are really interested in learning stats for clinical medicine, it is by no means necessary for medical school and for resumes, I put on my application, "Proficient programmer in X, Y and Z." And yes, I got questions about it on the interview trail for both medical school and residency.

 

[Shirafune]

Sorry, I should have also noted that in my post. What I said is only relevant if you are really interested in learning stats for clinical medicine, it is by no means necessary for medical school and for resumes, I put on my application, "Proficient programmer in X, Y and Z." And yes, I got questions about it on the interview trail for both medical school and residency.

It's medical school, not a job at Genentech or Eli Lilly.

Yes, I'm mostly learning it as a practical skill for clinical medicine. Plus, more stats always seems helpful for research.