Ask HN: How to get into genetic engineering if I have no formal background? - quotz
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angelmass
If you mean something on the biological side of things like CRISPR, the answer
is pretty simple: you don’t. Biology weighs formal education, especially when
hiring, very very heavily, and the odds of getting into the field without any
are pretty much nil.

If, however, you want to work on the engineering side of companies that works
with genetics like that, you’re much more in luck. I work as a swe at a
genetic diagnostic company, and while my background is in biology, the vast
majority of devs do not share that background - it’s too difficult a niche to
fill. Instead, mostly what we look for in hiring is an interest in the field.
We have plenty of PhDs that worry about the nuances of biological complexity,
and enough devs that understand enough to bridge the gap between them and
people that have zero biological background. We trust that we hire devs that
have the ability to - at the very least - get up to speed enough to be
effective, so that’s what we look for.

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omar_a1
Start with an entry-level job in an MCB lab (standard bench work: pipetting,
plating, PCR/PAGE, wet chemistry, etc.), and build upon that experience to get
opportunities to do more sophisticated techniques, eventually leading to
genetic engineering work.

Essentially, the path I'm recommending is a career in microbiology. It's
admittedly the long road, and not a well-paying one at that, but it's one way
to do it!

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buboard
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odE8dNcklks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odE8dNcklks)

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bigmit37
I wonder if there is something for hobbyists to get a taste of lab work and
experiments.

~~~
drallison
There is an active biohacker movement. Take a look at [https://www.the-
odin.com/](https://www.the-odin.com/) which sells courses and supplies. Jane
Metcalfe (one of the Wired founders) has a website, email newsletter, and
blog, neo.life ([http://neo.life](http://neo.life)) that covers biohacking.

Of course, as human being you are equipped to reproduce. A careful selection
of partners is a form of genetic engineering.

