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Career Exploration

Geneticists

Also called: Cardiovascular Geneticist, Medical Geneticist, Research Scientist, Scientist

What they do:

Research and study the inheritance of traits at the molecular, organism or population level. May evaluate or treat patients with genetic disorders.

On the job, you would:
  • Supervise or direct the work of other geneticists, biologists, technicians, or biometricians working on genetics research projects.
  • Plan or conduct basic genomic and biological research related to areas such as regulation of gene expression, protein interactions, metabolic networks, and nucleic acid or protein complexes.
  • Prepare results of experimental findings for presentation at professional conferences or in scientific journals.
On the job, you'll need:

Math and Science

  • biology
  • arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, or statistics

Arts and Humanities

  • English language

Education and Training

  • teaching and course design

Engineering and Technology

  • computers and electronics

Basic Skills

  • reading work related information
  • using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems

Problem Solving

  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

People and Technology Systems

  • thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one
  • figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it

Verbal

  • read and understand what is written
  • communicate by writing

Ideas and Logic

  • make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information
  • group things in different ways

Math

  • choose the right type of math to solve a problem
  • add, subtract, multiply, or divide

Visual Understanding

  • see hidden patterns

Investigative

People interested in this work like activities that include ideas, thinking, and figuring things out.

  • Integrity
  • Analytical Thinking
  • Attention to Detail
  • Persistence
  • Achievement/Effort
  • Initiative

Analytical or scientific software

  • SAS JMP
  • SAS/Genetics

Presentation software

  • Microsoft PowerPoint

Object or component oriented development software

  • Perl
  • R

Video courtesy of CareerOneStop.

Job Outlook

The job outlook for this position is Average.

New job opportunities are likely in the future.

Median Annual Salary: $87,300

Education

Post-doctoral training or master's degree is usually needed.