Need a job - biostatistician or SAS programmer

[deleted_user]

Can anyone give me tips on how to get a job as a biostatistician or a SAS programmer? I recently graduated with a MS in biostatistics and I have the base programmer credential from SAS. The positions I have applied seem to be highly competitive and there seem to be a lot of people with work experience in the job market.

Any suggestions?

[deleted_user]

It's impossible to get a position as biostatistician with only an MS.

SAS Programmer positions are also scarce. These positions have been in the outsourcing process for about a decade now, predominatly outsourced to India. The majority of SAS programmer positions are via contract (6 months - 1 year) and require 5+ years of experience.

I am a prime example of how tough it is to get in. I interned as a SAS Programmer in 2004 at a major pharma. One year later after receiving my MS degree in Stats, I couldn't even get a call back for an interview at this same company.

[deleted_user]

Thanks for sharing the info with me - I am already feeling better about my career prospects 🙂
So what sort of jobs should I look for with a MS degree? I have been applying for many biostatistician and SAS programmer positions at major research universities in the US and they advertise a lot of positions for MS and quite often these positions are entry level. Of course, they only pay 50K for start, but I think it's better than nothing. Still, so far I only had one interview, and I was not offered the job. I aced all my classes and got a publication (analysis for epidemiology and outcomes research, nothing fancy) and all that hard work seems to be worth _NULL_ .
Is going for PhD my only option in this situation? I am afraid that 4 years down the road my PhD might be worth _$hit_. I might then have to do 2-3 postdocs to get a job where I will be doing power analyses? 🙂
Please help me understand what's going on.

[statadm]

It is tough getting a high paying job in this field, at least in the university setting. I also have a master's degree, 10 years SAS experience and 68 publications. I had to find a new job recently at a major university and nearly every job I interviewed for (7 interviews) said they could not pay me what I was making at my previous job. So, I had to take something paying slightly less. They can easily fill these positions with good, experienced people paying them 40,000-50,000 which makes all those years of raises worthless when finding something new.

This is just my personal experience.

Good luck in your job search.