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[Arun]

I ask the question thats been answered many many times!
Still, the question is pertinent to my situation....

I am 24(almost 25). I have an undergraduate degree in Mech Engg. and
am gonna defend my Masters(in Comp Science) thesis in June/July.
My Masters thesis is on computational biology and I managed to get a
couple of papers published.

That the job market sucks(especially for CS majors) needs no
explanation.

I've a few choices:
1) Move to India where all the jobs are moving (FLAMERS: I'm sorry! I
dint take your jobs!)

2) Go on to a PhD program in Bioinformatics/Computational Biology.
I've not applied. But I can begin applying and taking more courses
relevant to the fields, doing more research etc. Since I already have
a couple of papers in the area, getting admission should not be very
painful.

3) "Hang in there" for another year and scratch around for jobs hoping
that it'll get better.

I've looked around and read a lot about how PhD's "reduce" your market
value and I definitely dont want to go to the academia. But Ive also
heard a lot about how the 21st century is gonna be dominated by
Biotech and research skills there are valuable.

Should one spend ~5-6 years learning and acquiring new skills? I know
that research is a lot of hard work and requires single minded
dedication and a PhD program will not be "easy". I dont expect that!
But would an investment in time and energy in Biotech/Bioinformatics
etc. be useful?

Certainly, if we all knew the future, we'd all be Warren Buffets! But
I'd like to hear opinions out there about Biotech and about getting a
PhD

Thanks!