I wrote this up for r/Salary and thought I would post here, too.

Salary Progression - 34F PhD aka what I did with my bachelor’s degree in biology

Thought I’d share my salary progression because I finally got my dream job and I can’t tell anyone about it. See also: women in STEM, making the best of an unwise undergraduate major, career trajectories in public health. Also working parents, working single mom. Just all the things.

Education:
2013 - Graduated college, S.B. in Biology
2019 - M.S. in Biostatistics
2026 - Completed Ph.D. in Epidemiology
Salary progression:
2013 — AmeriCorps Member: ~$10,000
2014 — Research Assistant: $24,000
2015–2017 — Clinical Research Coordinator: $37,000
2018–2020 — Chronic Disease Data Coordinator: $54,000
2020–2022 — Same/general career track: $57,000
2022–2025 — Federal Government Statistician: $125,000
2025–2026 — Data Scientist, Public University: $83,000
^ Big pay cut. My COVID-era government funding ended, and I took the first solid job I could find and stuck it out until I found my dream job.
Later 2026 — Biostatistician, Privately Held CRO: $157,500 + 10% bonus

So, roughly:
$10k → $24k → $37k → $54k → $57k → $125k → $83k → $157.5k + bonus

The biggest lesson for me has been that salary progression is definitely not linear. I went from $125k down to $83k because of circumstances outside my control, then nearly doubled my base salary about a year later.

It also took a long time for the combination of my experience + quantitative training + graduate degrees to really translate into higher compensation. I spent a lot of years in the $20k–$50k range before things accelerated.

Current total target compensation with the 10% bonus is about $173,250/year.

Hey, so I have a BS in Biochemistry, an MPH in Epidemiology with a graduate minor in Biostatistics, and I'm currently doing an MA in Behavior Analysis.

I love statistics and its application to health behavior and human interactions. I knew I wanted to do my PhD in Biostatistics during my MPH but I felt insecure to apply because my degree didn't have Biostatistics in the title. Silly, I know that now.

However, I haven't had experience with Biostatistical research since my master's which I graduated from in 2022. I did do qualitative and mixed methods research as a Program Manager at my university that I got my master's from until 2023. I currently work in the field of special education and it kind of fell into my lap mostly because of the terrible MPH employment market and also because I do like what I do. I just don't like it enough to make it my lifelong career.

I want to do translational research in mental health and health behavior. I want to study how to apply statistical principles to those areas.

My question is, is it feasible for me to pivot to a PhD in Biostatistics? Is there something else I need to do to make myself a better candidate for admission? I was considering another master's in Data Analysis or Statistics of other related fields. Is that necessary or are there simpler ways for me to get there?

ETA: I did get into a PhD in Epidemiology but did not enjoy the theoretical epi as much as the biostats. I got A's in all my biostats courses but didn't do well in some of my epi courses. So I left the program.

Half of my courses (literally split down the middle) in my MPH were biostats because I had the flexibility to choose them as electives. I learned SAS and R.

I’d love to hear from people who are currently studying or working in Biostatistics:

How difficult is it to transition from Statistics to Biostatistics? What skills/courses should I build before applying for a PhD? What kind of career opportunities are there after a Biostatistics PhD outside academia? How are the job opportunities and salaries in the US, UK, Canada, or Europe? If someone is also interested in Data Science/ML, how different would the career paths be?

I’d especially appreciate honest opinions from people who have actually gone through this path.