u/Deltaz89

I’m finishing first year of a biochemistry degree and trying to move towards bioinformatics / computational biology.

So far:

• Planning to learn Python over summer (starting from basics)
• Doing a linear algebra course over the summer as well + taking a Linear Algebra for Data Science module next year

I’ve been looking at internships (LinkedIn, etc.) but a lot of them seem to require final year students or more experience than I have right now.

I’m mainly wondering:

1. What kind of internships should I realistically be aiming for as a second-year student?
2. Is it normal to not get anything “official” at this stage?
3. What would actually make me competitive by the time I apply (projects, specific skills, etc.)?

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who started from a similar position.