Sorry if this post is a bit unorganized or not allowed, I just wanted to give a brief background of myself and ask a few questions about potential careers in this field.
I have my BS in Computer Science since 2025 and only had 1 real internship experience where I got to be part of a small GeoAI lab at my university where I essentially developed a Python data mining and cleaning script for the P.I in which the data would be used to train a model. Other than that I had no other internships, co-ops, or a job post grad as I kept getting rejected or failing while 3-4 rounds in. Admittedly my side projects throughout school were just simple websites made or projects from class which I wish I could go back and actually focus on more rather than grades as well as network more. As of late I have had informal positions where essentially I was fixing people's bugs in their iOS apps or fixing their UI from their vibe coded codebase. As the rejections kept piling in I just became more and more depressed and had one day where I just kind of realized to myself that even landing a cushy tech job would still be depressing to me since its not the type of work I know would fulfill me. I know I have the privilege to even say that but I just sort of thought back to what a younger me really wanted to do in this world and it was more along the lines of research and progressing humanity type of stuff rather than creating dashboards or keeping people on their phones longer and yada yada.
So I started looking into more of the health field and how I can still apply my Computer Science skills and applied for some masters programs dealing with biomedical & health science using AI. I have been accepted into a program and I am more motivated than ever to actually learn and contribute to this industry but now I find myself lost on where to start or if I even have the smarts to get up to speed and join a research lab quickly and what sort of career options I have after this program. Since I am better prepared before I have researched a bit on getting myself started with simple AI health projects that progressively advance and the types of companies and positions I should be looking out for as well as conferences, career fairs and such. I know that I want to get into systems dealing with either medical imaging, clinical decision support, or drug development.
Still I feel lost as to how I should be reading and taking notes when reading papers, how to reach out to labs whether for a paid position or volunteer, where to find internships / co-ops dealing with health AI, and what I should be focusing on to land a career in this field after grad. I am also a bit afraid that the type of work I actually want to do for a living is more for those with PHDs so I still have some doubts on what the future holds for me.
Once again sorry for the incoherent ramble and if there is anything that needs to be clarified or doesn't make sense I'll be happy to answer. And if anyone has some advice on how to go about this I will be reading very intently. Thanks