I think this is a case to case basis . Some people use statistics as a means to an end . You can be passionate about biology or sociology , then you ' d apply statistical methods to your field , but statistics aren ' t interesting in out of themselves . Then there ' s other people who just enjoy statistics and don ' t care what they ' re applied to . It is however true that in data analysis you ' ll be doing a whole lot of data wrangling which can sometimes get boring and you may lose sight of what what your added value is to your employer , but in the end it ' s still great fun IMO . Regarding your question . You also need to consider the salary and career advancement opportunities . I ' d be keen to take an interesting job over a boring job if the interesting job pays 5 k less . But if the interesting job pays half of what the boring job does , I ' d have to reconsider . Frankly , I don ' t know much about biostatistics , but I reckon you ' ll be doing a lot less boring data wrangling ? Someone correct me if I ' m wrong . But basically the data you ' ll get is already pretty clean and you ' ll just need to reshape it a bit and then worry about fitting your model properly .