How do I even begin???

I'm a 25 year old graduate student who thought she had everything together until recently. By my junior year of college I had (or so I thought) a very solid idea of what I wanted to do in life. Go to grad school, get my Ph D, and work in academia. I just finished my 3rd miserable year of grad school and have recently realized that this is NOT what I want to do. I want to travel and enjoy life (not to say that one can't enjoy academia; I've just come to find that it is definitely not for me!) and get the hell out of this program. I have decided to take a terminal Masters degree in December (hopefully) and I have no clue where to go from there.

I am lucky enough that I will have a fairly lucrative and flexible degree (I have a lot of knowledge and experience with applied statistics and know a variety of statistical software programs) that will allow me a lot of options. I have recently been interested in looking into working abroad. However, I have no idea where to even begin to look for reputable and legitimate jobs abroad. I've tried Google but have generally not had any luck-- scam sites pop up, there are a lot of dead links, and most websites are generally not navigable.

My question is....where do I begin? Is there anyone here with a similar story who can pass some advice along to me?

One idea is to come up with a list of international companies you'd be interested in working for and just go to their websites and look up jobs listings. Most companies have sections of their websites with job openings.

Have you traveled overseas b4?

My granpa hated every minute of being a lawyer. But felt trapped by the digree and years of preperation.

And family guilt, as it was the family trade.

Backpack. Its the only way I'll travel any more. I'm 71.
Stay at Hostels International, when you get a chance. They generally have an older crowd. Folks with some life mileage on 'em. Experience. Things to really talk about.

You won't learn zip from the "Ooh I'm likes."
Rule of threes.

Start looking for international companies that have offices or do a lot of work abroad. Also, consider getting the WHV for Aus or NZ and look into jobs in your degree over there.

Lots of jobs, if you know where to look.

Myself and a few acquaintances with good backgrounds in statistics have made location independent jobs for ourselves. I live in China, but am taking a several week trip to France right now (while still working). My friends have similar lives, we've chosen a country as our base, but then travel a lot, working while traveling.

However our paths have all been the route of working for quite a while in academia and industry, and building up a series of connections so that we are the "go to" person when a statistical problem arises. After a while it became such that we could be completely mobile, but first we had to create that body of work upon which our connections rest. Otherwise drumming up new work can be difficult.

If you have to "get out now", then the other suggestions are good (especially, as always, gawkabouts). You can also look at international companies with offices in your country. Often it's not difficult to be allowed to transfer abroad after one year. University research centers often also frequently need good statisticians and are use to handling international applicants. Think of who is doing research work in your field and check out their websites for jobs, or just write to whoever is leading the effort and ask for their advice. Good luck!

'cept when I get sassii!
ç( {8o Q

I try to tell folks, that today's people count too. And can teach some wisdom in the way they see things. Hear 'em out.

Travel should be more than just check list of things, so old we can't relate.
Hell, we're all cousins by now, in the great sceem of things.

And these places have histories like the peeling of an onion. So there's no point rushing to other famous name places.

Hi,

I am an actuary. There is currently a lot of work at European insurance companies to help them develop their "Solvency II" models. I am pretty sure that they hire statisticians, you could look into it.

I also know that a lot of banks were grappling with "Bale II", not sure where they are with that as this is not my field.

Look it up anyway, who knows!

transitionsabroad.com is a great site. start there, figure out what it is you want to do, where you'd like to live. there's a lot of info to digest on working & living abroad but you can do it.. just be resourceful

You might want to consider getting a job at home with a company that does work internationally and seeing about transferring in the future.

Another option is to work hard, make a lot of money, live cheaply and save so that you can then take some time traveling and deciding the next step.

Ruth

If you must get out now or explode, you may want to just take off and start with some not-quite-so legitimate jobs.
Like washing dishes, busking or selling beaded necklaces to the hippies on the beach.
Finding more 'reputable' jobs tends to be much easier on-site than via cyberworld.

Work on cruise ships. There's some jobs you don't do, for the money.

That's after you pay student loans. :(
And a legit job to make money and learn more.

I have a friend that works for a NGO or similar in Sudan. When I asked her about job requirements she said things like statistical analysis are very popular. In her line of work she does things like go to a village to look at employment opportunities as she put it to me... We go to a village and see they have low employment. We see that they could make more butter, so therefore we need to train people to make more butter. Then puts it into a massive report. She lives in a tent and travels throughout the country on nail biting dodgy plane rides.

This thread is now about 2 months old girlabout and the OP has not even bothered to acknowledge any responses.