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Hello all,

I am seeking some advice. I have a B.Sc. in chemistry, M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry. I am a research scientist, doing biomedical research in a biochemistry in Canada. I just turned 50 and would like to travel for a few years. However, I am trying to figure out a way to support myself, while I travel. I have come to the realization that a Ph.D. in modern research is not really a strong suit to get viable employment!

So, I would love any general advice how I can support myself, while travelling. Would love some advice from anyone with a similar background in science and how they managed to work and travel. What type of options are open to me? Any advice is much appreciated!

Thanks!

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1

I don't have any insight particularly into work for hard science PhDs but let me clarify some things for you. Commonly lumped together on this branch are three rather different concepts and methods. Travelling while working, travelling for work, and working in a foreign country. They are three rather different MOs. Travelling while working is what you describe above. While it sounds simple and gets plenty of queries here, it is often impractical because work that pays well enough to stick around usually cannot be found on a whim and usually requires a longer commitment. They are usually low paying and non skilled. I don't suggest this for you.

Travelling for work is what I do. It's a common enough concept. You travel to get some business done that will yield a profit to you or your employer. This is actually quite rare around these parts.

The most common is working in another country and the one that hold most promise for you. This is living and working in a new country. It is one that can be done by many including you. But it would be a shame to completely throw away your training simply to be able to do this. So here is what I suggest. Write up a list of lines of work you could do in your country. Then see how portable those jobs are. If some are academic positions, find out what positions are available outside your country. If they are industry jobs, see if there are any fieldwork jobs out there.

The benefits of living in a new country are many but the one that is most relevant to travel is that brand new regions of the world open up to you for weekend trips and longer. You also get to live in another culture.

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2

Alexander_vi gives a good review of what this board is about and how many of us are making our way around the world.

In the living and working in another country vein, there are often high schools and colleges that are looking for science teachers to teach in English. Some pay quite well, relative to things like teaching English. As an example here is a school in Beijing looking for physics and chemistry teachers to start in March: http://www.tefljobsnow.com/TEFLJobsBoard/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4699 Not a huge wage but over US$2000 a month with free accommodation, very low or paid income taxes, paid airfare and lots of other perks.

So - one angle might be to teach your skills at the high school or college level.

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3

I'm quite surprised actually that there aren't opportunities for working overseas in biomedical research. Have you looked into university research positions?

What I've been doing for the last few years is working (at home) on short to medium-term contracts, saving money and then travelling for a few months. Not sure whether this is feasible in your field, but might be worth a look.

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4

I got me a PhD in biochemistry too, and 50 is on the horizon, so I'll chime in. As Alexander VI said, traveling while working is tough. There is no market that I've found for migrant bench scientists. As has been suggested, your best bet is to choose a country to live in for a while and work there. Teaching, as suggested, is a good bet, though international schools usually want teaching experience, and universities will look at your academic and publishing record. But as you say you want to do this only for a few years it may make it difficult to get back into your current line of work when you are ready to return home.

In my case I helped set up a new company in China, so I created my own job. That's a difficult path without local help. A slower but more conservative path is to look at international companies in Canada, pharma in your case I would presume, that have research operations in countries you are interested in. After a year of employment these companies will often discuss transferring you to other sites. You can apply to their international sites directly, but then you will generally be considered as a 'local' hire, at sometimes much lower wages and difficult visa hurdles.

Another option is to do as Alexander VI suggests and list all your skills and evaluate them for portability; specifically I'd suggest to look at them from the perspective of working as a consultant. Do you have experience is setting up equipment, assays, production lines, etc. that you can market to companies? You'll need to network to find contracts, but this would give you the most flexibility, and may get you close to your ambition of traveling while working.

Good luck

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Normally I'd suggest teaching as a possibility but given your age and lack of experience it probably isn't worth the bother of retraining (and no decent international school will hire you to teach science without a teaching qualification).

Thus your best bet is probably either to try for a job where there is a potential for international transfer (as outlined above) or save really hard and then travel after you retire. The other option would be if you had long service leave built up or the ability to take a years leave you could head off and do something entirely different like teach English which would support you for that year and then know you had a job to go back to at the end of it.

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6

Do you want a position or a job?

Is your goal to see some world?

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Hello all,

Thanks for the excellent advice. In retrospect, I think I should have planned for this years ago by learning a skill that would allow me to work in countries that I want to travel in. I spend years thinking that working with the latest and best instrumentation and tackling research projects in Western medicine and interests could always be of use!

I think the international company option is a low probability option, only because I would be really overqualified, or have no experience in doing what most companies want! Also, my age would not help the situation.

From my perspective, what I want to do is to see the world but take time to understand the cultures that I am in. Therefore, not rush from one culture to the next! I will try to get a faculty position in Universities (professors on sabbaticals) in the countries. As suggested, I think I also need to be proactive and try to generate my own job! As Alexander VI, I need to evaluate my skills and figure out how useful they are with respect to portability.

Again, thank you all for the advice.

Please keep the advice coming!

Kpopper

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8

The Hell of od education is;

Supposedly, people work in at about five totally different fields, during their life.
That's a rumored generalization thing.
A "they say".

Beats hating the same job all your working life.

"Unto a whole man."
-Aristotle

meaning a well rounded exsistance.
Corporate Hell is just that. Equity of your soul.

ist; backpack Europe for two or three months.
We all learn from each other.

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9

You could always teach. try Asian or Middle Eastern Unviersities, www.eslcafe.com has intl jobs.

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