I just read this interesting article about studying for a postgraduate degree overseas. http://www.independent.co.uk/student/postgraduate/postgraduate-study/raise-your-game-by-going-to-the-continent-1971840.html

I am studying in the UK, but it raises an interesting question about working abroad afterwards. As a postdoc' I expect to work in many different places. In fact, we researchers are expected to be pretty mobile which is fun in some ways but hard in others. Has anybody got any advice about the process of moving around after the PhD? How can you make the move easier and what are the potential pitfalls?

Hi Phillip,

there is a lot of talk about moving country post PhD on the Vitae research staff blog. Two of the five core contributors are british currently abroad (in France and the US), another is American but came overhere for a postdoc.

Here are some randomly selected international mobility related posts as starting points:

http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/156431-217291/Language-trouble.html

http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/156431-217571/You-say-tomato-I-say-tom-ah-to.html

http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/156431-202001/Pots-and-pans-and-papers.html

http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/156431-184671/A-Dutch-view-on-lab-rats.html

http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/156431-171741/Confessions-of-an-extreme-science-traveller.html

happy reading!

Tennie

Hi Phillip,

Based on my personal experience of moving around on short term contracts, there are certainly some negative points. For example, it is difficult to get a mortgage if you are looking at that because banks like permanent contracts. One way to try and tackle this is to get your employers (past and present) to write a letter explaining that short term contracts are a natural progression and that they do not reflect a lack of employability.

However, on the positive side, I really value the opportunity to move around regularly. You get to meet lots of new people, build up your network and potentially see the world. I don't know of many other jobs where you get so much autonomy and can apply to work practically anywhere in the world.

Hi Philip,

The Euraxess websites should also help - Euraxess is a European initiative to make it easier for researchers to move around Europe (the project includes Iceland and Israel). In many countries there are service centres where qualified staff can help with things like finding accomodation, childcare, legal issues etc. There's also a funding and jobs portal which you can search by discipline, country etc.

Find out more here:

http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/

On a personal note, I worked as a postdoc in the Netherlands for 5 years and loved it - well worth making the move though it seems dunting at first.

All the best

Claire

There's a survey running at the moment as part of an EC project on Brain Drain looking at why researchers would (or wouldn't) be mobile - be great if you filled it in....

http://survey.ucd.ie/morebrain

Thanks

Claire

I have just spent some time browsing the Euraxess website and am impressed. Is this quite a recent initiative as I have never heard of it before and it doesn't say on the 'about' pages how long it's been running for.

It does seem to cover an excellent amount of information though. From their website:

‘EURAXESS Services is a network of more than 200 centres located in 35 European countries. If you are a mobile researcher, EURAXESS Services can assist you and your family in every step of your move, starting in your home country and continuing until you have settled in a new one. ’

Hi Claire,

Euraxess is very good but I couldn't find anything similar for working further afield. A lot of researchers who seem to be successful spend some time working in the USA. I'm not sure if I want to do that yet but I am quite confused about the US system and how to go about that move. It would be good if there was a service like that for the US.

It appears that it is becoming increasingly possible to at least study overseas which is certainly a way to open doors for people who want to work overseas at a later stage. With the funding on offer on schemes like this one I wonder why so few people in the UK take advantage of them.

http://postgraduatetoolbox.net/posts/18

As always I think the problem is probably due to advertising and promotion.

Just thought it was interesting to add to this thread, but I was looking at some stats for numbers of postgraduates at UK universities and about 30 - 40% already study overseas.

e.g. of 120,000 masters students finishing in 2008/09, about 65,000 were not living in the UK during their course.

http://www.hesa.ac.uk

Hi All,

The Euraxess site contains a lot of good info specific to academics. I also came across this site http://www.workingoverseas.com/ which contains a lot of great advice as well. It does have a big US focus obviously but the articles / tools about international career skills are definitely thought provoking.

Katie