PhD Discussion Forum

I'm hoping to get some advice on transitioning out of academia. I am coming to the end of my first postdoc, having completed my PhD in 2016. The competitiveness and instability of postdoc life, as well as the increasing demands to teach have led me to the decision that I no longer want to be in academia. Having made that decision I need to figure out what I do want to do. Up until now my research as been what has driven me career-wise. I now just crave financial stability. Whilst I don't feel particularly confident in my abilities, from an objective point of view I know that I have a lot of valuable skills that can be transferred to other jobs and after nine years of studying my ass off and scraping by on a student budget I want some financial reward!

One avenue I'm interested in is data analysis. There seem to be plenty of these positions around. Although on paper I meet most of the requirements (I have experience handling large datasets, conducting statistical analysis, reporting results to different audiences using R, SPSS and STATA) I wouldn't say I feel particularly confident in these skills. I still go running to my Andy Fields book every time it comes to analysis and I only used R for a small part of my PhD so am probably only at a beginner level.

So my two questions are:
1) Does anyone have any suggestions as to options I can go for outside of academia?
2) Based on what I've told you of my experience, is it worth applying for data analyst positions?

Look into current jobs for data analysis, figure out what skills are required and set about acquiring those skills in your spare time.
Once you feel you have some competence then start applying for jobs. That is how I have operated in the past.
You may already have enough skill anyway. Nothing is lost by sending in a CV to a few jobs and finding out.