Leaving academia, librarian edition

June 4, 2018 5:20 AM

What are some good alternative careers for an academic (data) librarian?

For various reasons, I'm considering moving out of higher ed (I recently started data librarian work in a liberal arts college) and into another industry. My skill-set most recently focuses on data/coding skills (I have a humanities undergrad degree but recently took several classes on machine learning, big data analytics, stats, etc. and know my way a bit around packages like scikit-learn, pandas, django, and d3. I'm working on putting more finished projects up on GitHub.) I also have a background in research and writing.

I'd like to find work that:

* Pays well (for me, this would ideally be in the ~$70K+ range. I am working to pay off non-educational debts right now, so this is a high priority.)
* Is more focused on working with data/software/whatever technical things than committee meetings/ultra-slow-paced planning/political alliances. Ideally, this technical work would leave some space for creative problem solving. (I'm an INFP who equally enjoys wrangling data and reading about the theory of computing/programming languages/algorithms, if that helps.)
* Is reasonably likely to have kind coworkers.

I think the big thing here is I would love to hear suggestions from ALL kinds of industries. I think in the past I assumed, for example, that I wouldn't enjoy working in a big corporation. Whereas now I could totally see myself thriving as some kind of analyst or developer in a big company, possibly.

If you can think of a non-data/coding/etc. career that might work for someone like me, I'd be open to that as well!

Any ideas, keywords, dire warnings, kind words of support, etc. appreciated. Thank you.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (7 answers total)

I do social science research for a living. I work for a for-profit company with 1,000-5,000 employees (I'm trying to be a bit vague here). We collect a lot of data through varied mechanisms, including web, and have an army of data analysts/programmers working for us. They work pretty independently and organize there own work -- there are meetings, but for the analysts/programmers, there are not that many. Pay is in the range you are looking for, and a bit higher.
posted by OrangeDisk at 6:30 AM on June 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

I work with medical data for research purposes & have a similar skill set to yours. When I researched this question for myself recently, I started to look into the field of healthcare informatics. You might be interested in becoming a Certified Health Data Analyst; these are people that use an organization's warehouse of patient health care & payment information to solve business problems for large healthcare organizations.
posted by ElisaOS at 7:31 AM on June 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

I work for big pharma in a group that could use your skills. PM me if you’d like to connect about it.
posted by Sublimity at 10:21 AM on June 4, 2018

Academic publishing? Lots of different positions for people who are good with data and developing web pages, especially if you have the experience from being an academic librarian! If you feel working for one of the subscription companies doesn’t fit with your ethos, there are opportunities at non-traditional, open access companies.
posted by Nilehorse at 12:29 PM on June 4, 2018

Are you a sports fan? I'm still hoping my dream data librarian position pops up for a baseball team.
posted by avocet at 4:08 PM on June 4, 2018

(MeFimail me if you like, I always like making new data librarian buds)
posted by avocet at 4:09 PM on June 4, 2018

Not limited to a specific industry, but I have been seeing an influx of data scientist/data analyst/etc. jobs pop up on job sites lately as a lot of businesses are trying to shift towards more data-driven business decisions. It's a good time to be a data librarian on the look out for something new. :)
posted by helloimjennsco at 6:51 AM on June 5, 2018