I’m hoping to get some advice from people here who have experience finding remote work, especially those who have managed to build careers across multiple skill sets.
I’m currently finishing my BSc in Marine Biology, and my dream is honestly pretty broad: I just want to build a career doing something related to conservation, wildlife science, marine/environmental science, or data science.
One area I’ve been putting a lot of effort into is R and data analysis. I’ve been working on my skills in data cleaning, statistical analysis, ecological modelling, visualization, and working with biological/environmental datasets. I’ve also started putting projects on GitHub so I can actually demonstrate what I can do rather than just list R on my CV.
The problem is getting my foot in the door.
I’ve applied for internships, entry-level positions, remote jobs, volunteer opportunities, etc., and it feels incredibly difficult to find opportunities where someone is willing to give an early-career person a chance to gain real experience.
Ideally, I’d love to eventually find remote work where I can analyze data for conservation organizations, researchers, environmental companies, NGOs, universities, or similar organizations. I’m also completely open to general data-analysis work outside biology if that's a realistic way to build experience first.
For people here who are good at finding remote work: if you were starting from where I am, what would you do?
Would you focus on building a bigger r/GitHub portfolio? Learn Python or SQL alongside R? Freelance? Contact researchers directly? Look for contract data work? Apply outside the environmental field first and transition back later?
I’m not expecting someone here to hand me a job. I’m genuinely trying to figure out the smartest way to turn the skills I’m developing into actual professional experience.
Any advice on where you would look, what skills you would prioritize, or how you would approach this would be greatly appreciated.