Discussion: Where to start looking...

Do American universities have careers services, like British ones do? Do they allow university employees, not just students, to use their facilities? If so, that's the place to start. If you were back in the UK, then I think you could use the careers service of any English (not sure about Scottish ones) university as you've only recently graduated.

If you can, go and talk to them about what your options are and investigate what appeals to you. I expect they can give you apptitude tests to see what you might be good at.

I'm thinking I might pop into careers in Edinburgh when I'm back to graduate. I'm definitely more interested in moving back towards Europe.

BTW, who do you work for? I am a poor programmer but my other half is also about to start looking, and he is very good!

I work for a company called Tessella . I really enjoy it as the work is interesting & varied. We're looking for scientists/mathematicians/engineers with programming skills, so if that matches your other half, then I'm sure we'd be happy to hear from him. About half to 2/3rds of us have PhDs, so we're a bit different from the standard IT firm. If he wants to know more, then I'm happy to have a chat (by email, phone, Skype, face-to-face, depending on location). There's our recruitment information on the website.
Oh, if he does apply, and if he mentions my name in his first contact with Tessella, then I get a bonus, but I'm happy to chat regardless.