Guide To International Job Search

Introduction

This packet is designed to help students understand the process of finding international opportunities. This can include summer internships abroad, short-term volunteer programs and fellowships, or full-time jobs. Before beginning, one must know that there is no job field called "international jobs." The accepted idea of this being a completely separate career category misguides many students. In reality; adding “international” to a job description, for the most part, means adding an international element to an existing domestic career. It is useless to say "I practice international;" but to say "I practice international law" makes sense.

Some students come into the Career Center and say they want to do international business. What does international business mean? This only tells the career counselor that the student wants to work in some form of business that involves international work. What form of business? Import/export, management consulting, foreign investing, marketing? There are thousands of careers under the business category.

Students are encouraged to narrow their search down to a type of business, or any other type of career, they want to explore. To accomplish this, students will want to conduct the "Self-Assessment" stage of career development. Let's face it, most of us really don't know exactly what we want to do as a career when we enter college. Some students may have notions of what they would enjoy, but don't know exactly why they are interested in a particular job. To understand your own motivations and to generate some personal career ideas, self-assessment is essential. It is also the prerequisite for a successful and coherent job search. To begin self-assessment, students should ask themselves the questions listed below and, once completed, schedule an appointment with a career counselor.

Internationally-Oriented Self-Assessment

After students conduct the general self-assessment process, they must ask themselves some basic questions about their international aspirations.

1) Am I clear about the kind of work I want? Am I focused enough to conduct a successful job search?

2) In which region of the world do I want to focus?

3) What are my motives for pursuing this field? Language? Gaining cross cultural understanding? The excitement of working in a diverse environment?

4) Do I want to work in the U.S. in an internationally-oriented job, or do I want to live and work abroad?

The answer to this last question is crucial to determining what will be available to you. There are thousands of jobs that allow an individual to live in the U.S. and work on international issues. Some may include frequent travel and some may not. If you are thinking about finding an entry-level position where you live and work in another country, you will find the job possibilities far more limiting and much more difficult to obtain. International jobs that many of us have heard of are those working for the U.S. government; for example, the Foreign Service or the Peace Corps. Later in this packet, we will discuss other options available to you that involve living and working internationally. Before making the decision to work abroad, you will want to explore your answers to the following questions:

1) Will you be happy separated from your family, friends and the American life-style for short and long periods of time? What experience have you had living a different culture?

2) Are you prepared to become immersed in another culture?

3) In developing countries, how will you cope with a situation in which you may regularly see corruption and poverty and little or slow progress in alleviating these problems?

Once you have thought about your answers and you are still interested in working abroad, you are now ready to begin researching opportunities that might be available to you.