<p>Well, I figured that of all our parents up here, there have to be a few with international careers or those who work frequently overseas. I’ve always been incredibly interested in doing so, and even spending long periods of time away from home would not be bothersome to me (upwards of 200+days is still fine with me). What I want to know is what type of careers do I have to go with to look into these, and even the common ones like international law and business are still a bit hazy to me. I don’t understand what is DONE and what paths can be taken. Anyone with maybe a little bit of personal info they can share? I also have been trying to research, but everything has been so vague. Even with something like foreign service officers I can’t find out if its a viable market to survive in because of the type of information on these types of careers. Anyone?</p>
<p>I can’t tell you much, but here goes. My father was a foreign service officer, he majored in history as an undergrad and did a master’s in African studies. He actually started off in the far east, but his last postings were all in Africa. My first college boyfriend was an East Asian Studies major. He spent his junior year in Taiwan and became fluent in Chinese. Then he went to law school. He’s now working for an international law firm and is based in Hong Kong. My husband is a biologist and did a post-doctoral fellowship in Germany. I went with him and worked in an architecture office. Getting permission to me work wasn’t trivial, but I did manage to stay with the same firm for four years. I’ve also known musicians who worked in overseas orchestras or opera houses for extended periods of time. One of my grad students friends is now teaching at a university in Germany - she started off by writing about European architecture for an American publication as I recall. Another high school friend of mine writes for the New York Times. She’s been assigned to both Russia and Italy. Really there are a million ways to spend time overseas if you want to.</p>
<p>Some of those are all great suggestions, but some are also more of a less common thing. I don’t want to really “Spend time” overseas as much as literally working “internationally”. As it is I know Spanish, i self taught myself Japanese when I was younger but I need to pick that back up, and I want to get into either Italian or French. I’ve always had a tremendous desire to work with people from all over, as I feel that meeting people from across the globe is an outstanding way to spend one’s life.</p>
<p>Languages will be very important. The more you know, the better are your chances of landing a position like that. But really, nowdays you travel internationally in lots of different aspects. My H, an engineer, travels all the time (just called from Montreal) and I absolutely hate it. A friend that works for McKinsey changes continents weekly.
I actually think that it is quite easy to land a job that will take you overseas for a few years, because most people don’t want to do it. Wait till you get married and have school age kids:)</p>
<p>Well see, the thing about it is that I’ve ALWAYS known I’m not planning on getting married till 30-35, which, by that time hopefully I should have around 10ish years of experience.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I’m making myself clear though, the jobs I’m looking for I don’t want to ocasionally or even casually go overseas, I want it to literally be an intrinsic aspect of the job. So far of the jobs like this I see:</p>
<p>Foreign Service Officer
International Business (doing what??)
International Relations (diplomat?)
International Law.</p>
<p>Besides these other jobs just seem to get to travel sometimes. I may be wrong and please correct me if I am.</p>
<p>Airline pilot?</p>
<p>I understand that they travel, but again I think I’m not coming off clear enough.</p>
<p>MY dream job is one in which I spend extensive amount of time overseas (200+days of the year), meeting other people throughout other countries, conducting deals or at the very least handling international problems as a lawyer/diplomat type of thing. </p>
<p>I know flight attendants and airline pilots travel alot, but I’m not in it just to travel, I want to be able to EXPERIENCE all these countries while making contacts and all across the world. It fits into a much larger scheme I’ve got cooking up.</p>
<p>It’s not me – I rarely leave my city – but here are some things that friends, relatives, and clients do/have done that probably meet your criteria. As you will see, there are a zillion ways to do this:</p>
<p>– Lawyer moved to France and joined a French-American law firm in Paris, specializing in international transactions. He was a banking-antitrust lawyer in his early 30s at the time. He now works for a French company, but is based in NYC, after 15 years in France.</p>
<p>– McKinsey consultant who headed up their offices in Hong Kong and Taipei.</p>
<p>– Lawyer based in the U.S. who specializes in U.S.-Germany transactions, travels constantly to Germany.</p>
<p>– Businessman who owns a small business that acquires its material in China and sells it in North America, Europe, and South Africa. Has an office in China, spends about 12 weeks/year there.</p>
<p>– Chief technology officer of a mid-sized public company with extensive manufacturing and engineering operations in China and Maylaysia. Travels constantly there; relocated to Singapore for three years.</p>
<p>– Infectious diseases academic (sociologist). Lived and taught in Tanzania for seven years, now at a U.S. university. Based on his specialty, travels to Africa regularly.</p>
<p>– Same, but M.D., and spent less time living in Africa.</p>
<p>– Poverty lawyer/clinical law school instructor moved to South Africa to establish a clinical program at a law school there, lived there for six years.</p>
<p>– East Asian studies major who got a masters in journalism and lived in Japan for 15 years reporting for UPI, U.S. trade journals, and ultimately Fortune.</p>
<p>– U.S. journalist who headed her newspaper chain’s offices in Berlin and then Jerusalem.</p>
<p>– Another U.S. journalist who had the same job in Berlin.</p>
<p>– Young history major B.A. who went to Germany to live and began a journalism career freelancing there for U.S. publications.</p>
<p>– Development expert who began as a Peace Corps volunteer in Eastern Europe, got an IR degree from Johns Hopkins, worked for a variety of NGOs all over Eastern Europe and the Middle East, ultimately in Jordan. </p>
<p>– Environmental activist, now a Greenpeace official based in Amsterdam.</p>
<p>– U.S. academic who specializes in ESL theory, and especially in teaching English to native Chinese speakers. Regularly spends academic terms in Taiwan. (This was a second career, so to speak, after 10 years as an expert in Old and Middle English.)</p>
<p>– Canadian linguistics professor whose specialty is studying and preserving languages of indigenous peoples. Travels all over the world to lecture, regularly spends academic terms abroad (mainly in Australia, where there is a lot of interest in her work).</p>
<p>– Woman who eloped with a Dane on her semester abroad in college (she was supposed to be in Italy, but never made it there). Divorced after three years, but stayed in Denmark, and ultimately went to law school there. Worked as a lawyer in Denmark, and then with the U.N. in Geneva. Moved back to the U.S. to take a position with the U.N. in New York at age 47.</p>
<p>– Investment portfolio manager specializing in emerging market stocks. Travels constantly to evaluate companies, sell her fund.</p>
<p>– Lawyer specializing in international tax and antitrust, took a political job as general counsel of OPIC and then wound up as general counsel of a World Bank affiliated financial organization. Based in Washington, travelled all over the less-developed world. Career effectively ended by an obscure tropical disease that disabled her for five years.</p>
<p>Lots of people – not, mainly, these – start with the Peace Corps, the Foreign Service, or both. Especially if they don’t go to law school. They are both really good ways to get familiar with other countries and with international problems, and to stumble onto opportunities. They are both tried and true, and there’s lots of information about them out there.</p>
<p>The other thing, obviously, is to get expertise in something that people around the world want/need, whether it’s technology or linguistics, and then to look for international opportunities.</p>
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<p>Thanks so much could you maybe elaborate on some of these, specifically the last four, the international law thing, the business, and the traveling across europe guy all interest me alot. I also would like to know if its viable to say, be a specialist in not only say Italian - US Law, but also Italian US law, Spanish US law, and possibly either some Japanese, arabic or German, not quite sure what the last will be.</p>
<p>Become a teacher and after a few years of seasoning in the US hit the international teacher’s circuit. Not only will you work 200 days per year overseas…you will also have 165 days overseas/year to see the world.
Join the UN, USAID, work for the World Bank, IMF, Get a Ford Foundation grant, Get a degree in public health, work for another NGO (Save the Children, Care etc). Become a petroleum engineer or geologist, work for a financial or other consulting firm. Join a bank with a big international prescence- Citigroup, American Express, HSBC. </p>
<p>The paths to these careers can be very specific (ie engineering and public health) or more general. There are lots and lots of lifetimes lived overseas!</p>
<p>Law: Most lawyers have relatively narrow specialties, although it’s certainly possible to have two or three relatively narrow specialties. This is not so much a function of what it takes to learn things as a function of what it takes to get clients, especially early in your career. You have to start focused. </p>
<p>That said, some specialties will not be inherently country-specific. If you are expert in, say, U.S. international tax, especially taxation of inbound investment (U.S. investment by foreign investors), your expertise will be needed all over, although you will have to work with local tax lawyers everywhere. Or you could specialize in, say, EU antitrust regulation.</p>
<p>The linguistics professor began as the opposite of internationally-focused. For the first 10 years of so of her career, she spent four months a year living with First Nations people in Northwest Territories. Her career internationalized only after she published books on that specific work and the theory behind it.</p>
<p>The business guys more or less just fell into it – they followed opportunities (although they were open to, and welcomed, the international aspects of their businesses).</p>
<p>You might check out this link. My impression is that this grad school can be an entre to all sorts of international opportunities.</p>
<p>[Thunderbird</a> School of Global Management](<a href=“http://www.thunderbird.edu/]Thunderbird”>http://www.thunderbird.edu/)</p>
<p>A friend who is a diplomat attended this MA program. He previously worked for NGOs. </p>
<p>[School</a> for International Training - The Accredited Higher Education Institution of World Learning.](<a href=“http://www.sit.edu/]School”>http://www.sit.edu/)</p>
<p>So of those jobs like lawyers or the international business workers, what type are in demand and skills. I am assume a language with up and coming countries or economic powerhouses like french, italian, spanish, arabic, chinese and japanese would be good, but is there a demand for these as well. I seem to be getting vague answers and even the U.S. department of labor and all isn’t much help, unless I’m just searching the wrong way. It’s very confusing to extract information from that site >_<.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Be good at something valuable.</p></li>
<li><p>Of course being able to communicate in the language of the country/people you’re dealing with is a huge plus, as is a demonstrated ability to learn other languages quickly. Also: the ability to recognize when you are out of your depth language-wise, and to seek help. College Spanish is not the Spanish of legal contracts, for instance.</p></li>
<li><p>Being willing to do what it takes, and to be flexible and chill about it, is key.</p></li>
<li><p>In many cases, the opportunity arises because you are there already.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks for the tips JHS, and yes I plan to continue Spanish at the college level so that I don’t get rusty along with the other languages, I’m not quite sure how I’m going to manage but I will I’m sure.</p>
<p>One approach might be to spend some college summers abroad - perhaps doing internships or grants. I spent a month of one summer in Germany at a Goethe Institute and working the rest in Africa. Another summer I had a grant to do research for my senior thesis and spent most of the summer in London, Paris and Berlin. Both summers kept my language skills up. Language fluency I think is the key. What you do overseas will depend largely on your interests and to a certain degree what happens to be available when you start looking. But if you know you want to be a lawyer, for instance, you can certainly take courses and get internships that will help you get a position in international law.</p>
<p>I definitely want to take internships in college it’s been a plan since day one, but would that be more in graduate school or undergraduate school? Where can I get information about majors like this or more importantly jobs like this?</p>
<p>Both, I did most of my overseas experiences as an undergrad - but I also spent part of one summer in grad school studying Italian architecture.</p>
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<p>Hyakku, I’ve been employed in international business for over 30 years. First I traveled extensively then I moved overseas. I’ve lived abroad now for over 15 years. I can say without reservation that just about any job that you can do at home, you can do overseas (except, maybe, elected official). This means doctor, lawyer, accountant, buyer, art collector, teacher, sales rep, manufacturer, engineer, geologist , diplomat – I’m just mentally running through the careers of some of my expat friends. </p>
<p>You should be concentrating on a career path that is appropriate to your skills and interest then figuring out how to make that first connection.</p>
<p>Your dream job would fit very well with a career in the sourcing department (sometimes called supply chain management) of a retailer, brand or consumer product manufacturer. These companies usually have training programs, either formal or informal, in which they send neophytes all over the world to negotiate and monitor their import products. The problem is usually finding young people who are willing to travel extensively. It’s a fascinating and rewarding career path, but also extremely stressful and demanding.</p>
<p>The sourcing executives that I know have widely diverse backgrounds – from engineering to biology to finance – but they are for the most part bright interesting people. The requirements to get hired for an entry level position are good communication and problem solving skills, willingness to put in the hours and ability to interact with people of different cultures. Business, retail or consumer product experience helps but is not strictly necessary.</p>
<p>There are lots of government jobs overseas beside a foreign service officer. The Agency for International Development (AID) springs to mind. The CIA, NSA, military, teaching at a military base…There are also lots of not for profits, such as The Christian Children’s Fund. You can look at their web site under career to see numerous postings. I think the possibilities are pretty endless.</p>