Any experience with international career?

Parent Cafe
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<p>Making “even” low six figures would be comfortable? At the beginning of your career? My, how ideas about what it takes to be comfortable have changed.</p>

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<p>kelsmom,</p>

<p>No, you’re in the College Confidential Zone. A dimension only of sight and out of mind.</p>

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<p>I didn’t mean at the beginning of my career, I’m talking about potentially. As long as the potential is there I’m satisfied.</p>

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<p>Here (sadly) is part of an obituary for one of the people I profiled above. It shows a sort of exemplary internationalist career, mostly outside of business and government:</p>

<p>

</p>

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<p>See that’s something that I could really enjoy doing, I’m definitely going to start looking to expand from a basic idea like that.</p>

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<p>hyakku, I thought of this thread when I saw this advertisement in the Asian Wall Street Journal. This is an example of the kind of entry level position that would be available at international financial NGOs.
[Young</a> Professionals Program - ADB.org](<a href=“http://www.adb.org/Employment/ypp.asp]Young”>http://www.adb.org/Employment/ypp.asp)</p>

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<p>Ms. Galaty sounds wonderful–what a loss! Note that she had a degree from Johns Hopkins.</p>

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<p>Sorry to hijack this thread but this has begun to interest me too. What bothers me is that I don’t know when these job opportunities open up. Is it after you get your master’s or after your bachelors?</p>

<p>If its after your masters what should you do after your bachelors to prep you for an international career. I’m double majoring in Japanese/International Relations so it would it be a good idea to teach English in Japan, or to work as a Foreign Service Officer etc. between that time period?</p>

<p>I’m also interested in pursuing ANY career that has extensive international traveling, that has me staying extended periods of time in the Pacific Rim Countries, especially Japan. I really don’t have a preference as long as I travel a lot.</p>

<p>And even though everyone says go into NGO, the private sector, etc. I don’t know what companies or foundations that exactly translates into pursuing so if anyone could explain this to me, and how you obtain a job in one, it would be greatly appreciated.</p>

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<p>kenshinsan,</p>

<p>Opportunities differ after the BA and the MA, but most of the better ones seem to be after the MA in my experience.</p>

<p>You’re an American citizen with two American parents, right? Otherwise, government becomes hard if you plan on doing anything that requires a serious clearance.</p>

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<p>I was born and raised in America. If the better jobs are after you get your MA, what do you recommend doing during the time period between your BA and MA? Or is it possible to just go straight into your MA? I thought I heard a lot of them like you to of done something before though.</p>

<p>And I don’t need to make six figures starting, but as said before I want the potential to be there. I would ideally like the starting salary to be around 60,000+, and definitely nothing below 50,000. Any careers that fit this criteria?</p>

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<p>$60K+ without an MA???</p>

<p>GOOD LUCK.</p>

<p>That’s the realm of i-banking and a few other choice careers. Entry level is entry level, my friend. If you want to be doing international work and making a decent salary, for-profit for higher level government work is the way to go in my opinion.</p>

<p>The potential for six-figs is there in both government and private, but you can’t expect much past $45-55K starting.</p>

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<p>No sorry I wasn’t clear enough. I meant 60,000+ starting AFTER I get my MA, not before. I know it would be ridiculous to expect that without an MA.</p>

<p>Which gets me back to my previous question, what should I do during the time period between my BA and MA. What would make me competitive for a top IR Graduate School? How could I use that time so I could end up working where I would like too, which is in the Pacific Rim area?</p>

<p>I REALLY want an international career. And anything seems good at the moment. And you could you explain private sector jobs, what an NGO is and what jobs it entails, and what jobs are in the government?</p>

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<p>NGO is non-governmental organization. It’s a broad term, and includes organizations like the UN, Gates Foundation, and Oxfam.</p>

<p>Between the BA and MA is up to you. If you can just get in some good experience in DC, you can certainly expect to launch your career in the long-run. Of course, that’s tough, but if you can even just get some entry-level work in at a place like RAND or any of the [“Beltway</a> Bandits”](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltway_bandits]"Beltway”>Beltway bandit - Wikipedia), you can definitely hope to get into good MA programs.</p>

<p>To be honest, competitive for top IR = 3.6+ GPA, 650+ on both sections of the GRE, and at least 2 years of work experience. Language ability obviously helps, as well. </p>

<p>Or you can always just teach in Japan, which is what I did. :rolleyes: It isn’t going to exactly get you jobs in the future, however. </p>

<p>Private sector is just for profit organizations, which includes the Beltway Bandits. Ask your college career center for any leads in DC and in Japan. I must caution, however, that jobs in Japan are tough without excellent Japanese ability. I barely make the cutoff for most companies. </p>

<p>As for jobs in the government, go to USAjobs.gov and see what they have listed. With a BA, you’re going to start at GS 7, so don’t expect the big bucks.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the info. :)</p>

<p>What really interests me is what you did in Japan though. How long did you teach, and what exactly did you do afterwards? I really feel that I should spend an extended amount of time in Japan after I graduate, or else I’ll lose all the Japanese I learned. But as you said it doesn’t launch you into any careers. </p>

<p>So what did you do afterwards? Get a government job in America? Apply for grad school? There seems to be so many options that I’m not sure which path to take, or if it is the right or wrong one.</p>

<p>And I was also wondering if you think it would be a good idea to transfer? I go to Michigan State University, but am considering transferring to a school that has a better international relations program such as Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, or Tufts. Tufts would be my first choice. Or should I just stay where I’m at and try to get into a good grad school?</p>

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<p>I only did the teaching gig for a year, and after that I went straight to grad. In retrospect, I should’ve gone for more “substantive” work experience.</p>

<p>If you can transfer, I would consider it. It always helps to be at bigger names if possible.</p>

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<p>if you work for a consulting group with an international presence (bcg, bain, mckinsey) you can either apply directly for overseas jobs in their office, or request overseas cases. the starting salary is 60k+ for a job out of college, plus they pay all expenses while traveling</p>

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<p>ec1234,</p>

<p>BCG, Bain, McKinsey fall under my earlier statement:</p>

<p>GOOD LUCK.</p>