How competitive is the job market in international relations / foreign diplomatic work?

Question

I'm off to college next year and I'm trying to explore different career options. I love to travel to Europe and would love to work in international affairs so i was wondering what the job market is like and average salary if you know!

Answer 1

The renumeration is actually good but it is competetive as they really want efficient people for the job at hand.  It is better if you pursue higher education after getting your college diploma as a Master's degree from the Philippines is only comparable to a bachelor's degree abroad.  English profficiency plus knowledge of languages is a plus.

There are several tiers when one is employed at with international organization so its hard to gauge for renumerations.

Answer 2

As with all things, it depends on you qualifications when you apply for a position. For higher level work, it helps to have a grad school degree; highly regarded Master's degree programs include the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and the Kennedy School at Harvard. Tufts and Columbia also have highly regarded graduate IR programs. A foreign language is a must, obviously, but think strategically about it. Fluency in Spanish is not going to set you apart from other U.S. applicants; you might want to invest your time in learning something a little more unusual. Chinese and Arabic are very popular right now, for obvious reasons, but you also might want to distinguish yourself further by going a little off the beaten track. Turkish, for example: It's a huge country, the possibility of EU accession and its location as a buffer between Europe and the Middle East make it incredibly important. Portuguese is a neglected language, especially given the fact that far more people speak it than you might expect--it's not just Portugal but Brazil, Angola, etc. And Brazil is an up-and-comer.

Diplomatic work is *very* competitive. You have to take the Foreign Service Exam--which has a reputation of being pretty tough--and get past a few other hurdles. Assuming you pass the exam and get past the other hurdles, you may well get placed in a country where the national language is one you DIDN'T study--the State Dept. doesn't place people based on  the language they studied, for various (arguable) reasons. They'll also rotate your location every few years, though I don't remember the interval offhand.

You also might want to think about working for any number of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), such as Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, etc. NGOs pay less but the work is often highly rewarding in itself. Depending on the NGO and the role you'd play at the NGO, a graduate degree in something *other* than international relations may well be needed--e.g., medical degree for Doctors Without Borders, degree in agricultural science for the Peace Corps or any number of other organizations working in countries subject to famine, engineering degree for work in any number of regions with underdeveloped industry, etc.

It is a big, big field. But you have to get specific and practical in your studies if you want to do anything other than academic work.