Resources

As many of you may know, landing a job in today's market is very difficult if you do not have a significant amount of experience. That age-old question inevitably is asked by many job seekers as they are on the trail of their perfect dream job: How can one get experience if every open position requires experience? What's the secret to getting a job without having experience? The answer, coming from my unqualified and still unemployed perspective, is resources.


It is extremely important to tap into any and all literature on the subject of International Education. Professional groups, such as NAFSA and the Institute of International Education, are great places to begin expanding your knowledge on the field. Read all of the available reports and publications (the free ones anyway- after all, you are unemployed). Join the SECUSS-L forum, and read ALL of the postings. Gain a better perspective of the field and its current problems, its current goals, and some common actions being taken by different institutions across the world. By doing these, you will come across MUCH more knowledgeable and experienced, even though you have not worked in an international office, per se.

The NAFSA website also has an excellent career center with job postings

A couple of my favorite resources are blogs and newsletters. I have been reading a lot lately the International Student Voice Magazine, which gives a great perspective on the international student experience, and insidestudyabroad.com, which gives great tips on finding work in a study abroad office.


Another excellent resource: study abroad advisors themselves! Contact your international office at the school you graduated from. More than likely, they will be more than happy to assist you as you are breaking your way into the field. Don't be shy- email different institutions that you would like to hear more about, or whose study abroad programs you admire. The worse that can happen is that they will say no.


So, that is my next step- contacting schools across the country whose international offices I truly admire, and asking for an informational interview in order to learn how their offices function, what challenges they face, what aspects of the job they love, and what advice they have for me in getting my foot in the door. You never know what a conversation will lead to.


Here are the links to the resources that I have been using:
International Student Voice magazine: http://www.isvmag.com/
http://www.insidestudyabroad.com/
NAFSA: http://www.nafsa.org/
Institute of International Education: http://www.iie.org/




Rule #2 of Breaking into the Field of International Education: Utilize all available resources.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/zack-wright/49/b26/265