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Career Exploration and Discernment

Not sure what you want to do for work? That’s totally normal! In modern work, we all make many transitions throughout our careers, and who we become as professionals develops gradually as we put in intentional effort. We’re here to help you explore your options and plot your next steps! 

Explore your career possibilities in international affairs

International affairs is a wide-ranging field with domestic and international career opportunities in the the public, private, non-profit, and multilateral (international organizations) sectors. As APSIA puts it:

  • You can solve problems through diplomacy, defense, and development work.
  • You can help manufacturers, communication firms, consultants, energy companies, and others move products and ideas around the world.
  • You can build the capacity of students and organizations through international education and cross-cultural training.
  • You can stop conflicts, fight disease, and slow environmental degradation.

Explore these growing areas in the field

  • Climate change and sustainability
  • Cybersecurity and cyber-diplomacy
  • Compliance
  • Relevant consulting – e.g., for employers like EnCompass LLC, IBTC, Deloitte, FTI, Booz Allen Hamilton, Accenture, Boston Consulting Group
  • Data analysis and intelligence
  • Global health
  • Digital diplomacy and social media

Consult ChatGPT or another AI tool for ideas

Sample prompt: What career should I pursue as a [major/degree - e.g., international studies] student who likes [skill or interest – e.g., conflict resolution]?

Based on your results, ask for expansion: Tell me more about a career as an [international policy analyst].

**NOTE: AI uses probability to create possibility, not certainty. You get out what you put in (answers received will align to the quality of your prompts, based on the most common things online right now) and it's your responsibility to vet the answers you receive with prompts like this.

Review Job Options on O*Net

You can use O*Net to look more closely at what potential jobs entail. 

To get started, type the job title into the Occupation Keyword Search to get sample tasks, training and credentials, work values, employment trends (salary, etc.), and more.

Consider that your dream job may not exist yet

Remember that many careers in international affairs (as well as in other fields) don’t exist yet! According to the Deloitte Future of Work Institute, 65 percent of students entering elementary school today will end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist.

This field is based around solving global problems, and careers will naturally evolve as our challenges do. You will be creating the next generation of work!

We Know Success

% of Graduates are now Working, Grad School, or Both

How to Choose a Career Direction

A Life Design Approach 

Not sure what you want to do for a career in international affairs?

That’s totally natural! It’s great to have a lot of interests. This is a vast field and there are various ways each of us can build a fulfilling career in it.

Also, life surprises us and certain things we think we want now may simply not be in the cards for a range of reasons. So, it’s always good to have options.

Using life design, our goal is to help you investigate the areas you’re most curious about in international affairs while you’re a student. Rather than mapping out a strict 10-year career plan, we recommend you ask yourself: What am I curious about today?

When you experiment with these areas through informational interviews, job shadows, and internships, it helps you “try on” these possible careers and build skills in them and build a network.

If you do this while you're a student, when you start applying to longer term jobs, you understand the realities of those jobs better. And for those you like, you’re better connected to actually land these positions, and thrive in them.

NOTE: This life design approach is based on strategies from the Stanford Life Design Lab.

Start with self-awareness

When we better understand who we are and what we want out of life and work, it’s easier to decide what we want to do. The exercises below from Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans are designed to help us do just that.

Complete this Workview and Lifeview activity (30-45 min). This will help give you a solid compass by which to evaluate career and life options you’re considering.

Sketch out 3 possible lives for the next 5 years

Now you have a solid compass to evaluate life and career options by, consider 3 professional areas you are curious about right now and complete this 3 Possible Lives activity (also known as Odyssey Plans) (45 – 60 min)

Why 3 lives?

3 plans give you real choices. If it’s hard for you to come up with 3 possible careers that interest you, here’s a quick way to get there

For each of the 3 alternatives of the next 5 years of your life, include:

  • A visual/graphical timeline—with both personal and noncareer events. Because we can’t separate work from life!
  • A title for each option
  • 2-3 questions that this alternative is asking.
  • A dashboard where you can gauge:
    • Resources
      • Do you have the objective resources—time, money, skill, contacts—you need to pull off your plan?
    • Likability
      • Are you hot or cold or warm about your plan?
    • Confidence
      • Are you feeling full of confidence, or pretty uncertain about pulling this off?
    • Coherence
      • Does this plan make sense for you? Is it consistent with you, your Workview and Lifeview?

Connect with people in your fields of interest

Imagine your possible career paths

Take the possible lives that you’re curious about from the activity above, and connect with professionals actually in these careers.

Reach out to your network

Learn more about the process of networking with our resources page on building your professional network.