What do IR majors end up doing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Political campaigns, law school, patent litigation: the classic IR path.

As a patent litigator, you need to pass the patent bar (yes, that is required for BOTH patent litigator and patent attorney/agent). To pass the patent bar, you need a stem major. So, no, IR major can't work as patent litigator.

Agree, I don't think the poster who said patent attorney has a clue. Every patent attorney I know had a STEM background.

I do know lawyers who have undergrad IR degrees but they are not patent lawyers.

[Anonymous]

With government cuts, lots of people are looking for jobs. Not a great field right now.

[Anonymous]

Defense contracting. There are a lot of us. We are in various "non engineering" parts of the industry - competitive intelligence, government relations, analysis and advocacy, market research, communications, etc.

[Anonymous]

If he is interested in finance, IR/MBA is a great combo - though I would recommend consulting or something in between. Languages are super useful. And a math or econ minor wouldn't hurt.

[Anonymous]

Intelligence agency & military officer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think your mindset is wrong. It’s a difficult environment right now and the State/USAID/other agency international program issues mean less ability to absorb new grads and other knock on effects. For example, development contractors have gotten crushed in the last six months.

Probably the two caveats are i) four years from now (or more, with grad school) the environment may be different and ii) lots of kids study IR and end up in non-IR related jobs like finance and consulting. But if your kid wants something closely related to their major it isn’t great.

Yep.
Plan to work in other sectors if majoring in IR.

[Anonymous]

I have a BSFS from Georgetown. What everyone else is saying is basically correct. People do get jobs directly related to the degree, of course, but many go on to grad school and/or get a professional degree or pursue something else entirely. Of my close friends with the same degree, two were foreign service officers, one started a nonprofit and has served on a public utility board in the DC region, one went to med school and became a doctor, one is a professor, my husband is a lawyer, and I worked on the Hill, then did development work for a university. It’s never a bad thing to have a second language, analytical skills, knowledge of the inner workings of government, geopolitics, etc. on your resume.

[Anonymous]

Mostly finance. I don't see many IR grads doing anything else at DD's LAC. A lot in consulting, a few in international business, and a couple others doing finance work abroad.

[Anonymous]

My IR graduate from a UK university works at a high end wealth management group in Switzerland. He works with clients from all over the world on assessing different countries’s risks (political, economical, social) for their investments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Political campaigns, law school, patent litigation: the classic IR path.

As a patent litigator, you need to pass the patent bar (yes, that is required for BOTH patent litigator and patent attorney/agent). To pass the patent bar, you need a stem major. So, no, IR major can't work as patent litigator.

Agree, I don't think the poster who said patent attorney has a clue. Every patent attorney I know had a STEM background.

I do know lawyers who have undergrad IR degrees but they are not patent lawyers.

Not to mention, patent law is both hard as hell and boring, and that combo is hard to find in law except in patent and tax.

[Anonymous]

I'm guessing the International Trade lawyers out there are busier than ever right now . . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My IR graduate from a UK university works at a high end wealth management group in Switzerland. He works with clients from all over the world on assessing different countries’s risks (political, economical, social) for their investments.

Interesting move. He never wanted to come back to the US? I’m assuming he is american?

[Anonymous]

I was an IR major. I started out doing international trade but switched to litigation because my spouse's job took us out of DC. I focus on securities/financial institution litigation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was an IR major. I started out doing international trade but switched to litigation because my spouse's job took us out of DC. I focus on securities/financial institution litigation.

Forgot the part where I went to law school immediately after college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Defense contracting. There are a lot of us. We are in various "non engineering" parts of the industry - competitive intelligence, government relations, analysis and advocacy, market research, communications, etc.

This. CNA, IDA, and RAND hire lots of them.

Mind, all 3 of those are unstable employers just now due to the current administration. (See the FFRDC thread over in Jobs area of DCUM).