Major for a kid who wants IR but is average student

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not hospitality? Friend's kid has worked at the Four Seasons in a few different places around the world. In school student was a B student who has really good social skills. Just looks like a friendly and approachable person.

💯

Hospitality is way more interesting than being some dweeb at state

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Let me clarify. I KNOW my kid won't excel in IR, that is why I am asking what OTHER major should someone with this profile look at besides hospitality.
He's not a Stem kid, he has high social intelligence, interested in social justice, and travel, and is a mediocre student but a hard worker and very practical.

I think he should try to get a part-time job somewhere in the Amazon warehouse or delivery system and apply to a bachelor’s program at some place like Arizona State, or maybe, for example, an English-language bachelor’s program in logistics at a “university of applied sciences” (Towson-level college) in the Netherlands.

Examples:

https://www.fontys.nl/en/Study-at-Fontys/Programmes/Logistics-Management.htm

https://www.buas.nl/en/programmes/logistics-management

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is crazy for being a DC area focused forum.

Come on - if you've worked in this space you know that the IR area skews much more t20/umc background than say - public health or housing policy or infrastructure.

there are underemployed SAIS grads in this town.

I cant believe multiple people aren't throwing up red flags on this idea

Secondly, where you go to school matters.

That’s why learning languages is so important. If you can speak an in-demand language, nobody will care where you went

This is so not true. Learning languages is the least important aspect.

You don't pay $$$ and go to a college to learn a language.

No, nobody ever does that. And nobody is looking for someone who speaks Arabic or Farsi these days.

This was sarcasm^

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not hospitality? Friend's kid has worked at the Four Seasons in a few different places around the world. In school student was a B student who has really good social skills. Just looks like a friendly and approachable person.

💯

Hospitality is way more interesting than being some dweeb at state

I'm at State and thinking about a hospitality career as my post-retirement second act.

Btw, I went to a no-name college and many of my FSO colleagues did, too. We are not all ivy league grads.

[Anonymous]

Much of this thread is confusing to me as someone with no ties to int’l affairs world. There was another similar thread recently which felt the same to me. Half the posters claiming inside knowledge of the industry say it is world of an academic snobs and the other half say academic chops are not that important (and I guess a third group have said undergrad academic chops are irrelevant and only grad school matters). My kid is a sophmore likely to declare an IR major and I hope the advisors and career center at her university can give better clarity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UMD just this past month approved a new major in Global Public Health. He could do two years of community college and then transfer.

A 3.0 student in unlikely to get accepted to College Park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Let me clarify. I KNOW my kid won't excel in IR, that is why I am asking what OTHER major should someone with this profile look at besides hospitality.
He's not a Stem kid, he has high social intelligence, interested in social justice, and travel, and is a mediocre student but a hard worker and very practical.

Has he thought about nursing? The foreign service hires nurses, there are opportunities like Mercy ships international, operation smile, being a nurse for a clinic or American school abroad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Much of this thread is confusing to me as someone with no ties to int’l affairs world. There was another similar thread recently which felt the same to me. Half the posters claiming inside knowledge of the industry say it is world of an academic snobs and the other half say academic chops are not that important (and I guess a third group have said undergrad academic chops are irrelevant and only grad school matters). My kid is a sophmore likely to declare an IR major and I hope the advisors and career center at her university can give better clarity.

NP here. My guess is that it depends on the job itself, the location, prestige factor and supply/demand of applicants. From this thread my recap is that agriculture, public health, environmental science are good alternate majors to help with an international career, as well helping with potentially applying to the Peace Corp. Should also double major with a language, in their case Spanish, and also consider the military as another possible career pathway.

To OP, if they are looking at public colleges in MD, also consider Salisbury.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Let me clarify. I KNOW my kid won't excel in IR, that is why I am asking what OTHER major should someone with this profile look at besides hospitality.
He's not a Stem kid, he has high social intelligence, interested in social justice, and travel, and is a mediocre student but a hard worker and very practical.

Has he thought about nursing? The foreign service hires nurses, there are opportunities like Mercy ships international, operation smile, being a nurse for a clinic or American school abroad.

He’s not smart enough for nursing. OP made that very clear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Much of this thread is confusing to me as someone with no ties to int’l affairs world. There was another similar thread recently which felt the same to me. Half the posters claiming inside knowledge of the industry say it is world of an academic snobs and the other half say academic chops are not that important (and I guess a third group have said undergrad academic chops are irrelevant and only grad school matters). My kid is a sophmore likely to declare an IR major and I hope the advisors and career center at her university can give better clarity.

As we like to say in the Foreign Service, "it depends."

The think tank world can be very snobby and elitist. The top think tanks - and there is a clear hierarchy - are filled with Ivy League, Rhodes scholars, etc. These are the intellectual high flyers and where you go to school and what high-level contacts/mentors/sponsors you have definitely count.

There's the various foreign services. State's generalists, i.e., what the general population thinks of when they think of diplomats, are at the top of the food chain. Then you have State's specialists - office managers, facilities managers, IT, diplomatic security. Easier to get into State that way but they make less. Your academic background is not important, but you need to pass the tests. Again, must easier for specialists. They also enjoy the same perks. And then Commerce and USDA have their own foreign services. Having Spanish will be a plus. Others can speak to USAID, but I think there you're going to need field experience to be considered a viable job candidate.

Then you have non-profits. Generally the pay is not great. How competitive it is will depend on the non-profit itself, and experience in the field often counts as well as having the right contacts.

If DS goes to a less selective college, unless he wants to be a think tanker (and it doesn't sound like he does), that's fine. He'll need to bulk up his resume with internships and developing contacts. In many IR fields, it's the graduate degree that counts.

Other things you can do with an IR degree: journalism, international business, work at a college/university's international student/exchange program, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not hospitality? Friend's kid has worked at the Four Seasons in a few different places around the world. In school student was a B student who has really good social skills. Just looks like a friendly and approachable person.

💯

Hospitality is way more interesting than being some dweeb at state

Yeah- worrying about your “flair” so you can work your way up to being a manager at TJ Fridays is great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not hospitality? Friend's kid has worked at the Four Seasons in a few different places around the world. In school student was a B student who has really good social skills. Just looks like a friendly and approachable person.

💯

Hospitality is way more interesting than being some dweeb at state

Yeah- worrying about your “flair” so you can work your way up to being a manager at TJ Fridays is great.

So much better to work at State & hope that some day the Assistant Deputy Secretary for Central Asian Fauna Preservation will ask you to fetch a cup of coffee for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is crazy for being a DC area focused forum.

Come on - if you've worked in this space you know that the IR area skews much more t20/umc background than say - public health or housing policy or infrastructure.

there are underemployed SAIS grads in this town.

I cant believe multiple people aren't throwing up red flags on this idea

Secondly, where you go to school matters.

That’s why learning languages is so important. If you can speak an in-demand language, nobody will care where you went

This is so not true. Learning languages is the least important aspect.

You don't pay $$$ and go to a college to learn a language.

No, nobody ever does that. And nobody is looking for someone who speaks Arabic or Farsi these days.

But aren’t those “critical languages?”

Of course it’s worth it to speak an in-demand language, and of course one great thing to do in college is learn an in-demand language.

The problem is that, in the United States, it’s easy for the government to find a T50 grad who speaks Arabic, Farsi or Chinese as a mother tongue.

I think, though, that some employers like hiring blond, very stereotypically American-looking people who can handle basic communication in an in-demand language, because it shows that we’re so serious about reaching out that we got a stereotypical American to learn the language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is crazy for being a DC area focused forum.

Come on - if you've worked in this space you know that the IR area skews much more t20/umc background than say - public health or housing policy or infrastructure.

there are underemployed SAIS grads in this town.

I cant believe multiple people aren't throwing up red flags on this idea

Secondly, where you go to school matters.

That’s why learning languages is so important. If you can speak an in-demand language, nobody will care where you went

This is so not true. Learning languages is the least important aspect.

You don't pay $$$ and go to a college to learn a language.

No, nobody ever does that. And nobody is looking for someone who speaks Arabic or Farsi these days.

But aren’t those “critical languages?”

Of course it’s worth it to speak an in-demand language, and of course one great thing to do in college is learn an in-demand language.

The problem is that, in the United States, it’s easy for the government to find a T50 grad who speaks Arabic, Farsi or Chinese as a mother tongue.

I think, though, that some employers like hiring blond, very stereotypically American-looking people who can handle basic communication in an in-demand language, because it shows that we’re so serious about reaching out that we got a stereotypical American to learn the language.

Great video showing diplomats speaking critical languages!

https://youtu.be/aIafR9IkuqI?si=IOwEzXr29ghpZj84

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not hospitality? Friend's kid has worked at the Four Seasons in a few different places around the world. In school student was a B student who has really good social skills. Just looks like a friendly and approachable person.

💯

Hospitality is way more interesting than being some dweeb at state

Yeah- worrying about your “flair” so you can work your way up to being a manager at TJ Fridays is great.

You're saying this about the four seasons? You clearly know NOTHING about their business model. They are a hotel, airline, and Secret Service rolled into one. Many high end hospitality companies put government work to shame in terms of quality and competence.