Anonymous
Post 01/02/2026 12:04     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
To answer OP's question, some of those jobs are being reconstituted at the State Department. LinkedIn and other recruiting sites are posting jobs on behalf State that replicate word-for-word jobs that have been lost in the "woodchipper" that DOGE put USAID through.

I think someone finally got through to the White House that pandemics and resource wars don't necessarily respect international borders.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2026 11:57     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:That's not a real degree neither is that field it was all made up


I used to work in intl devt and I agree. It was good while it lasted, I left in 2010 or so due to personal reasons but I always thoughts it’s just recycling of money, cushy jobs and mostly useless projects that were dismantled once political climate changed in the country that was being aided


This. Plus so much of the “aid” resulted in zero improvements for the people allegedly being served, and in many cases either directly or indirectly caused harm or worsening conditions.

Not a Trump fan, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2026 11:51     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:International health is different than international development. I am not saying they have not been impacted, but I would not discourage a young person from entering that field.


I would absolutely discourage any young person from getting an (expensive) degree with the intention of getting a job in the public or nonprofit sector. International health is a fine goal, but the way to go about it is to get some hard skills in actual healthcare (MD, RN) or a related field (engineering, construction, logistics) and then use that to get internships and experience in international settings. Sorry but the world does not need more MPHs or SAIS grads.


I was impacted by the destruction of USAID, and most of my colleagues are still unemployed. The ones who weren’t in the DMV are landing best, as their local markets aren’t flooded with former Feds and development workers. They have mostly ended up with interesting jobs in state or county public health departments, associations, or disease-specific research and advocacy groups.

But I’d like to address the perception that an MPH is soft or useless. Do you want people who understand data and epidemiology to make policy and develop strategy for your city/county/state? Do you want someone who actually has studied human behavior and its drivers to guide communication and support for rational GLP1 rollouts? If so, you want people with MPHs. Physicians and nurses often make really poor strategists - they need to be retrained out of thinking at the individual level in order to think at the population level. It can be more direct and effective to train people for the skills you want - that’s what an MPH can do.

That said, I wouldn’t go get an MPH right now. The market is flooded with folks like me with a gazillion years of experience, and we’ll be monopolizing the available jobs, even entry level ones, for another 5-10 years. I hope I’m wrong, but I wouldn’t encourage a young person to take that risk.


NP, and definitely not ok with the destruction of usaid. But the MPH is not a degree where I'd trust graduates with data. Limited math prerequisites, programs with no GRE requirements. In general, the stats is superficial and so is the programming, and it has to be if you're not filtering on math ability or experience. It's "run a regression" type stats, unless you are doing a specific concentration that's more quantitative.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2026 11:22     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:That's not a real degree neither is that field it was all made up


I used to work in intl devt and I agree. It was good while it lasted, I left in 2010 or so due to personal reasons but I always thoughts it’s just recycling of money, cushy jobs and mostly useless projects that were dismantled once political climate changed in the country that was being aided


I left the field after 25 years in 2018. The lack of will to combat corruption in most of these countries made so much of the US money and MDB money ineffective. We would build hospitals in countries of the FSU only to have cronies require bribes from people to get care. We'd build clean water systems in poor localities that would fall into disrepair because water usage fees (if allowed) were diverted, so we would build another, and the cycle would continue. I lament the lack of childhood vaccines and cheaper or free healthcare for so many. But by turning a blind eye to so much local and national corruption, many development programs were destined to fail. Don't get me started on the futility of our Afghanistan assistance.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2026 11:21     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:International health is different than international development. I am not saying they have not been impacted, but I would not discourage a young person from entering that field.


I would absolutely discourage any young person from getting an (expensive) degree with the intention of getting a job in the public or nonprofit sector. International health is a fine goal, but the way to go about it is to get some hard skills in actual healthcare (MD, RN) or a related field (engineering, construction, logistics) and then use that to get internships and experience in international settings. Sorry but the world does not need more MPHs or SAIS grads.


I was impacted by the destruction of USAID, and most of my colleagues are still unemployed. The ones who weren’t in the DMV are landing best, as their local markets aren’t flooded with former Feds and development workers. They have mostly ended up with interesting jobs in state or county public health departments, associations, or disease-specific research and advocacy groups.

But I’d like to address the perception that an MPH is soft or useless. Do you want people who understand data and epidemiology to make policy and develop strategy for your city/county/state? Do you want someone who actually has studied human behavior and its drivers to guide communication and support for rational GLP1 rollouts? If so, you want people with MPHs. Physicians and nurses often make really poor strategists - they need to be retrained out of thinking at the individual level in order to think at the population level. It can be more direct and effective to train people for the skills you want - that’s what an MPH can do.

That said, I wouldn’t go get an MPH right now. The market is flooded with folks like me with a gazillion years of experience, and we’ll be monopolizing the available jobs, even entry level ones, for another 5-10 years. I hope I’m wrong, but I wouldn’t encourage a young person to take that risk.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2026 11:00     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:International health is different than international development. I am not saying they have not been impacted, but I would not discourage a young person from entering that field.


I would absolutely discourage any young person from getting an (expensive) degree with the intention of getting a job in the public or nonprofit sector. International health is a fine goal, but the way to go about it is to get some hard skills in actual healthcare (MD, RN) or a related field (engineering, construction, logistics) and then use that to get internships and experience in international settings. Sorry but the world does not need more MPHs or SAIS grads.


I’m not disagreeing with you but it seems like the field also will need people with statistical and data analytics skills. I’m just thinking about things like Ebola or the next pandemic. You need doctors to treat it and researchers to develop treatments and vaccines but you also need the folks with the data skills to project where and how it will spread, etc. I thought that’s what the public health degrees were for. It seems like without lupine people developing these skills we will be screwed for the next pandemic, no?


Absolutely but I’m not sure that’s what the average MpH gets you. That’s more for degrees like biostatistics.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2026 02:02     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
Anonymous wrote:That's not a real degree neither is that field it was all made up


I used to work in intl devt and I agree. It was good while it lasted, I left in 2010 or so due to personal reasons but I always thoughts it’s just recycling of money, cushy jobs and mostly useless projects that were dismantled once political climate changed in the country that was being aided
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2026 00:23     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:International health is different than international development. I am not saying they have not been impacted, but I would not discourage a young person from entering that field.


I would absolutely discourage any young person from getting an (expensive) degree with the intention of getting a job in the public or nonprofit sector. International health is a fine goal, but the way to go about it is to get some hard skills in actual healthcare (MD, RN) or a related field (engineering, construction, logistics) and then use that to get internships and experience in international settings. Sorry but the world does not need more MPHs or SAIS grads.


I’m not disagreeing with you but it seems like the field also will need people with statistical and data analytics skills. I’m just thinking about things like Ebola or the next pandemic. You need doctors to treat it and researchers to develop treatments and vaccines but you also need the folks with the data skills to project where and how it will spread, etc. I thought that’s what the public health degrees were for. It seems like without lupine people developing these skills we will be screwed for the next pandemic, no?
Anonymous
Post 01/01/2026 23:03     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
I would agree with the last post. Advise her to get a skills set that could be used in different settings. A second language could also be a plus in working in an international setting in the future. This is not the time for a policy degree only a there are real needs that could use help by young people with training. Our daughter has heard from friends who had a job opening day that they has 300 applications and knew many of the applicants. She even tried in her area to find an unpaid position for a few months for a highly qualified person in her area on the Hill , but was told itwould not be fair to others as too many could the help.

Frustrating - but you need show her this discussion to give her a realistic job outlook.
Also. She needs to be realistic about how much debt would such a masters degree be worth.




Anonymous
Post 01/01/2026 16:38     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
Anonymous wrote:That's not a real degree neither is that field it was all made up


You sound smart
Anonymous
Post 01/01/2026 16:21     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:International health is different than international development. I am not saying they have not been impacted, but I would not discourage a young person from entering that field.


I would absolutely discourage any young person from getting an (expensive) degree with the intention of getting a job in the public or nonprofit sector. International health is a fine goal, but the way to go about it is to get some hard skills in actual healthcare (MD, RN) or a related field (engineering, construction, logistics) and then use that to get internships and experience in international settings. Sorry but the world does not need more MPHs or SAIS grads.


+1

I tend to agree with this, and even more so now given the recent instability of international development as a field. You can put yourself in a much better position long-term if you have hard skills that can be deployed either domestically or internationally.
Anonymous
Post 01/01/2026 14:31     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
That's not a real degree neither is that field it was all made up
Anonymous
Post 01/01/2026 14:22     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
Anonymous wrote:The field has been decimated.

And I’m wondering why the advocates haven’t found a way to launch a mutiny against for-profits like Chemonics (and other Beltway bandits) who absolutely should not be funded by federal tax dollars to implement projects nonprofits are better suited to handle.

^^^
Coalitions should focus on an advocacy campaign to light a fire under Congress to take action. And take it to the American people who would likely be shocked to hear this Admin is prioritizing funding for-profits.


I agree with taking it to the American people but absolutely disagree with taking it to Congress. What advocates should be doing is coming together to collaborate and build their own thing. They should be creating Social Enterprise organizations and creating their own lobbyist. Depending on Congress right now is the absolutely worse idea and not one anyone I know in these fields is on board with.
Anonymous
Post 01/01/2026 09:39     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
The field has been decimated.

And I’m wondering why the advocates haven’t found a way to launch a mutiny against for-profits like Chemonics (and other Beltway bandits) who absolutely should not be funded by federal tax dollars to implement projects nonprofits are better suited to handle.

^^^
Coalitions should focus on an advocacy campaign to light a fire under Congress to take action. And take it to the American people who would likely be shocked to hear this Admin is prioritizing funding for-profits.
Anonymous
Post 12/31/2025 08:35     Subject: What remains of the intl development field
Anonymous wrote:International health is different than international development. I am not saying they have not been impacted, but I would not discourage a young person from entering that field.


I would absolutely discourage any young person from getting an (expensive) degree with the intention of getting a job in the public or nonprofit sector. International health is a fine goal, but the way to go about it is to get some hard skills in actual healthcare (MD, RN) or a related field (engineering, construction, logistics) and then use that to get internships and experience in international settings. Sorry but the world does not need more MPHs or SAIS grads.