Graduate School Forum: Career Development

Graduate School Forum: Career Development

When you are trying to conceptualize a career path for yourself, it is easy to identify high-profile jobs that look exciting and interesting but less easy to understand how you get from where you are now to there. Rarely today is building a career straightforward or even a straight trajectory—particularly in the international affairs field.

If there is one common characteristic I have seen among the careers of international affairs practitioners, it is the fluidity with which their career paths can navigate among various sectors. A person might leave graduate school for a position with their national government, then move on to a private sector company, only to later find themselves with an NGO. I have seen any combination of cross-sector career paths, and it is this wide variety of options that makes a professional education in international affairs so valuable.

As you will see in the following pages, these schools and others like them combine a sound mix of practical training in hard skills in such areas as management, policy analysis and quantitative calculation with issue-specific knowledge to address the myriad topics proliferating in the international realm.

Click here for a PDF download of the section, or follow these links:

• Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA)
  

An Introduction to Career Development
Leigh Morris Sloane

• Brandeis University, The Heller School for Social Policy and Management

Creating a Framework for Development
Susan Holcombe

• University of California, San Diego, School of International Relations and Pacific Studies

Beyond the Public Sector: Careers for Today’s and Tomorrow’s Graduates
Peter Cowhey

• University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy

Rigor Meets Relevance at the University of Chicago Harris School
Charles Wheelan

• Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)

Keeping a Promise Made at SIPA
Bill Rigler

• Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, Vienna School of International Studies
  

Chances, Changes, Challenges
Hans Winkler

• The George Washington University, Elliott School of International Affairs

Advancing Space Policy
Lori Garver

• Hertie School of Governance, Master of Public Policy
  

Make an Impact at the Interface of the Private, Public and Civil Society Sectors
Helmut K. Anheier

• University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA)
  

Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice
Brandon Mendoza

• National University of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

Power is Shifting to Asia. Are you?
Andrew Billo


• University of St. Gallen, Master of Arts in International Affairs and Governance

Taking Advantage of a Privileged Setting: International Affairs in Switzerland
René Buholzer

• Thunderbird School of Global Management

A Truly Global Education
Glenn Fong

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