A PhD may cause you plenty of woes, but if you get into a program with a tuition waver + living stipend, debt isn’t one of them.
Yup. It’s a field that gets a lot of career changers, so it can be accommodating. But it also attracts a lot of smart cookies (fun fact: USAID is the federal agency with the most PhDs) and there is a lot of dues paying that happens before people get on a real career trajectory.
Have you thought about becoming a schoolteacher? Do you think you might relate to children better? Sure, it doesn’t pay enough to buy a new BMW every two years, but it’s a solid career. I’ve heard that schools bend over backwards to get men into the classroom, especially in lower grade classrooms. With a master’s in international relations, you should be able to do one of the alternative teacher programs and take X grad credits, pass exams (half of which are basic literacy tests), and get your license.
With your background, I could see you teaching high school history or middle school social studies with confidence.
That is not necessarily true.
- Tuition waver + living stipend isn’t guaranteed for every year of every PhD program.
- Tuition waver + living stipend isn’t always much of a living wage.
- Most important, the difference between your earnings on a living stipend and in a full-time job are dramatic, and when you do return to full-time work, there is no longer a secure expectation that your earnings will make up for it.
(When I was at UCLA, they just started charging full tuition for students who had finished their coursework. My funding ran out and I was only a two years from completion, so I thought, and I ended up rather heavily in debt partly because I was paying tens of thousands of dollars for an expense that wasn’t even a possibility when I enrolled.
Edit for clarity: technically, it was the removal of a subsidy program, so it wasn’t illegal, just a nasty surprise when it was too late for me to change plans.)
Go overseas. Get a job teaching English in Korea or Thailand or Japan or China or Saudi Arabia or … where ever you can get the job and have an interest - use it to pick up the language. Or join the Peace Corp. I know a few people with successful international relations careers and they all have two things in their background - they speak more than English fluently (and Spanish speakers in the U.S. are a dime a dozen - why would anyone hire someone for whom Spanish is a second language when we have a ton of citizens for whom Spanish is as much a first language as English) - and they’ve all spent years living overseas.
None of the DC bike shops I’ve worked in really had brilliant folks; except for the part time student summer help. And, of, and of course, as anyone who is familiar with my postings knows, ME:)
Thanks for all the feedback, everybody. I really appreciate it.
I’ve considered taking classes or otherwise trying to dive in to gaining more linguistic capabilities. Some of you seem to think that I can do this right here in DC, and others are suggesting going abroad. The problem with the latter option is that I have other irons in the fire, domestically, that are pretty important, cannot wait, could be gateways to another type of career (that I still could channel into my political goals), and require my presence.
I’ve thought about how I’m pretty good at teaching, informally, but I’ve heard enough horror stories about professional teaching to not take the idea seriously. I just don’t think it’s the best use of my abilities.
I should add here that I actually am (or try to be) friendly and outgoing, but others almost never reciprocate. This is what bothers and baffles me so much, and it seems to be a big part of the problem with my career hunt, and it leaves me thinking my only option is to try and improve my resume a bit more, and eventually get through the “lottery” of applying to posted jobs. The problem is, when will it be too late?
Serious question: have you considered joining the military?
(I assume you’re already checking usajobs.gov daily and applying for US gov’t positions when they appear)
To the first question, thanks for the suggestion, but that wouldn’t work.
To the second, I’m glad you mentioned that. I was under the impression that jobs are only posted there for legal reasons, and that it’s pointless to apply to them.
The first thing to do is learn and target. When I last applied for jobs, I cultivated a spreadsheet of 100 or so links to the job listing pages for organizations in my field with jobs in my specialty. Once a week, I would go through this list and see what the new postings were. Do this long enough, and you get a natural feel for the rhythms of different organizations.
Then I went through LinkedIn and looked at people who had held those titles in that organization. What experience did they have? Was it comparable to mine? Or is there a step that I seem to need before I can start applying to those types of positions? You want to do a little sanity check to make sure you are in the running.
If it seemed like a good fit, I used my alumni and personal networks to contact someone within the organization to see if they had any insight on the position (and, the unspoken ask here, is if they could flag my resume to make sure it gets looked at.) if I didn’t have a good contact, I’d sort through the huge pile of business cards I’ve built up from various job fairs and try to connect with a contact through that.
After applying, I kept a spreadsheet charting the time between contact, response, interviews, etc. I also kept stats on my “hit” rates for various job titles. This helped me weed out the job titles I was basically never going to get contacted for, and focus on the ones that did have a response rate.
One last hint- do go to the local job fairs. I know there is a big development one in October, and a global health one at some point, and probably various other specialized ones. They are pricy, but worth it. Before going, research ALL of the companies there (this is how you learn your field,) including all their open jobs (apply before the fair, so you can ask the recruiter to flag your application) in your search range. Before job fairs, I’d prepare myself quick one pagers for each company, including interesting jobs, recent company news, and any questions you can think of. I’d review these papers in line so I had something intelligent to say to the represetnatives. Then, collect all the business cards you can. These are your golden ticket next time you apply to something in that company.
if you’re in therapy my advice is: don’t give up. i can’t possibly tell you what specifically to do to fix your situation. but you’ve come to far to be hopeless now. even if it really really does feel hopeless. fight against it and keep going. and, try to make more friends. do you have any hobbies or interests? outside your vocation? try a basketball league or a soccer league or volunteer at something that has a lot of other volunteers. the point being, do something on a regular basis with the same group of people and that will help you make friends.
I know I’m not adding a lot here, but I just want to chime in as another voice that says “You’re not alone.”
YOU’RE NOT ALONE.
My best dudebro got his masters in International Relations, with some pie-in-the-sky ideas of being the next member of West Wing or something, around the same time as I was getting my HFE masters, and had some dreams of doing… something. The past ten years have been rough for ALL of us who graduated in that time period. He’s currently administering placement tests for a community college, and I’m… moving from one tech support job to another.
The job market sucks right now. It just… does. Sure, the economy’s getting better, the unemployment rate is slowly, slowly going down… But it’s still just awful. I’m taking another tech support job because I just NEED to be near my family right now (in the last six months, I’ve gotten divorced, and we’ve had FOUR major health crises in my family.). The good news is, there are jobs out there. Not good jobs, not the jobs you want, or the jobs in your field, but jobs. Tech support, retail, food service, etc. It’s not like a few years ago.
But… talking to dudebro always reminds me… I’m not alone. He’s in the same place. His wife is in the same place. I have another duebro with a PhD who can’t find a job, and his wife has a Master’s and is working at her parent’s business… they’re probably going to be moving in with me soon, because I inherited a house due to previously mentioned medical crises and can’t quite save up adequately. When I was a supervisor at a tech support outsourcing company I’d had someone on my team who had a JD, and had passed the bar (although, she had a touch of the crazy). I had folks with master’s in accounting (with CPA) (He left me to be a bank teller), IT (Masters in IT, making $8.50 an hour doing tech support!), and bachelor in every major you could think of. For better or worse… just the way the world it right now, at least my part of the world.
Also, uh… if you’re in the Dayton area, and looking for a roommate… I’ve got a spare room…
By a related token, I got my Master’s on a research fellowship (no research was actually completed on said fellowship… all I did was format other people’s work and run papers between campuses. I’m told I allowed other research to happen.), and I have been told, more than once, that I’m overqualified. I had the county government tell me (in an interview!) that they really wanted someone with a bachelor’s because they qualified for a lower pay grade (this was in 2009, so in the midst of all the financial woes. Life is probably different these days).
I don’t work for usa.gov, but I do work for a large government civil service system here in the USA. The ONLY way to get a job in my field in my government, is to apply to the civil service posting. Even if you know someone, have a prior internship at the office, etc, you cannot be considered unless you’ve applied by the official process and meet the criteria (and have passed any relevant exams*, if that applies). Yes, sometimes postings are written for one specific person, but this is not the case in the vast majority of postings. In my industry the vast majority are jobs anyone can get.
even sven knows a lot more about your industry though (and working for the federal gov), maybe she can chime in on this issue.
- “competitive” civil service positions involve an exam before you can apply - Foreign Service Officer is one of the more well known federal positions that begins with a competitive exam. “noncompetitive” means no exam, it doesn’t mean there’s no competition.
This seems like a good, thorough, impressive plan, and I appreciate it. I’m a bit concerned in that I might lack the networks needed to capitalize on this (though I’m not sure), and I wouldn’t have much to enter in the “response tracking” area, as my rate of responses/interviews is probably negligible.
I have been doing things like this, actually. Part of this explains why, as I mentioned above, I can’t abruptly go abroad. At the same time, I wonder how much I really enjoy any of this, and I feel guilty about doing this sort of thing. It feels selfish and decadent, especially in a time of crisis.
I believe you’re right about at the average age for Peace Corps Volunteers. Give it a try.
I also agree with the notion of traveling abroad and setting up as an English teacher. With a master’s degree or above, it’s a snap to find a teaching job in Thailand, complete with legal work permit. I predict you’d find a job in your first week here if not on your first day, and that’s not an exaggeration.
Peace Corps volunteers tend to be either a few years out of college, or retired. That said, each group has a range of ages and there are always a few volunteers in their 30s or 40s. If you act young and stupid, you’ll be fully accepted, as PCVs really can’t be choosy about their English-speaking friends. If that’s not your scene-- even better. You’ll be better able to focus on integrating into your community, and probably have a richer experience for it. Peace Corps provides some great career networks, and if you want to work in development it’s almost a prerequisite.
That said, I STRONGLY advise not joining unless you are really fully together mentally. Peace Corps is EXTREMELY challenging even for the healthiest volunteer, and there are very few mental health resources. Volunteers are sent to remote areas, and may be hours or even days from other Americans or any kind of external support. And if you think it’s hard to make friends in DC, wait until everyone you know is a Hausa speaking millet farmer with a third grade edcuation. While nobody forces you to stay the two years, volunteers who leave early really let down the community and cause damage to the program as a whole.
If this was a route you wanted to explore, you would need a sign-off from all of your therapists that your situation has been resolved. You may also face some restrictions on where you go, as they may want you to be closer to the Peace Corps office, and you may not be able to take some anti-malarials (which have a habit of causing psychosis).
Itinerant English teaching may be a better option. You would be in larger cities, with a stronger support system and fewer physical challenges. Furthermore, it would be a more flexible committment, and you could easily peace out if you find yourself over your head.
One thing that isn’t clear to me is what your abilities are. Please don’t think I’m being snarky. I’m just being straight with you.
Like, if someone asked me what my abilities are, I could say that I’m a technical writer, a person who is steeped in everything water quality science and policy-related, and someone who knows how to manage and analyze large environmental datasets. You need be able to distill what it is you know and do into a concise statement like this. Or at the very least, create a description of yourself that you aspire to have. When you first decided to go into international relations, what is it that you saw yourself doing?
You’ll never know when you’ll find yourself stuck in an elevator next to a Big Important Person and have to sell yourself in the 20 seconds it takes for you to arrive to your floor.
It’s okay to be aware of your weaknesses, but you can go overboard. When you talk to people about what you want to do, whether it be with job counselors or mentors or the Big Important Person stuck in the elevator with you, you want to come across as the guy who can do anything. You want to cultivate a spirit of “HELL YES!” Like, if someone offered you a job teaching international studies (or whatever), what would your reaction be? I hope you wouldn’t say something like, “Uh…that sounds nice, but I’m really not that great with people…Teaching isn’t what I’m good at. Thanks anyway!” Even if you don’t think you would be good at something, you need to be ready to take a chance on yourself. You may just surprise yourself at how good you are. And besides, even if you fail at it, it could open the doors to another opportunity. A dream job isn’t just going to plop in your lap. You’re going to have to take risks and get your hands dirty.
You may just have to fake it, personality wise. Even if people don’t respond to your friendly gestures, act like they have anyway. It sounds like you might be suffering from a touch of social anxiety or depression or something else. If this is the case, your perceptions may be skewed.
I’m something of a savant about a lot of these topics, though as I didn’t specialize in development per se I don’t really know a lot of the technical elements there. I have studied and absorbed a great deal about the recent past and how it impacts the present; to be specific, I’ve learned a lot about how foreign policies affect development, for good for for ill. I impressed people in most of my graduate-level classes, to the point where I’m embarrassed at my lack of career progress, since they’re among those who expected great things from me. I’m (usually) a highly skilled analytical thinker and writer, and I can also be quite the orator when required.
I spent several post-undergraduate years in a very mentally (and physically) unhealthy position, but I did take the time, during all those late nights on the computer, to read a great deal, building on what I had already learned during a youth spent reading about this sort of thing.
I figured there would be a variety of governmental departments and/or outside organizations that would have a need for what I can do. I’ve tried to convey my talents through writing, but it hasn’t done the job yet. When talking to someone who might be Big and Important, I definitely won’t sell myself short, especially now!
What did you study in grad school?