Jobs, Where Are All the Jobs?

It was never easy getting that first job in the field.  Nothing quite like being told you don't have sufficient field experience, and being left to wonder how, exactly, one is supposed to gain experience if no one will actually give you a job.  Just one of the many wonderful paradoxes of humanitarian employment.

Today, as aid agencies slash budgets and - increasingly - cut staff, things are even more difficult.  At least ancedotally, it seems that more and more paid positions are being magically transformed into unpaid internships.

Which makes decent advice all the more important.  The best advice I've seen recently comes from Alanna Shaikh, on her blog Blood and Milk.  In her post The bare bones of prepping for an international career, Alanna lays out the "essential five things to have any hope of getting a job in international development," including:

1. Get an office job while you're still in school

2. Study something useful at university

3. Learn to write

4. Study a second language

5. Hardest of all - have a goal for what you want to do that's specific, but not too specific.

Not to steal her thunder - to read Alanna's full post, which goes into much more detail about all the suggestions above, see here.  (In the interests of full disclosure, Alanna is also my global health co-blogger here at change.org.)

Chris Blattman recently added a few suggestions to this list, including be prepared to volunteer, and be prepared to go to uncomfortable places.  Chris also points people towards the Working World blog, which on first glance looks quite useful.

For more information, see Finding a Job Overseas, and Transitionland's posts about Finding a Job in the Field.

[Photo from samstoybox.com]