Hi, everyone. I'm new here (obviously), so I apologize if I've posted this in the wrong forum. I'm looking for advice about general job-seeking overseas. I posted here, rather than in a country-specific branch or the classifieds because my interests are flexible with respect to both region and substance of the job.

The problem is a common one. I keep applying for jobs and have gotten depressingly little response. While I understand that work overseas, particularly work meant to start a career, is extremely competitive, I can't help but think that I'm well enough qualified to land some type of entry level job. Maybe I'm wrong. Here's a little bit about me, I appreciate all the patience and help.

Education:

BA (English) 3.5, JD (American Law Degree) 3.0

Tons of coursework in rhetoric, writing and legal research, substantive coursework in political development, human rights, project finance, international contract and transaction law and EU company law (as well as foundational American law courses) Papers in international criminal prosecution, Chinese contract law and counter-terrorism policy. Study abroad in Holland studying EU business and economics. The law degree is from a top US school.

Work Experience:

3 years in business litigation, two as a clerk and one as an attorney

Internship with the US State Department in Suriname, researching and writing on the business of drug trafficking.

Volunteer Experience:

Continued work grant writing for a development firm that focuses west Africa; legal and substantive research for a non-profit focused on education in Central America.

Language:

Proficiency certificates from accredited Universities in Spanish and Finnish, beginning level coursework in French and Dutch and training courses/real life use in Sranan Tongo and I-Kiribati.


Thanks to everyone that made it this far. In the long term, I'd like to work or study the connection between political and economic development and terrorism and organized crime. To that end, work in development, foreign relations or intelligence/military is attractive to me. I browse the FPA job board and get the DevelopmentEx e-mails and have applied for a wide variety of work over the last five or six months.

Where should I look? What "level" of job fits my qualifications? Why in the heck won't anyone interview me? Am I being too impatient? All advice much appreciated.

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Two immediate "challenges" I see in what you've posted so far:

First of all, most of the things you'd like to work in are pretty much government sorts of things, which means that you're kind of stuck looking for work with your own (US, I take it) government. It can be difficult (to impossible) to get hired by an overseas government, particularly in the foreign relations or intelligence fields.

Secondly, when indicating your languages (one of the first things they'll look for in overseas positions), rather than listing certificates or coursework, it's probably better to indicate your level of fluency - i.e. "fluent", "conversational" "reading knowledge" "speak and read". Could you interview in any of your languages? (That will be the ultimate test.)

At the moment, you're still a bit light on experience with only one year of attorney work under your belt. If you can't get into State or another government agency, take a look at the job postings for what you'd really love to be doing, but aren't qualified for, and see what they are asking for. It could be that a few years in the private sector (i.e. business) would help.

Unless it has changed in the last decade or so, many American companies consider overseas work to be a "perk" reserved for long-time, executive level employees. Try targeting international companies with operations in the US, which may give you a better shot at some international exposure, and possibly a transfer in a few years.

If you're really determined to work overseas, target a country or an area and start applying there. Be prepared to fly yourself over for a "vacation trip" where you could take interviews (and mention your plans to do so in your cover letter). No one will hire you sight unseen, but many places are unwilling (or unable) to fly someone in from overseas for an interview. If you're "planning on being in the neighborhood" they might ask you to stop in. (It's how I got my overseas job, so it does work. But it's expensive.)

Anyhow, a few ideas to get you started.
Cheers,
Bev

Thanks! That's good advice to chew on. As it turns out, I've got a trip coming up to a good target country, so I'll just bomb them with resumes and hope something sticks.

With respect to languages, I could probably interview in Spanish with some review, but Finnish has some grammar that makes it essentially impossible for anyone but a native-level speaker to sound like Tarzan. The tests I took in college and law school were called "proficiency" exams, so I'm not sure where I fall on the scale. I'd only be fluent under the loosest of definitions.

Look, the fact of an American-trained attorney who speaks Finnish at a "decent" level is enough of a novelty to give it a try. When I started looking for a job overseas, I had a major in German and had taken something like 8 or 9 years of French as a child. I could still read both languages, but hadn't really used them for something like 20 years. Still, I said I was "fluent" or "conversationally fluent" (or something like that).

I got hired in Germany and found there really was a market for US trained accountants who could speak anything other than English - even with the occasional grammatical mistake. My big interview in German was with my boss-to-be, who was from Vienna. Now, a Viennese accent is difficult to understand at the best of times - so he had no quarrel with my occasional mistake. The point was to understand each other and apparently we did. (OK, being able to fake it helps, too, and I also had a degree in theater arts, with lots of improvisation practice. )

I still write both French and German like the proverbial Spanish cow - but if you get a good job, you should have a secretary or other assistant to write memos for you (or correct your first attempts) - and there are lots of books full of "business letters" you can crib from for routine stuff.
Cheers,
Bev

Consider NGOs, too. And even if you don't find work in the country where you will be traveling, really use the time to raise your fluency level. Push hard at it. If nothing else it will give you some idea of how rapidly you improve with constant exposure. That will helpl you in describing your fluency level.

I've looked at full-time work with overseas NGOs. Nothing doing. With my law school debt, it would be impossible to volunteer full-time, but I'm looking into local opportunities to volunteer that would increase Spanish time.