I met with a young woman yesterday who is seeking a career in international education. She has quite the impressive resume—several years of work experience, including two overseas with the JET program, and a Masters in International Educational Development from Columbia—but has struggled to find a position. She told me how, upon her return from Japan, she’d initially pursued jobs as a university study abroad advisor and was having good success getting interviews. She was struggling, however, to secure the job: she made it to the final round of interviews for three different positions, only to be passed over for two and see the funding for the third pulled at the last minute (a particularly painful kick in the pants).
Still, she was optimistic. In fact the difficulties she faced finding a university position prompted her to look deeper into the world of nongovernmental and nonprofit international education and exchange. Even though she has yet to find a job in the fields, she said she is very excited about the possibilities and her prospects, and even sees these fields as a potentially better fit for her than university study abroad.
“It’s almost a blessing in disguise,” she said of the fact that she got passed over for so many jobs, “failures” that have ultimately pushed her in unanticipated and exciting directions.
I was extremely impressed and heartened by this young woman: not only by her optimism and resolve in the face of job hunting hardship, but also by her ability to see that even the best-laid plans have a way of steering us in directions we could never have foreseen.
