Working World

I think it’s true that we often view networking as a bottom-up proposition and not the other way around. That is, us younger people often ask our older, more experienced colleagues for their advice, their help, and their contacts, but those older colleagues (at least in my mind) would never come to us kids for any kind of assistance. A week and a half ago, I discovered this to be most decidedly not the case.

I had coffee with a colleague who is twenty years my senior. I met this colleague a few years ago when I was working with the National Council for International Visitors. At that time, he had been working for a large and well-known international exchange and development organization in DC for nearly 15 years. Though our paths crossed several times—at NCIV conferences, at joint advocacy meetings on the Hill during we which we argued gamely, and unsuccessfully, for more funds to be devoted to international exchange—when I left NCIV for Georgetown a year and a half ago, we weren’t exactly close.

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My friend Brian, also a writer, texted me late last night, apropos of nothing:

The most important part is that you must believe that someone out there needs to hear something you have to say. Then, you write.

His comment captures, I think, what Sherry and I hope this blog will be about and why we started it in the first place: as a means to create a space for honest and dynamic discourse about building careers in the increasingly vital fields of international education, exchange, and development, done in the belief that there are many people out there that need to hear something that we have to say—and have much to say in return.

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with a group of college students in Jacksonville, Florida. Like many students across the country, they were passionate about international education, exchange, and development, and had many interesting questions about the diversity of organizations involved in this field and where they could get involved.

This week, I am at the Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, Wisconsin attending a summit on citizen diplomacy, also attended by thirty-nine other leaders from various sectors. This conference exemplifies the diversity of organizations that have a hand in international fields. Leaders are present from Sister Cities International, the Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs, the Alliance for Peacebuilding, Americans for Informed Democracy, the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange, Rotary International, AARP, several law firms, consulting firms, and universities, and many others. One participant, Charles MacCormack, President, Save the Children, is actually profiled in Working World. Our focus at this summit is building coalitions between these organizations. The diversity of organizations that play a role in international fields is truly stunning. By focusing on each organization’s strengths, we can build enormous synergy with the potential to really get things done in the world.

If I could speak again with the students in Florida, I would share with them the excitement at this conference. Right now, the most exciting jobs in the field of international education, exchange, and development are the ones that are forging these coalitions between organizations, using one another’s resources, histories, and visions to create a more robust future in this field.

An interview with me about the Working World blog is up on the Georgetown University Digital Commons. Many thanks to Renata Marchione for taking the time to talk with me, as well as to Rob Pongsajapan and the great team at CNDLS for their help in developing and hosting our blog.

Career blogger Lindsey Pollak and Atlantic blogger Megan McArdle share their advice for finding a job in the rough and tumble world of today’s economy. Their tips aren’t internationally focused—rather on careers in general and coming as reactions to the Wall Street collapse—but I think their thoughts ring true for all sectors. After the jump, two things from their posts that struck me as particularly pertinent.

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We are pleased to make our inaugural post on the Working World: Careers in International Education, Exchange, and Development blog. We look forward to discussing with you important topics related to your search for a job and charting of a career in the fields of international education, exchange, and development.

While many websites and blogs examine careers in a general context, very few deal specifically with the details of careers in the international arena. As an ever-growing number of professionals — whether they be recent college graduates, those looking to make a mid-career change, or retirees searching for a second career — look to be involved in work with an international focus, a forum for examining the issues that surround careers in international relations is needed. Working World is that place.

We also examine in this blog intergenerational issues as they relate to working in international affairs, as well as in a broader context. When writing our book, Working World: Careers in International Education, Exchange, and Development (Georgetown University Press, 2008), we discovered that Sherry, a 25-year veteran of the fields of international exchange and education, often had a very different perspective on many issues than Mark, a young professional only a handful of years removed from college. Sometimes these differences were a matter of personality or working style, but in many cases, they were a generation thing.

But in our collaboration process, we also discovered that our intergenerational interaction helped each of us to challenge our assumptions and to develop our ideas with even greater rigor. Discussing the generation gap between us helped us better understand the value of our respective approaches. We came to appreciate that, in a way, our collaboration is just what has to happen in workplaces across the country and around the world as leaders work to tap the institutional memory and experience of older employees and blend it with the fresh approach and technological dexterity of their younger colleagues. The Working World blog is a continuation of this intergenerational conversation on careers in international education, exchange, and development that we began in the Working World book.

We look forward to your questions, comments, and participation as we discuss “the working world”: the important, exciting, and ever-growing fields of international education, exchange, and development.