Advice on Rounding Out International Experience

[dbryant7]

Hi all,

I've been reading the forum for a couple years now, but I'm beginning to get serious about applying to an IR/Security Studies program so thought I'd reach out for a bit of advice. First, my background:

Graduated in 2010 from a top 25 American University with a decent GPA. Political Science and International Studies major. Couple internships as a congressional aide during the summers. Chose to join a large management consulting firm following graduation to round out my skillset and develop a strong quantitative grounding. Have done well in my first two years out, promoted ahead of norm, etc. Now I'm ready to pivot back to my passion, and I'm struggling with the international experience aspect. I've done a fair bit of Internatinal travel, and studied abroad in college, but I lack substantitve work experience in a foreign country - something that is critical for admissions by most accounts.

I see three potential options, and would love the forums input:

1. Find a way to transfer internationally with my current firm. This is probably the 'easiest' option, but I worry that - while I'd be gaining international work experience - it wouldn't be the 'right' type of experience. I'd probably be in consulting for another 1-2 years before applying without moving any closer to the IR/Security fields.

2. Take a sabbatical and find some type of volunteer/internship opportunity abroad for 1-6 months. This also feels fairly doable, but I'm not sure how strong the experience would be, as I'd likely have difficulty finding a top notch company willing to hire in that capacity.

3. Apply this fall anyways. Could roll the dice based on my consulting track record, decent undergraduate performance, strong GRE scores and a couple articles I've written on geopolitical strategy.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice!

[Imhotep]

If you have the money to take 6 months off, I recommend showing up at some place in the developing world and looking for opportunities on the ground. I know a number of people who have done that successfully, and I think you would find interesting work.

[jct329]

If you have the money to take 6 months off, I recommend showing up at some place in the developing world and looking for opportunities on the ground. I know a number of people who have done that successfully, and I think you would find interesting work.

Not to mention the fact that if you save enough to take 6 months off in the US, you probably have enough to take about 3 years off in Ethiopia.

[Imhotep]

Yes, places like Indonesia or Ethiopia or Burma are inexpensive enough that you could live for a long time on very little money. A person could live very easily in an Indonesian city on $5,000/year or less.