international development jobs outlook?

[Jade06]

Hi all,

 

I am currently studying in the United States and would be interested in working in international development in the future with a focus on global public health. However, it seems like the main actors in this field are NGOs, and sponsorship for work visas is hard to secure with them. The bigger players, such as USAID would not hire foreigners and the World Bank webpage states directly that H1B visas are illegible for work authorization.

 

I am wondering if there are any other international fellows out there who received a degree in international development? What has your career path been like, and did your degree help with your career goal?

 

Thanks! 

[ExponentialDecay]

I'm working at an NGO outfit that is not your field, but for what it's worth: most of the people here got in through contacts or lengthy unpaid internships. This NGO has branches outside the States, and a viable alternative is to start work there and later get transferred to the States or use the work experience to get another job, including in an international organization. The UN has citizenship quotas for everything, which makes it difficult to get in if you're a citizen of an overrepresented nation, but if you are a citizen of an underrepresented one, that's like being black and applying to Harvard.

 

NGOs also don't compete for H1B quotas, by the way.

 

But yeah, this industry is very difficult to get into if all you have to go on is your own ingenuity.

[Jade06]

I'm working at an NGO outfit that is not your field, but for what it's worth: most of the people here got in through contacts or lengthy unpaid internships. This NGO has branches outside the States, and a viable alternative is to start work there and later get transferred to the States or use the work experience to get another job, including in an international organization. The UN has citizenship quotas for everything, which makes it difficult to get in if you're a citizen of an overrepresented nation, but if you are a citizen of an underrepresented one, that's like being black and applying to Harvard.

 

NGOs also don't compete for H1B quotas, by the way.

 

But yeah, this industry is very difficult to get into if all you have to go on is your own ingenuity.

 

Thank you for your insight! I have had several short internships with non-profits in the field of public health. And it does seem like that contacts and unpaid internships is the way to break into the field. As far as the UN is concerned, I am (unfortunately in this case) from the country with the largest population in the world. 

 

However, I want to clarify something you mentioned which is NGO don't compete for H1B quotas. I believe they do, unless it is a not-for-profit organization affiliated with a university, or a primarily research-focused NPO where the foreigner's job title is "researcher". I believe that those are the only two categories where NPO would be H1B cap exempt, which does not mean that they will be waived from the H1B application fees, either.

 

Just out of curiosity: is it typical for the NGO that you are working in, or any other NGOs that you know of, to hire foreigners for their US office if they were exceptional?

 

Thanks!