Young People Face Trouble Getting Jobs at International Charities

While more and more young people want to work for international causes, they are often put off by the obstacles they face when they seek such jobs, such as low pay and lack of a solid career path, reports The Washington Post.

In the five years after the 2001 terrorist attacks, enrollment in international-affairs graduate programs increased more than 30 percent, and the percentage of those admitted declined.

The students who enter those programs are not necessarily finding a significant payoff to their advanced degrees, however, and many are still facing a job market in which the average yearly salary may not exceed the cost of one year’s tuition in their graduate program, the newspaper says.

While some international-affairs students turn to work in the federal government or for financial firms or consulting agencies because of the higher salaries they pay, others are holding onto their idealism despite the challenges.

Among them: Beth Hanley, a Georgetown graduate with a master’s degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University who turned down a job offer from a for-profit consulting company. “A lot of people say, ‘At some point, you’re going to have to decide to explore other options,’ and I guess I would start applying for jobs in other fields I don’t care so much about. But I haven’t gotten at all to that point.”

Read The Chronicle’s article on the challenges facing young nonprofit workers.

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