Good College Majors for Working Abroad

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Contrarian Expatriate
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Re: Good College Majors for Working Abroad

Post by Contrarian Expatriate »

For some reason people on this site and others get into the rut of only thinking English teaching or IT work are viable overseas.

There are plenty of other opportunities for working abroad with liberal arts degrees. No need for graduate level work.

The Peace Corps hire recent grads (as both volunteers and staffers) and they often go on to work for international NGOs or the State Department.

The State Department and CIA work abroad. Competition is FIERCE to get in both, but the the rewards are great.

The Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe works abroad.

Also, for social worker types, Catholic Charities and the Red Cross among others are overseas.

Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders (don't have to be MD to work support staff) and Journalists Without borders work abroad.

I also like the idea of trained journalists going abroad to be freelancers or to be in-country correspondents.

For the technical minded, you can work as an architect, civil engineer or any other transferable skill, but you will likely need to work in a western company or learn the local language. Accountants work abroad for KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

People with special police, or technical expertise can work for ICITAP or for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).

Don't paint yourself in a box. Get a degree with a high GPA in whatever field you want, learn key foreign languages, then work to the point of retirement so you can travel abroad permanently staying where you want and doing what you want.
zaalim_g
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Re: Good College Majors for Working Abroad

Post by zaalim_g »

Im in Canada and it's ridiculous how small Data Analytics is here. Indeed.ca has <1000 jobs for Canada while Indeed.com has >16000 for USA.

So am I correct in saying there is a lot of coding involved such as with Java and Python OR just a lot of typing involved ( differentiating typing vs coding) .
MrMan
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Re: Good College Majors for Working Abroad

Post by MrMan »

E Irizarry R&B Singer wrote: but I have to say this: research the online program. Some of them have rockstar curricula..especially if they are of the I.T. realm. Don't knock many of the online programs especially if they are of I.T.
I'm not saying there are no good programs. I don't know much about online IT degrees. I do know there are some online programs that have little market value when it comes to getting a job, and it is important to research that aspect of it before signing up. Universities that offer traditional and online degrees, do not put 'online' on the diploma, and are known known as 'online schools' may be okay for getting a job.

I've have some experience teaching programs through D2L, blended learning you could say, but pretty much the same material as an online course, and I've seen the courseload for certain programs. My advice comes from that perspective. As an instructor, I look at the materials and see I'd very much rather do the conventional classroom if I were a student. Some students may have the discipline to do the online courses. But if you take multiple classes, it can be as time consuming as just going to class, studying, and doing tests the conventional way. Part of this is my presonal preference, but I think a lot of students I know who have done online would prefer the conventional method. I suppose online IT courses could be different if you are learning to code and would have to spend as much time on a computer coding if you took the traditional course.

I don't know if there are any reputable online PhDs that could actually land you a job in academia, either. If there is some other kind of doctorate in a tech field, besides a PhD, research first to see if the market values the degree. Otherwise, it's a waste of time and money. Ask around. Do companies hire based on these degrees? Do the pay more.
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E Irizarry R&B Singer
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Re: Good College Majors for Working Abroad

Post by E Irizarry R&B Singer »

Contrarian Expatriate wrote:For some reason people on this site and others get into the rut of only thinking English teaching or IT work are viable overseas.

There are plenty of other opportunities for working abroad with liberal arts degrees. No need for graduate level work.

The Peace Corps hire recent grads (as both volunteers and staffers) and they often go on to work for international NGOs or the State Department.

The State Department and CIA work abroad. Competition is FIERCE to get in both, but the the rewards are great.

The Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe works abroad.

Also, for social worker types, Catholic Charities and the Red Cross among others are overseas.

Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders (don't have to be MD to work support staff) and Journalists Without borders work abroad.

I also like the idea of trained journalists going abroad to be freelancers or to be in-country correspondents.

For the technical minded, you can work as an architect, civil engineer or any other transferable skill, but you will likely need to work in a western company or learn the local language. Accountants work abroad for KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

People with special police, or technical expertise can work for ICITAP or for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).

Don't paint yourself in a box. Get a degree with a high GPA in whatever field you want, learn key foreign languages, then work to the point of retirement so you can travel abroad permanently staying where you want and doing what you want.
Fine. Paint me myopic. :) As per mentioned, you're right; those industries work too.
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E Irizarry R&B Singer
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Re: Good College Majors for Working Abroad

Post by E Irizarry R&B Singer »

zaalim_g wrote:Im in Canada and it's ridiculous how small Data Analytics is here. Indeed.ca has <1000 jobs for Canada while Indeed.com has >16000 for USA.

So am I correct in saying there is a lot of coding involved such as with Java and Python OR just a lot of typing involved ( differentiating typing vs coding) .
Yes they are. Java and Python is where it's at codingwise. For object-oriented functional programming, there are Go, Erlang, Haskell (big in the UK now), or most popular functional programming language of the last couple of
years: Scala. Java, Python and any of the aforementioned functional languages, and you are good-to-go for Big Data Engineer. I believe a handful of functional object oriented languages
are JVM-convertible into bytecode.

Now for Big Data Analysis/Data Science, not only should you be a good Data Engineer, but you could also learn a machine learning/deep learning technology such as TensorFlow by Google, Theano, Caffe, etc. They
use CNN (convolutional neural network) technologies that can compare two or more images, two or more fingerprints and find a match for them on matrix-corpora (plural for corpus, know some Latin lol) document-inverse document identification. Also R and/or MATLAB are great for data analysis and data predictions using data algorithms of data regression, decision trees, etc. That, in a nut shell, would get you to Data Scientist status and make boku bucks, bro.

There has to be a better job website than Indeed.ca up there. Dice doesn't work in Canada; I know because I tried that out a month or so ago as a trivial experiment.
Have you tried the ones here at the following: https://www.roberthalf.ca/en/blog/job-m ... h-websites ?
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E Irizarry R&B Singer
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Re: Good College Majors for Working Abroad

Post by E Irizarry R&B Singer »

MrMan wrote:
E Irizarry R&B Singer wrote: but I have to say this: research the online program. Some of them have rockstar curricula..especially if they are of the I.T. realm. Don't knock many of the online programs especially if they are of I.T.
I'm not saying there are no good programs. I don't know much about online IT degrees. I do know there are some online programs that have little market value when it comes to getting a job, and it is important to research that aspect of it before signing up. Universities that offer traditional and online degrees, do not put 'online' on the diploma, and are known known as 'online schools' may be okay for getting a job.

I've have some experience teaching programs through D2L, blended learning you could say, but pretty much the same material as an online course, and I've seen the courseload for certain programs. My advice comes from that perspective. As an instructor, I look at the materials and see I'd very much rather do the conventional classroom if I were a student. Some students may have the discipline to do the online courses. But if you take multiple classes, it can be as time consuming as just going to class, studying, and doing tests the conventional way. Part of this is my presonal preference, but I think a lot of students I know who have done online would prefer the conventional method. I suppose online IT courses could be different if you are learning to code and would have to spend as much time on a computer coding if you took the traditional course.

I don't know if there are any reputable online PhDs that could actually land you a job in academia, either. If there is some other kind of doctorate in a tech field, besides a PhD, research first to see if the market values the degree. Otherwise, it's a waste of time and money. Ask around. Do companies hire based on these degrees? Do the pay more.
Okay sentiments are echoed here. I wholeheartedly agree.
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Contrarian Expatriate
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Re: Good College Majors for Working Abroad

Post by Contrarian Expatriate »

E Irizarry R&B Singer wrote:
Contrarian Expatriate wrote:For some reason people on this site and others get into the rut of only thinking English teaching or IT work are viable overseas.

There are plenty of other opportunities for working abroad with liberal arts degrees. No need for graduate level work.

The Peace Corps hire recent grads (as both volunteers and staffers) and they often go on to work for international NGOs or the State Department.

The State Department and CIA work abroad. Competition is FIERCE to get in both, but the the rewards are great.

The Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe works abroad.

Also, for social worker types, Catholic Charities and the Red Cross among others are overseas.

Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders (don't have to be MD to work support staff) and Journalists Without borders work abroad.

I also like the idea of trained journalists going abroad to be freelancers or to be in-country correspondents.

For the technical minded, you can work as an architect, civil engineer or any other transferable skill, but you will likely need to work in a western company or learn the local language. Accountants work abroad for KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

People with special police, or technical expertise can work for ICITAP or for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).

Don't paint yourself in a box. Get a degree with a high GPA in whatever field you want, learn key foreign languages, then work to the point of retirement so you can travel abroad permanently staying where you want and doing what you want.
Fine. Paint me myopic. :) As per mentioned, you're right; those industries work too.
Not at all brother. Most people don't have the technical aptitude to successfully pursue a career in IT, especially abroad. That is a niche in which those like yourself are fortunate enough to have what it takes to flourish.
MrMan
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Re: Good College Majors for Working Abroad

Post by MrMan »

E Irizarry R&B Singer wrote: Now for Big Data Analysis/Data Science, not only should you be a good Data Engineer, but you could also learn a machine learning/deep learning technology such as TensorFlow by Google, Theano, Caffe, etc. They
use CNN (convolutional neural network) technologies that can compare two or more images, two or more fingerprints and find a match for them on matrix-corpora (plural for corpus, know some Latin lol) document-inverse document identification. Also R and/or MATLAB are great for data analysis and data predictions using data algorithms of data regression, decision trees, etc. That, in a nut shell, would get you to Data Scientist status and make boku bucks, bro.
I studied about decision trees in one class, and I could probably remember that if I tried. I used R for maybe a year doing stepwise regression and other procedures. The professor who introducted it to me (and our class) was a fan of Matlab, but I never learned that. I'd have to re-learn R, but I can use R-Commander. :P Is that enough to get me boku bucks? What's boku bucks? I've got to figure out if that's more than I'm making now. What kind of bucks can people who learn SPSS get?

What do you know about web design, and starting up new niche websites in developing economies? I suspect, in some countries, if you just come up with a decent interface for the same type of businesses that did well online in the US, you could make money and work overseas in one of these niches? What type of training do the software people behind these websites need to have to suceed?
MrMan
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Re: Good College Majors for Working Abroad

Post by MrMan »

I recall many years ago, as an English teacher, I ended up in a conversation with an African American who worked for Catholic Charities... whatever it's called. It seem to recall he wasn't Catholic, and I don't remember what education track he took to get there. I've talked to a few other NGO types who got decent packages abroad. What is the route, as far as education is concerned, to get into one of these jobs?

I had a cousin who went to Africa with the Peace Core. I think they take care of you, but there isn't a lot of money in signing up for a gig with them initially. But they prefer to hire alumni for positions in the organization. Is the Peace Core a way to get ones foot in the door with an NGO career?

Agriculture and AgEcon could be ways of getting into NGO and similar government type positions.

I knew a PhD student who studied for about a year and left to take a job with the state department. He was an accountant with a master's degree. The state department actually sent people, in person, to follow up with his references. He called old employers to talk with them about the interviews. One of them had given him a heads up that the state department was doing this. This was several years back, maybe around 2011 or 2012 or so. I think he said the starting salary was $80,000. He probably could have made 150% of that or more starting out if he'd finished his PhD degree, but you have to factor in the value of not having to do a PhD, the years of lost salary (3 to 5 years), salary increases in the state department, state department benefits, etc. There are certain federal jobs that are paid above that schedule you can look up online. If you can get into one of these high-paying fenderal niches, federal jobs can offer quite a career.

Accounting PhD's can get paid really high salaries at universities, especially those who publish who graduated from top programs. (This guy wasn't in a top program, but the salary prospects were still good.) Some Australians I spoke with said some of their schools were paying a few hundred thousand dollars a year. Ausie dollars are worth less, but that's still pretty good. The downside is you'd have to study accounting.
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Re: Good College Majors for Working Abroad

Post by MrMan »

I recall many years ago, as an English teacher, I ended up in a conversation with an African American who worked for Catholic Charities... whatever it's called. It seem to recall he wasn't Catholic, and I don't remember what education track he took to get there. I've talked to a few other NGO types who got decent packages abroad. What is the route, as far as education is concerned, to get into one of these jobs?

I had a cousin who went to Africa with the Peace Core. I think they take care of you, but there isn't a lot of money in signing up for a gig with them initially. But they prefer to hire alumni for positions in the organization. Is the Peace Core a way to get ones foot in the door with an NGO career?

Agriculture and AgEcon could be ways of getting into NGO and similar government type positions.

I knew a PhD student who studied for about a year and left to take a job with the state department. He was an accountant with a master's degree. The state department actually sent people, in person, to follow up with his references. He called old employers to talk with them about the interviews. One of them had given him a heads up that the state department was doing this. This was several years back, maybe around 2011 or 2012 or so. I think he said the starting salary was $80,000. He probably could have made 150% of that or more starting out if he'd finished his PhD degree, but you have to factor in the value of not having to do a PhD, the years of lost salary (3 to 5 years), salary increases in the state department, state department benefits, etc. There are certain federal jobs that are paid above that schedule you can look up online. If you can get into one of these high-paying fenderal niches, federal jobs can offer quite a career.

Accounting PhD's can get paid really high salaries at universities, especially those who publish who graduated from top programs. (This guy wasn't in a top program, but the salary prospects were still good.) Some Australians I spoke with said some of their schools were paying a few hundred thousand dollars a year. Ausie dollars are worth less, but that's still pretty good. The downside is you'd have to study accounting.
MrMan
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Re: Good College Majors for Working Abroad

Post by MrMan »

Something else about the online degrees. Some online universities that offer degrees with very low market value (cough cough Phoenix), will charge super high tuition. The government will lend ridiculously high amounts of money. The military will pay ridiculously high amounts of money. Price shopping is important when looking for a degree. It may make sense to borrow money for a top-notch degree with really good career prospects. It may make sense to pay extra to go to a stop school like Harvard, The University of Chicago, Duke, or UCLA. But it doesn't make sense to pay a premium for a degree from a substandard school that won't get you a job.
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E Irizarry R&B Singer
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Re: Good College Majors for Working Abroad

Post by E Irizarry R&B Singer »

MrMan wrote:
E Irizarry R&B Singer wrote: Now for Big Data Analysis/Data Science, not only should you be a good Data Engineer, but you could also learn a machine learning/deep learning technology such as TensorFlow by Google, Theano, Caffe, etc. They
use CNN (convolutional neural network) technologies that can compare two or more images, two or more fingerprints and find a match for them on matrix-corpora (plural for corpus, know some Latin lol) document-inverse document identification. Also R and/or MATLAB are great for data analysis and data predictions using data algorithms of data regression, decision trees, etc. That, in a nut shell, would get you to Data Scientist status and make boku bucks, bro.
I studied about decision trees in one class, and I could probably remember that if I tried. I used R for maybe a year doing stepwise regression and other procedures. The professor who introducted it to me (and our class) was a fan of Matlab, but I never learned that. I'd have to re-learn R, but I can use R-Commander. :P Is that enough to get me boku bucks? What's boku bucks? I've got to figure out if that's more than I'm making now. What kind of bucks can people who learn SPSS get?

What do you know about web design, and starting up new niche websites in developing economies? I suspect, in some countries, if you just come up with a decent interface for the same type of businesses that did well online in the US, you could make money and work overseas in one of these niches? What type of training do the software people behind these websites need to have to suceed?
I am sorry; I don't know much about SPSS although I have heard it's a technology. R with other Big Data/Fast Data technologies will get you those boku bucks after a year or two. WordPress sites are the quickest way to get a nice looking HTML 5.0/Web 2.0-compliant site.
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Contrarian Expatriate
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Re: Good College Majors for Working Abroad

Post by Contrarian Expatriate »

MrMan wrote:I recall many years ago, as an English teacher, I ended up in a conversation with an African American who worked for Catholic Charities... whatever it's called. It seem to recall he wasn't Catholic, and I don't remember what education track he took to get there. I've talked to a few other NGO types who got decent packages abroad. What is the route, as far as education is concerned, to get into one of these jobs?
BA with field experience or Masters degree in any type of development work. Grant writing expertise is key as is foreign language or internships with NGO headquarters.
MrMan wrote: Is the Peace Corps a way to get ones foot in the door with an NGO career?
Yes, and vice versa.
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E Irizarry R&B Singer
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Re: Good College Majors for Working Abroad

Post by E Irizarry R&B Singer »

Contrarian Expatriate wrote:
E Irizarry R&B Singer wrote:
Contrarian Expatriate wrote:For some reason people on this site and others get into the rut of only thinking English teaching or IT work are viable overseas.

There are plenty of other opportunities for working abroad with liberal arts degrees. No need for graduate level work.

The Peace Corps hire recent grads (as both volunteers and staffers) and they often go on to work for international NGOs or the State Department.

The State Department and CIA work abroad. Competition is FIERCE to get in both, but the the rewards are great.

The Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe works abroad.

Also, for social worker types, Catholic Charities and the Red Cross among others are overseas.

Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders (don't have to be MD to work support staff) and Journalists Without borders work abroad.

I also like the idea of trained journalists going abroad to be freelancers or to be in-country correspondents.

For the technical minded, you can work as an architect, civil engineer or any other transferable skill, but you will likely need to work in a western company or learn the local language. Accountants work abroad for KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

People with special police, or technical expertise can work for ICITAP or for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).

Don't paint yourself in a box. Get a degree with a high GPA in whatever field you want, learn key foreign languages, then work to the point of retirement so you can travel abroad permanently staying where you want and doing what you want.
Fine. Paint me myopic. :) As per mentioned, you're right; those industries work too.
Not at all brother. Most people don't have the technical aptitude to successfully pursue a career in IT, especially abroad. That is a niche in which those like yourself are fortunate enough to have what it takes to flourish.
+1 :mrgreen:
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