American students consider work opportunities abroad after graduation

John Dashe knew he wanted to work overseas after college. He majored in political science and history and graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 2022.

He was accepted to the Fulbright program, administered by the US State Department, and moved to Timor-Leste, which shares an island with part of Indonesia and is located about 400 miles north of Australia.

He decided to stay on after the program and is now an English lecturer at two universities in the capital, Dili: Universidade Dili and Universidade Católica Timorense.

Although more foreigners are coming to study and work in the United States, several Americans are looking to relocate for employment in other countries, many of them transitioning from study abroad and internship opportunities.

“I was really interested in the history of Timor-Leste,” Dashe said. “It’s a developing country, one of the newest countries in the world. So, as someone who was interested in development and institutions, that was one of the main attractions for me.”

He eventually wants to shift to work involving development projects in Timor-Leste.

But he says that teaching English — in a country whose official languages are Tetum and Portuguese — has been a fulfilling experience.

“I think the most important reason I stayed is that I can actually see the tangible impacts of the work I’m doing with the students that I’m teaching,” he explained.

Various destinations

Language is usually a big consideration for many American students who want to study or work abroad — with most of them drawn to English-speaking countries.

Staff at the Wasserman Center for Career Development at New York University say the top destinations for their students have been the United Kingdom and Canada. And last year, Singapore, which has a large English-speaking population, came in third.

The center helps students navigate the process of going to another country.

“We also had a program last year where we brought representatives from different countries’ embassies to talk about how to get a job in those countries and to get the proper paperwork and things like that,” explained Greg Weight, the director of external partnerships and experiential learning at the Wasserman Center.

NYU also has campuses in Shanghai, China and Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, along with global network centers in other locations. The university saw a drop in the number of students going abroad since the COVID-19 pandemic, but many students are still interested in traveling.

Rawan Al-Wakeel, the global manager for career development at the center, helps to facilitate some of the work opportunities.

“What I do is I work with global employers that want to connect with NYU students,” she said. “So, if I’m in Paris, I will connect them with Louis Vuitton, for example. If I’m in Italy, I’ll connect them with Accenture Italia, because these are companies that have expressed interest to meet with our students.”

NYU also tries to tap into its network of alums who work worldwide to speak about their experiences and offer connections.

Pursuing internships

Mirka Martel, the head of research evaluation and learning at the Institute of International Education (IIE) in New York, said that students often bridge their study and work experiences through internships.

“Most of the internships that students pursue are full-time internships. So, that means that they’re really going to get career experience. And that’s their main main reason for going abroad,” Martel said.

In one study, the IIE looked at eight organizations offering overseas global internships.

“Amongst that sample, what we saw is that the largest amount of internships that alumni were pursuing were in hospitality and food services, followed by finance and then more professional, scientific and technical services,” she said.

They also found that most students went to the UK but added, “Once you get past the top destinations for global internships, you actually do see diversity increase quite a bit. So, for example, we saw that there were also students who were going for global internships in South Africa, Colombia, China and other countries like Australia.”

Students in Arkansas

Dalia is a student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and wants to move overseas for work after graduation. She’s asked not to use her last name because of the nature of the work she plans to do.

She’s pursuing a double major in political science and philosophy and a minor in Middle Eastern studies. Dalia was born in Ohio and has lived in Arkansas for over a decade. She is of Arab descent. She hopes to move to Istanbul, Turkey, to become an international lawyer.

“I became fluent in Turkish about a couple of years ago. And so, I found that to be a useful asset,” she said.

“I also want to be in Turkey because that is where the organization that I’ve been working with for four years, the Syrian Emergency Task Force, is located. So, a lot of my NGO work there, I would like to continue on and continue working with.”

The task force was formed in Little Rock at the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011 and now has its headquarters in Washington, DC.

Dalia’s focus is on helping women and girls.

“A lot of women who are refugees did not really have an opportunity to get a degree or to establish themselves. And so that’s kind of what I focus on,” she explained.

“I focus on women’s education specifically around high school and college, which is what the task force in general has been doing now for quite some time. There are also a lot of educational programs for girls … making sure that they obtain the routes they need to go out in the world and get a sustainable career.”

Her work doesn’t come without risks, though, something her family worries about.

“They were fearful because, well, one, the border between Syria and Turkey is not a safe place in the slightest.” Dalia said. “So, they much rather me work obviously from Little Rock. But the opportunity has presented itself and it’s not one that I have turned down.”

Another student on campus is Yuliana Murillo. She’s a sophomore and says becoming a US foreign service officer is one of her potential career paths.

“Basically, it’s a diplomat who travels around the world and represents the US,” Murillo said.

She added that participating in the Model Arab League on campus piqued her interest.

“You get put into these diplomatic simulations. And we went to a conference in Houston and Washington, DC, where we competed against other schools.”

Murillo said she wants to work in the Middle East or Mexico, where her parents are from.

Her parents know she’s always wanted to travel, and her mom says she enjoys learning more through her daughter’s trips.

“She often says she gets excitement from my travels since she isn’t able to go to those places, and she says that when I go, it’s like a part of her is going, too.”

A sense of community

Back in Timor-Leste, John Dashe said he values his connections with the people there and the sense of community.

“I’ve never seen somebody who’s homeless here and I’ve seen people with mental illnesses, but they’re always accompanied by a family member or a loved one,” Dashe said. “So, I mean, they really just take care of each other here, which is really special. And I think that is something that maybe Americans have kind of lost.”

He also echoes the other students by highlighting the importance of traveling to other places.

“I think it’s a great experience traveling, especially living in a different country,” he said.

“I feel like you learn so much about what you are capable of. Intercultural experiences teach you so much about the world and about how different people live but also what you have in common with other people.”

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