What Do You Want to Be?

What are you going to be? When the contestants on "Kids Jeopardy" were asked about their career plans, none of the 10-to-12-year-olds said they wanted to work as freight forwarders, to teach English overseas, to manage the first Macy's store in Abu Dhabi, or to cover Iranian elections as a foreign correspondent. Yet, today's wise students need to think globally about their future careers. In fact, a poll conducted by John Zogby (zogbyanalytics.com) in late May, 2014, found that half of the 18-34- year-old smart phone owners expect to live and work in a foreign country at some point in their lives. Nader Luthera has launched coworktheworld.com/apply-now, which is a way to join a group that works anywhere in the world using a laptop and mobile phone.

     There are opportunities offered by professions, such as photographer (See the later blog post, "Take Your Best Shot,") that do not need foreign language translations. Opportunities involving sensors, for example, are worth exploring, since sensors already are being added to clothing to monitor a person's vital signs, and they are being used in fields to monitor a crop's need for irrigation. Nonetheless, youngsters who speak a foreign language, because they grew up with military, diplomatic, executive, and missionary parents stationed outside the United States, have an ear for foreign languages, or spent part of their academic careers in foreign countries, have additional options in what often are invisible international careers.

     It is, for example, a rare child who has been exposed to the physical distribution aspect of international trade, and, for that matter, the business of dismantling and recycling military, outmoded single-hull tankers, cruise, and other ships. And yet, working as a temp for the Matson Line in Hawaii, I found tracking containers and watching giant winches load and unload the 7,500 containers a ship could carry in those days a fascinating field of career opportunities that young people should explore. As a result of the shale oil boom in the U.S., consider how shipping sales reps need to meet the challenge of finding new customers in India and China and how transport experts need to  redirect to these new ports the tankers that used to carry crude oil from West Africa and Latin America to the U.S.

      Ups and downs in the world economy also provide careers for nimble managers. Soren Skou, chief executive of Maersk, the world's largest container shipping line, reports his industry needed to place a new focus on profit by cost cutting not gaining greater market share. Why? The world's weak economy caused projected annual growth to fall from a high of close to 10% before 2008 to 4% to 5% afterwards. Maersk's cost cutting involved making ships travel slower and scrapping older vessels to take delivery of 20 of the world's largest ships, known as Triple Es, that can carry 10% more volume.  (Maersk has denied charges of bribing a Brazilian official of state-owned Petrobras in order to gain tanker contracts.)

      Supply chain management from raw material to retailer includes job opportunities in the entire process of furnishing information; marketing; moving goods; and providing insurance, security, and other services. Consider all that is involved in the seamless transfer of goods from ship or plane to train to truck. China's COFCO Limited provides an example of a fully integrated supply chain. Through equity participation, controlling interest, alliances, and joint ventures, COFCO employs workers with 70 different nationalities in 140 locations. A new Supply and Value Chain Center at the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University in Chicago is among the schools that have recognized the need to train students in the inter-related fields of transportation, distribution, and logistics. Since e-commerce marketers are finding they have to pay more attention to the process of shipping and delivering the goods customers purchase online, there new opportunities for experts in supply chain logistics throughout the world. (See the later blog post, "Problems Present Career Opportunities.")

    What if you were involved in moving cocoa beans from Ghana, Africa, to Hershey, PA, and chocolate bars on to grocery stores everywhere in the world? Maintaining a bare bones inventory would reduce costs, but a tsunami, longshoremen's strike, or any other disruption in the supply chain could wipe out the savings advantage of a just-in-time inventory. Since 95% of the world's export-import trade is carried by ships, the cost savings of using this slow mode of transportation is uncertain. Nonetheless, the Panama Canal is now being enlarged to handle the bulk of the world's ships that carry 13,000 containers. No canal can accommodate the even larger Capesize Triple E ships with a teu* capacity to carry 18,000, 20-foot containers.  How will shipping companies fill this new capacity? Young people need to explore career opportunities that involve understanding and deciding whether or not to rely on distant suppliers or move manufacturing closer to consumers.

         The logistics of moving goods and people throughout the world offers career prospects in other fields, such as livestock exports (See the blog post, "Dairy Cows on the Moove,") and the military. Gen. Colin Powell may not be available to speak about opportunities for the soldier-diplomat, but teachers and parents who organize Career Days need to seek out others who have served in the military.

     Then, there also is the need to expose young people to the experiences of those who joined the Peace Corps, invested in foreign currency (Go to my earlier blog post, "When to Buy/Sell in the World Market"), worked for international agencies (Check the directories for development organizations at devdir.org), handled intellectural property disputes in China, opened a Gap store in Kuwait (Go to my blog post, "The World of Fashion," for other career opportunities in the fashion field), or found a career in sports (Go to my blog post, "Wide World of Sports").

     Students need information about the competitive exams the State Department holds for college graduates who want to become Foreign Service officers like those who helped broker the Dayton Accords that ended ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Whether or not there is a Cold War or a war on terrorism, national security depends on those, especially those with foreign language skills, who choose a military career or positions at agencies such as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Treasury's Office of Terrorism and Finance Intelligence, or Energy's Office of Intelligence. Also, be on the lookout for opportunities in a new Technology Corps, proposed by John Zogby, pollster and co-author of The First Globals: Understanding, Managing, and Unleashing Our First Millennial Generation.

     If international economic issues interest a student, there are employment opportunities at the Agency for International Development, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, multinational companies, and firms that invest in emerging markets. Students also might consider applying for positions as UN translators and interpreters or for the limited staff openings in specialized UN agencies, such as the World Health Organization or the World Meteorological Organization.

     To find information about international employment opportunities, students should see if their libraries carry the global jobs kit published by Impact Publications in Virginia. Books in the series cover internships, graduate programs, qualifications employers expect, and application procedures. Careers in International Affairs, an Impact publication, is worth purchasing. Another source of information about international job openings and internships is the Foreign Policy Association's website, fpa.org. At FPAU.ORG, the Foreign Policy Association lists career development training sessions offered for those who want to land a position in the international field. It is a good idea for students to join LinkedIn (linkedin.com), since linkedin.com/edu has a variety of ways to help them find the schools that offer courses in line with career objectives and the top employers of other alums who have majored in given fields. For example, a survey published by linkedin.com/edu/alumni found the U.S. Department of State, various branches of the military, the United Nations, Deloitte consulting, IBM, and The World Bank were among the main employers of those who had majored in international relations and foreign affairs.

     And, again, there are the directories for development organizations listed at devdir.org. Patrick Shields, the Executive Director and CFO of Global Recruitment Specialists, recommends using these directories to look for international organizations that need people who can do what you already have experience doing.

*Teu capacity measures the number of 20-foot long, 8-feet tall and wide shipping containers that a ship can carry.