Is Studying International Relations Worth it If You Want to Work at the UN? (Truth from IR Graduate)

Summary

In this video, Viola, the creator of International Organizations Ready, shares her journey of studying international relations and how it led her to work in international organizations like the EU, UN, and OECD. She discusses her educational background, the advantages she gained from her studies, and the challenges she faced. Viola provides insights into the skills required for international relations, the importance of specialization, and the costs associated with her education. She concludes by reflecting on the value of her education and encouraging others interested in international relations to pursue a specialized path.

Highlights

• Viola's journey in international relations led her to work at the EU, UN, and OECD. 🌍
• Specializing in a region or language can set you apart in the job market. 🌟
• Studying international relations enhances analytical skills and cultural awareness. 📚
• The cost of studying is a significant factor, but working part-time and scholarships can alleviate expenses. 💰
• Networking and being proactive during your studies open doors in international organizations. 🤝

Key Takeaways

• International relations offer a wide range of career opportunities, but specializing is key! 🌍
• Studying abroad provides invaluable experience and multicultural exposure. 🌏
• Writing and analytical skills developed through an international relations degree are crucial. ✍️
• Practical experiences during your studies can significantly impact your career. 🌟
• The cost of education can be high, but strategic planning and scholarships can help. 💸

Overview

Viola, the creator behind International Organizations Ready, opens up about her educational journey in international relations and how it shaped her career in top international organizations. She narrates her experiences from studying in various countries, highlighting the advantages and challenges she encountered along the way.

From her initial interest in Africa and Swahili to her specialization in diplomatic environments, Viola emphasizes the importance of customizing your education journey. She provides a realistic view on how international relations degrees are perceived across different educational systems and the need for specialization to stand out in the global job market.

Viola unravels the financial aspect of her education, sharing insights into managing costs through scholarships and part-time work. She concludes with encouragement for those considering a similar path, stressing the importance of adaptability, curiosity, and strategic planning in pursuing a fulfilling career in international organizations.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction and Background The chapter introduces Viola, an individual with a background in studying international relations. It sets the stage for sharing her personal journey, experiences, and insights gained through her education and career. The focus is on her roles within international organizations such as the EU, UN, and DOD, and aims to provide guidance to those considering a similar path in international relations.
• 01:00 - 04:00: Educational Journey The chapter titled 'Educational Journey' centers on the speaker's experiences and reflections surrounding their studies in international relations. They address positive aspects of their educational journey, as well as criticisms or drawbacks. The speaker also discusses the intimidating financial costs associated with their education, including any elements they would reconsider if given a chance to do things differently. The chapter begins with an introduction to the speaker's own educational background.
• 04:00 - 08:00: Skills Gained from Studying International Relations The chapter discusses the skills gained from studying International Relations with a focus on a dual degree program in Swahili at SOAS, University of London. The program included an additional year at universities in Tanzania and Kenya focusing on Swahili-related subjects. It also covers the continuation of studies into a master's degree in International Security with a concentration on unspecified topics.
• 12:00 - 16:00: Challenges and Limitations of Studying International Relations The chapter discusses the challenges and limitations faced when studying international relations, particularly in the context of African diplomacy. The author shares a personal academic journey, highlighting a strong focus on Africa, specifically East Africa and Swahili, during undergraduate studies. This focus was expanded during a Master's program to include broader continental dynamics and Francophone Africa. This indicates an evolution from a regional to a more comprehensive continental understanding of African international relations.
• 18:00 - 23:00: Cost of Education The speaker reflects on their educational journey, noting that despite the high costs associated with studying, they have achieved positive outcomes. Five years post-graduation, they highlight gaining employment in their desired sector, thanks to their degrees. Their experiences in the EU, UN, and OECD validate their educational investment as worthwhile. However, the chapter suggests further elaboration on the initiatives that underscored these gains.
• 23:00 - 27:00: Career Outcomes and Advice The chapter titled 'Career Outcomes and Advice' discusses the unique advantages of studying international relations as a degree. The speaker emphasizes that this field of study provides a comprehensive understanding of global issues, requiring a holistic approach to problem-solving and analysis. This perspective allows individuals to compare and contrast various countries and sectors, leading to a versatile skill set that can be applied in diverse career paths. The skills gained through this degree are portrayed as incomparable, offering distinctive insights and advantages in the professional world.
• 29:00 - 32:00: Conclusion and Call to Action The chapter titled 'Conclusion and Call to Action' highlights the crosscutting approach inherent in studying international relations. Unlike fields like economics or history, international relations examines a broad range of issues. This interdisciplinary aspect helps students develop the ability to include various factors in their analyses, even if they do not become experts in all areas. The chapter emphasizes the importance of writing skills, underscoring that students will need to learn to write clearly and concisely, while building strong arguments and assessing existing ones. This is a key skill developed through most international relations programs.

Is Studying International Relations Worth it If You Want to Work at the UN? (Truth from IR Graduate) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 so you want to study international relations and wonder if it's worth it let me share with you my journey thoughts experience throughout studying international relations and my career development since my name is Viola and I created I already to share knowledge tips and insights from International organizations as someone who worked at the EU un and DOD and today I'm going to share with you how I got into these International organizations and my educ
• 00:30 - 01:00 ational background so if you're interested in studying international relations or you have graduated from international relations as well you're welcome to keep watching I'm going to be covering some of the positive experiences and some of the negative comments I have about studying international relations the cost of My overall education which was honestly pretty scary to calculate and what I would have done differently Looking Back Now let me give you some overall background about my educational journey
• 01:00 - 01:30 I studied ba in international relations in Swahili at sawas school of Oriental and African studies which is a part of university on London in London for four years because my degree was a dual degree so I had one additional year at universities in Tanzania and Kenya doing sili or sily related subjects then I did my master's degree in International Security with a concentration on
• 01:30 - 02:00 diplomacy and Africa at tanpo Paris School of International Affairs between 2018 and 2020 so in total I spent six years studying international relations as you can tell even though I studied international relations I had quite a particular Focus from the very beginning on Africa on Swahili and on East Africa and then when I moved to my Master's Degree I expanded my focus on Africa as a continent so also to frankophone
• 02:00 - 02:30 Africa so bear that in mind while I tell you about my experiences let me share with you the positive outcomes that I now look back on it's five years since I've graduated which yes is kind of crazy to think of and I do have a couple of years of experience from the EU un and oecd so yes this degrees did get me a job in the exact sector that I wanted to work in but we're going to get into to that in a little bit but let me tell
• 02:30 - 03:00 you what I think was an incomparable advantage in comparison to some of the other degrees that I could have taken studying international relations really exposes you to knowledge about a wide variety of issues because you need to think about the world holistically so in that sense I think that you gain this very unique skill of looking at every single issue in country comparing it to so many different other countries and sectors that you know and and having
• 03:00 - 03:30 that crosscutting approach which I think if you were studying let's say economics or history you wouldn't necessarily have had so I think while studying international relations you look at a wide variety of issues and while you may not be an expert in any of them you know how to include it in your analysis which I think is a very positive skill that you develop in almost any international relations degree you will need to write so you will learn how to write clearly concisely and how to develop very good argument and how to assess arguments I
• 03:30 - 04:00 remember before starting to study international relations I actually studied law for a year because I thought that I wanted to have a legal career in Poland and my experience studying the law was very different from studying international relations one of the key factors was the amount of writing that I have done in my degrees in international relations so I have learned how to structure my thinking in concrete steps in papers how to use a language to
• 04:00 - 04:30 transmit the knowledge and the arguments that I have so that has been a pretty intense training especially that I started studying in my second language in English and I needed to write essays in English which now I have published papers at the oecd in English but at the very beginning it was a really big struggle so I not only learned how to write I also learn how to professionally and formally write in English you also get exposure to diverse Pol political
• 04:30 - 05:00 economic and all of the other systems you really dive deep into the differences of possibilities and you start looking at the world through a very analytical lens understanding that any country could have ended up differently if there was a different leader or if a leader made a different decision which I think is very curious when you're studying international relations because you learn so much about the world through the books that you start reading for the conversations
• 05:00 - 05:30 that you have not only during your classes but also with your friends who are studying international relations with you and are having different interests while you also have particular topic preferences I personally really wanted to study East Africa and as a Polish person I was never exposed to the history of Africa to languages of Africa Poland had nothing to do with Africa and I really loved learning about State formation and how different political system systems arose you get so much
• 05:30 - 06:00 exposure of working in a multicultural environment through not only your degree in the first place because very often when you're studying international relations you're either an international student or you have other International students in your year so you learn through those connections in the first place but then you also have different conferences study trips you study abroad like I did in Kenya and Tanzania and the exposure to the world that you get is is honestly unparallel I don't think you
• 06:00 - 06:30 can get the same amount of diversity of opinions political systems if you haven't studied international relations you get so good with your analysis and that's something that I have noticed quite fast when I got a little bit more comfortable with writing and doing my own analysis I started analyzing everything that I was hearing any podcast that I was listening to about a particular political situation or a particular conflict or when I was
• 06:30 - 07:00 listening to traditional media I could very easily spot what is a real argument and what is not or what is a propaganda and what is not and how people manipulate with the information that you have because you are also taught how to manipulate information for your own benefit which I do think is a very useful and practical skill but you spot that in everything around you which I think is super special Network that you develop for setting international relations is honestly so inspiring and
• 07:00 - 07:30 this is something that was a really huge difference for me because I saw a different way of living thinking learning because of the people that I was surrounded by and I will be forever grateful for that and it has forever changed me as well and if I didn't leave Poland to study international relations and the UK Kenya Tanzania France I wouldn't have been able to be the person that I am today I am very open-minded thanks to these experiences and on the
• 07:30 - 08:00 other hand you really learn how to discuss political issues you learn how to discuss in general because of the writing and Analysis that you do because of the books that you're reading because of the news that you're following studying international relations really teaches you how to discuss in a smart calm and persuasive manner I have never done as much in-depth research as when I was studying international relations into topics that I have never heard of
• 08:00 - 08:30 and I love that I really love that intellectual curiosity and capacity of being able to figure things out and to find innovative solutions or what it feels like when you're a student sitting in the library for hours and hours and hours on end reading books and thinking about how to improve the world and how to change to be a better place but I really loved how it enabled me and how much confidence has given me in my abilities to figure things out based on my intellectual research and I love the
• 08:30 - 09:00 fact that for example I was doing a su political analysis and comparing Kenya and tzia Swahili praise poetry it's kind of crazy to think of right now I wrote a 5,000 essay in Swahili about the relationship between language and corruption in Kenya doing interviews with Kenyans while I was living in Kenya so I feel that I achieved so many things I don't think I could have ever achieved before and studying international
• 09:00 - 09:30 relations have definitely allowed me to do that let's talk about the obvious one language learning as I have mentioned I come from Poland and that's the only mother tongue that I have I'm polish and I speak Polish but because I went to the UK to study international relations my English is my main language right now it's my professional language and in fact in the past 10 years it is language that I feel most comfortable in I have also learned SW it was a part of my
• 09:30 - 10:00 degree and my professional languages as well since I used it when I was working at the EU delegation to Kenya and I have also learned French because I then studied in France I used some of my French to do work on conflict analysis another thing that was an extremely positive and an extremely important experience for me when studying international relations was actually having exposure to the Diplomatic environment through the different conferences meetings but one key moment
• 10:00 - 10:30 of me studying international relations was actually working for the Kenyan president Ur kyata during the Paris peace Forum that was insane and I still think it was insane I was so stressed about it but this experience have completely prepared me for working in diplomatic environments and for learning how to behave among really high level people presidents ministers ambassadors because I started being accustomed to being with people on such high level and
• 10:30 - 11:00 working for them working with them and that allowed me to develop emotional intelligence that is crucial when working in international organizations which was my personal goal when studying international relations so so that was definitely a highlight of my education related to international relations and I would not have been able to have it if not for the University that I was studying at and the degree that I was studying at the time plus of course my knowledge of swah because this is why I
• 11:00 - 11:30 was selected to work with the Kenyon president I have also attended and presented on a lot of conferences with presidents ambassadors ministers and you start getting accustoms to having conversations to talking about policymaking to talking about priorities to understanding how people think and realizing that you're going to be there one day maybe not as a president although who knows but in positions where you do make these policies that change people lives and taking all these
• 11:30 - 12:00 elements into consideration and talking to people is a very important aspect of it now let's talk about the negative aspects of studying international relations from my personal journey and from the universities that I have studied at and the topics and subjects that I have picked I don't think that I have enough numerical education I know that there are some social sciences universities that focus on data analysis or having that numerical background but that was not the case for me and I do
• 12:00 - 12:30 feel that it's a big thing that was missing from my general education and I wish as a part of the program there are more numerical skills that were included in international relations as a field secondly something that is very clear to me now is that there is no consistency over what studying international relations means what do I mean by that both in terms of the universities that you're studying at but also between countries which in fact makes it very difficult to assess what kind of skills
• 12:30 - 13:00 they actually have and I'll give an example again from my own personal journey I come from Poland and I actually studied law here before I moved to study international relations because I thought I wanted to be an international lawyer but then I realized that I don't like the way that I was studying and I wanted to change it and why I didn't like studying in Poland was because I was still learning as if I was in primary school learning books by heart and needing to throw in facts and having a lot of knowledge that was St in my brain which at this stage of my
• 13:00 - 13:30 development I thought it was unnecessary I didn't like the way that the educational system in particular for law was developed however in the UK pretty much the only way that you're being assessed is through writing you very rarely have exams and even your exams are actually essays on the other hand when I moved to France the focus one on giving presentations and writing yes but not not academic papers it was more
• 13:30 - 14:00 related to writing a policy briefing or policy recommendations it was not as academic as my University education in the UK was because I have been working many years postgraduation I see that from the point of view of a recruiter you're never really sure what that person who studies international relations especially if there is no specialization attached to international relations can do so studying a can mean many different things and I don't like that there is no
• 14:00 - 14:30 consistency across University another thing that I wanted to mention is that there is a very clear hierarchy in where it is worth to study international relations to be honest me studying at SAS was not the most smart decision ever because I didn't know at the time that s does not have so much value in terms of the quality of Education people who get into the careers that I wanted to get to in International organizations that was
• 14:30 - 15:00 my personal goal graduate from lsse or King's College UCL from sanspa from Harvard Oxford Cambridge and even though I managed to get in and I managed to have sanspa as a part of my degree for my Master's Degree I didn't know that where you study matters a lot more than I wanted to admit to myself knowing that would I have changed what and where I studied honestly no because my education
• 15:00 - 15:30 at sawas was literally the best thing that has ever happened to me I think it was the most transformative moment of my career and I literally have Shivers talking about it because of how much it meant for me and how it shaped my career so no I wouldn't have had but maybe at that time without knowing what I would have been missing I would have made a different career chose to study at King's College or UCL while at the time especially after the experience that I
• 15:30 - 16:00 had of studying law and not loving it I really wanted to go with the voice of my heart and something that my soul really desired I think I did pick well and I did make the most out of the education and specialization another negative comment is that you do not have a straightforward career after studying international relations if you think about it when you study economy you can become an economist if you study history you can become a history story on but if
• 16:00 - 16:30 you study international relations there is a thousand different jobs that you could be doing it could be a policy analyst a program manager you can do so much and I don't think we're necessarily prepared for the different types of jobs that we can do and we are not taught the skills that are necessary for these particular jobs I think would have been better to align their degrees and knowledge the skills that you're gaining with the actual job market because I don't think international relations as degrees do that well at all my overall
• 16:30 - 17:00 assessment about this experience is that I absolutely loved every second of it I think that it matched very well with my personality and it exposed me to so many different ideas knowledge new habits new people everything that was just fantastic at the same time I honestly don't think that studying international relations is enough for a very satisfying career as I have mentioned at the very beginning my education was not
• 17:00 - 17:30 very traditional in terms of international relations because from the beginning I specialized on Africa and this is also how I managed to get my positions in international organizations because I worked at the EU delegation to Kenya so there was my connection to Kenya and speaking Swahili and my connection to the region I also worked at unodc in southern Africa so again my connection with Africa came into play and then I work as a policy analyst specializing on crisis and fragility at
• 17:30 - 18:00 the oecd which was also not only a result of my education on International Security but also all of the Practical experiences that I have had from Africa as a region so if I was to give you advice is to try to find a specialization within international relations because it will be very difficult for you to get a job with just an international relations degree with no specialization at all let's talk about the cost of my education and
• 18:00 - 18:30 honestly it was the first time that I have looked at these numbers as a total number and this has been very expensive six years when I look back at it so I'm going to be giving numbers from that time that I was studying which was again for saas from 201 and then at sanspo from 2018 at saas I spent four years and each year in London was 9,000 and then a year abroad was around1 that does not include any living expenses or travel expenses so this is
• 18:30 - 19:00 just tuition fees so in total my tuition fees for sawas were around £29,000 for which I did take a UK government loan plus the living expenses in London for the living expenses I actually worked all throughout my education so I wasn't taking a loan for that and also I didn't have Financial supports for my parents forgot this time I was working as a nanny I was working as a teaching assistant having a lot of different jobs basically to pay for living in London I had zero support from
• 19:00 - 19:30 my University because again so us is pretty bad in terms of scholarships and supporting their students so my living expenses both in London and then in Paris were covered by my own work while studying full-time then my education at sanspa that's a little bit of a different conversation because I did get a scholarship when I was studying at sanspa so I actually paid zero money for that I have counted that it was € 33,000 for two years of my time at C so this is
• 19:30 - 20:00 what the education was worth at the time now one year at CP cost 23,000 which is insane honestly and again I did pay for my living expenses based on my own work and I also got a very small scholarship so I didn't need to work as much as I did when I was in London I have struggled with identifying how much money my year Brad study trip winter schools conferences so including flights accommodations Foods tickets things like
• 20:00 - 20:30 this and I was always very frugal with my traveling expenses but still if I think about those six years I think it was around €10,000 and those were the expenses that I have paid by whacking then there is another category of expenses that I also wanted to add because I have been very good from the very beginning in reinvesting in my skills so for example if I had extra50 or 50 pounds I would reinvest it into
• 20:30 - 21:00 let's say private classes with learning French so in terms of my language courses and overall skills development for got that six years apart from the University tuition fees I probably spend around 2 to 3,000 so in total my expenses for the past six years for my education and please bear in mind that I come from a country where education is free in Poland you do not pay a single Z for
• 21:00 - 21:30 where you're studying for the six years spent abroad in London Paris Nairobi and zanah I spent a total of [Music] 72,000 that's pretty insane thank goodness I was working throughout these years I probably covered half of these expensive more actually so the only loans that I took were for my education at SS and the rest of the educational experiences I have paid by either having
• 21:30 - 22:00 scholarships or by working did it get me a job that I wanted yes I have dreamt of working in international organizations that why I started my education at s and that's also why I started a very particular specialization because I thought that being able to specialize on a particular region with a particular language is going to help me with being a bit more distinct from other candidates applying for jobs in
• 22:00 - 22:30 international organizations and I am very very very glad after all the money that I have spent on my education to say that it has worked and I did manage to work at the EU delegation to Kenya then I was working at the UN office on drugs and crime in southern Africa and then I got a job at the OCD in Paris if you're interested in working in international organizations I have developed an online course for iOS and NOS for people who are either at the big beginning of their career or people who want to transition
• 22:30 - 23:00 into International organizations and I teach you how to strategically plan for you entering International organizations or NOS in five different sessions I'm going to link the program down below if you're interested and checking it out overall I think studying international relations sparked a lot of curiosity in me and that Curiosity led me to learn a lot it also build my confidence because I'm constantly exposed to situation that
• 23:00 - 23:30 I have never been exposed to and I adapt so actually having those ad adaptability skills have been something really crucial in my personal and professional development and learning through people that I have been studying with has also been a really big positive element for me throughout this experience I am really interested to know if you're considering studying international relations and if so at ttch universities or if you have also studied international relations and did some
• 23:30 - 24:00 kind of specialization please let me know in the comment down below I would love to have a conversation about it that's it for this video thank you very much for watching and I'll see you in the next one bye