Five Skills You Must Master to Work in International Relations

Improve your language proficiency and study other cultures.

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

International relations (IR) is a tough field to get into. In fact, it is considered an “elitist” field by some, as most IR jobs are based in large, cosmopolitan cities. Organizations frequently recruit employees from universities with the world’s top international affairs programs, like Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University.

However, you don’t need a fancy degree to work in this space. I graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s from American University’s School of International Studies, one of the world’s highest-ranked IR professional schools. Yet, I couldn’t get an IR-related job directly after graduation, while some of my peers did. I started wondering what differentiated their skill sets from mine.

And then it hit me…I had developed a skill set that was oriented more toward academic writing. My peers had more practical experience than I. I have been working for the last few years, into my grad school experience, to strengthen these valuable, practical skills.

Here are the skills I have learned that all international relations professionals need to succeed:

1. Fluency in a major, modern language