-: The best way to get into this kind of work
is to develop a relatively technical set of skills.
A lot of people approach the profession that I'm in
which broadly speaking
is international development by getting a master's degree
in international development or something
like that, which is okay.
Oftentimes those master's programs
do allow you to concentrate on certain things,
whether that's public health
or environmental management or rule of law or other things,
but my path was really focusing first on development
of technical skills, and
then moving into the international development arena.
So, I mean, you really,
I mean, to boil it down,
you have to have some skills to sell.
I mean, clients buy expertise,
in the consulting business,
which is the business I'm in,
and so, you really have to have skills
that clients can use in order to achieve the objectives
of a particular program or activity.
So I always tell people focus
on learning essentially a trade
and then apply that trade in the arena that
you'd like to work in.
Experience in the developing world is absolutely invaluable.
It just gives you a sense of culture,
of social norms, of just the way things work outside
of the US, particularly in poor countries,
and so I always say to people, look for,
maybe not right out of after your undergraduate experience,
but at some point early in your career,
I strongly recommend living
and working overseas for a minimum of a year
and more than a year if you can do it.