Ready to snag a job in international social work? As a social worker and Director of NGOabroad, Ann McLaughlin helps people get into international both paid and voluntary humanitarian work. The comments she made in a recent article in The New Social Worker pertain to humanitarian, not corporate, work in Asia, Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Pacific, and Eastern Europe.
Lots of people are interested in getting paid work in this area. Let' start by defining the challenge and then address the steps to deal with that challenge.
The Challenge
There is a lot of competition for paid international humanitarian jobs. In fact, there is a huge bottleneck getting into paid international humanitarian work. The majority of the grassroots humanitarian organizations in Asia, Africa, and South America are run on the commitment of their members.
They do not have money to host volunteers or pay expatriates in many cases. In countries with 20-40% unemployment, the grassroots jobs rightfully belong to the people from those countries.
The niche for expatriates is with the international NGOs! Highly qualified candidates from all over the world apply for the jobs working with international NGOs. If you thought the competition was fierce when you applied for a job in your town, wait till you try competing on a global level. There are far more people applying for only a few positions.
However, don’t let that stop you!! Just know that it takes a lot to get your foot in the door.
So what does it take to get paid international social work? You´ll need:
- years of domestic social work experience
- international experience
- knowledge of the culture that you will work in
- attitude: humility, resourcefulness (can hit the deck flying)
- determination, tenacity for the search itself
- language is very helpful but often in-country colleagues translate
Okay, so international experience is a must. If you look at most international job announcements, they specify how much international work experience is required for that position. They may say things like “five years’ experience in the Great Lakes necessary” (and they´ll probably be referring to the Great Lakes of Lake Kivu, Tanganyika, Victoria, and Nyasa, not Lake Michigan!) The Great Lakes is the tumultuous region that encompasses Rwanda, Burundi, and the Congo. There are milder places to begin to get your first international experience, but those are some good examples of destinations you might consider.
Volunteering is a great way to get international experience, of course. International volunteering that gives you relevant experience is a great way to build your foundation for international work.
You usually need to have worked in 2-3 posts as a volunteers to build a good foundation of experience. International experience it is essential, and it´s complex. You can’t just transplant your skills into another culture—you have to learn about that culture.
Employers are looking for people who “know the ropes” and understand how international work is different from work they would do locally. Because most international humanitarian work is funded by projects, you must be able to “hit the ground running” and be ready to work hard.
Cultural experience helps immensely: people who have cultural roots in the country where they wish to work are at a distinct advantage: they likely know the language, beliefs, and interaction patterns, so they know how to connect and get things done in that culture.
Class experience is also valuable. If you are going to work in a poor country, then studying poverty, hardship, and despair helps you “get” it. The biggest step that most North Americans and Europeans can make is learning about the class divide. One eighth of the world population consumes seven eighths of the world resources, leaving only one eighth of the resources for the rest. We live in a world of Have-Lots and Have-Nots.
It´s important to have lots of experience and something valuable to contribute. You can certainly get started with that in your own country, too. It´s much more of a challenge to learn professional skills in another country where you have to cope with cultural differences and snafus.
By bringing plenty of skills and savvy, you don’t end up being a drain on the organization, you contribute to it. Many international positions do not require you to carry out a task, they require you to teach others how to do that task. In the terms used in international work, you partner as equals in order to build capacity.
Many people think that international social work means that you do the same tasks that you might do in your home country, transplanting them into the region you´re working in. This is not true. The truth is that people are very capable all over the world. They can do things for themselves, and they may interpret your intentions as condescending.
Your job will often be to mentor. This is where it helps to have experience, especially supervisory experience. You will have to know your subject so well that you can see where the snags are for them, or how to apply a new innovation or approach into a very different cultural or religious context. This is where it gets tricky. You need resourcefulness and the ability to improvise.
To partner as equals, you need a tremendous amount of humility. To be honest, Americans often flunk this test. They have a reputation for being arrogant out there in the rest of the world.
Many Americans come in thinking that they are hot stuff. But capacity building is recognizing and building the skills of your team rather than show-boating what you can do. Canadians often come in much more gently and accomplish far more for this reason.
Study the cultures and countries that interest you, ascertain their needs and try to work out where you might fit in and be able to help. This will help not only when you are there, but when you approach people about paid or voluntary work.
Richard Bolles’ job strategy in What Color Is Your Parachute? Was to determine the unmet needs in an organization. If you can meet the unmet needs, you are so much more likely to be hired. Intuit what vexes, baffles, bewilders, and plagues them.
Consider the culture at large. For example, in countries that have no budget for health and education, there are few social services to meet human needs. Therefore, there are few jobs but lots of needs to fulfill. There may be lots of room to start programs in these countries.
Another strategy is to find burgeoning grassroots organizations. Social work has a role to play at all levels of a nation's social service infrastructure. Paid jobs in well-established organizations are available to those with the necessary qualifications, but those may not be the real plums. The most exciting jobs are often those on the cutting edge: assisting with the growth of the grassroots citizens organizations (often in a volunteer role, initally).
In poor countries, there is very usually little money for social services, but social services may be growing nonetheless. In the last 10 years, there has been an explosion of organizations started by citizens. The growth of infrastructure is from the ground up, not the top down, so you may like to take advantage of that.
So, what specific skills will you need? In the new grassroots organizations, community organization skills are incredibly valuable for organizational and program development.
Grant writing and fundraising skills are in demand. In paid positions, managerial skills are often required. You may wear the hats of both director and service provider, for example.
It may surprise you, but the clinical skills that you have acquired in North America may or may not be applicable! Psychotherapy is a very foreign notion in most of the world and counseling is often a luxury.
Your people skills, broadly speaking, will be treasured everywhere. Social work is one of the most important professions in international work because of the emphasis on poverty.
Getting Your Foot in the Door
First, identify prospective organizations and contact people. This is where much of the preparatory work happens. You could spend years researching possibilities, but getting in touch is the key.
Next, write a culturally-sensitive, compelling cover letter and résumé. In the industrial world, you impress people with your qualifications. But when writing to South America, Africa, Asia or Central Asia it is offensive to receive a letter with the sort of boasting tone that prevails in North America. You are going to help. Be humble.
During this process, outline how your skills will help meet their needs. For voluntary work, explain that you can help them set up their domestic violence program or a livelihoods program in a refugee camp. Suggest how you can help teach how a media campaign changes attitudes toward “gender based violence” or how you will work with the slum dwellers on advocacy programs.
Steer clear of the crowd—target organizations that no one else has heard of.
And then hang tough, keep at it, g into an international job search knowing it is a marathon. Take breaks along the way, pace yourself, persist. In the course of searching, you´ll learn a lot about how international work is “wired”, and that will help you eventually succeed.
Working in this field is likely to be one of the highlights of your life. The field is quickly changing as NGOs fill a niche that many governments have neglected. The world needs people contributing their skills to address humanity' problems, the needs are clearly there. And it is just a matter of finding your niche, which involves research! Good luck. And if you need any help with your admissions or work-related documents, let us know!
An old wise man and creative writer, for as many applicants as I can, I draft a model first paragraph for your Statement free of charge to promote my service. 
