This is my first post on fodors im a teen, i dont know if you get many teens posting on this but here goes. I went to Europe over the summer with about 20 other friends on a trip to Europe with 2 teachers with us. It consisted of France, Spain, and Italy. I was absolutely mesmorized by Europe. Im going to start doing college Ap's very soon and I want to major in Internation Buisness or International Relations/affairs or anything with diplomacy. I dont if i want to apply to an American University in Europe i.e American University of Paris, John Cabot University, Saint Louis University Madrid Campus.My family isnt totally behind me on this because they say its a really unrealistic job career because the chances of my working in an embassy in Europe is slim.I could stay in the states and major in what i want to major in and do the semester or year abroad. I dont know anyone whos followed this job path, so im posting on here to see if any does do international buisness or realtions and could give me their wisdom/knowledge on the matter. This could include where they went to school and what they do know and where they do it, how hard was it to do this. I am determined to accomplish this and your responses would be greatly appreciated. P.S i will be returning this summer to France, Spain, Italy, and adding Switzerland

Good for you! You have a dream and you're beginning to make career plans. I'm sorry I'm unable to give you any helpful information, but I congratulate you for setting goals to strive for.
Go for it!

Dear MBfr07:

If your goal is to work in an embassy, you'd likely be employed by the U.S. Department of State and have to pass some very rigorous written, oral, and practical exams. A degree in International Relations would be a good start, but it does take quite a few years and a lot of competition to get a real job in diplomacy.

If your goal is just to get a degree in international business from a U.S. university, with perhaps a semester or year abroad, that would open up myriad possibilities for you, depending on what kind of business you want to get involved in. It would certainly help for you to become fluent in another language - so few American students achieve that that you would have an edge, particularly if you mastered Chinese or Arabic or a difficult but widely used language.

It would be helpful to know what else interests you - you can get into international business from a thousand perspectives - hotel management, food/restaurants, the travel industry, translation, finance, law, manufacturing - there's an international component of just about every industry. Or is it only diplomacy that interests you?

Finally, and I mean this will all good wishes and sincerity, the first thing you need to do is take a serious look at your abilities in written expression. Being able to communicate properly in your own language - use it with correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. - is one of the essential building blocks of a higher education. And if you are serious about a career in diplomacy you are going to have to master the ability to form a coherent, concise, logical progression of thought. If you're really about to begin college APs I think you may be in for a bit of a shock. Those classes and exams are very demanding.

Best of luck to you and enjoy your travels next summer.

Generic answer: you can do anything you want to do, be anything you want to be.

More specific answer: there are countless ways to be able to spend a summer, or a semester, or an entire year abroad as part of your college education - - and it can be highly focused on fields of study or specific skills that will get you ahead, in your job goals and dreams. Many have concentrations in International Business or related fields. I know a little about two of them - - Indiana University at Maastricht, and the numerous programs administered by Butler University (also in Indiana), and attended by students from colleges and universities from everywhere.

Slightly more specific anecdotal answer: I am a physician who has had a very unconventional career, including a &quot;detour&quot; for 13 years, founding and running my own company - - we specialized in database management and information services for very large national and international medical meetings. Like you, I had the dream that my involvement in this field would permit me to have a career that was in Europe for frequent and extended periods of time. Short summary of my experience - - it's hard to engage in a service-oriented business and think you can go &quot;conquer&quot; Europe, as a provider of something that &quot;they can't do&quot;. There are just as many of &quot;them&quot; wanting to come succeed in <i>their</i> careers by bringing something unique to the table here on <u>our</u> shores. So, I would say that while you can work in Europe (or travel <i>to</i> Europe lot), working from your US employmemnt in small business or large - - it's quite hard to really succeed. You may do better as an American expatriate living in Europe, working your way up the ladder, as if you <i>are</i> European. Of course, this will be the last thing your parents to hear, as they will perceive it as you want to run away across the globe and never come back. You can sell them on it by the summer/semester/year abroad and maybe even repeat (a second summer, closer to graduation, for example) and have them come see you while you are there. Let them see what you love, let them see you happy, let them see that it's not like you want to live on Mars or someplace. France is WAAYYY closer than Uruguay, Nigeria, India or New Zealand.

More generic advice: master as much of one foreign language as possible before you start college, and dig in, deeply, into your second language as a freshman. One should be a Romance language; the other should not. With a little bit of effort other Romance languages will come relatively easy to you with your first one as a foundation, if you find it fun and worthwhile to try to become familiar with three, four or more languages.

I'm sorry that I cannot answer more directly your questions about pursuing your entire college education overseas, but it sounds like you know some of the places and people to ask. Not saying you shouldn't pursue that approach; not saying that you should - - I just don't know anyone who did it. Those programs should be able to introduce you to alums, both under 30 and over. If you're lucky, the right person would come meet your family and address some questions.

Good luck... although I strongly favor the <i>public</i> sharing of information that that this forum promotes, write me if you can think of more &quot;private&quot; questions you'd like to ask.

Best wishes,

Rex

I feel compelled to repeat what has been written before - you need to get a better handle on what you want to do in the world of international relations and only then begin to figure out the best course to take to get you there. That may well include studying overseas or studying at one of the fine U.S. schools granting IA degrees (e.g., Johns Hopkins, Harvard) and doing postgraduate work overseas.

As StCirq notes, if you choose to represent the U.S. Government overseas, you are going to be walking into a highly competitive environment where you'll be competing against the best and the brightest AND you must successfully complete the Foreign Service exam - no small task in and of itself.

While English has replaced French as the international language, you must be proficient in French and either Arabic, Japanese, or Chinese. Your English usage must be above reproach so I'd suggest that you tackle that first.

This is not merely about living in Europe but making a decent living and ably and professionally representing the U.S. Government. I'm sorry to say that your parents are probably right - as a junior foreign service officer it is far more likely that you'll be stationed in Niger or Burundi than in one of the European capitals. The latter are plum postings for very senior members of the State Department.

First, figure out what you want to do (where is your passion, in diplomacy or finance), map out what route will take you there, and put every effort into it. That's all it takes!

This is not an unrealistic goal as a career. But you do need to keep in mind the caveats. The son of a friend of mind did this. He got a degree in International Relations (Stamford I think)and had to demonstrate fluencey in at least two foreigh languages - so if you don;t pick them up esily it's probably not a good idea.

Also you need to realize that the people at the top are all political appointees - so there is definitely a glass ceiling. Also you will need to spend a significant number of years in less favored countries before you even have a chance at the plum assignments (almost anywhere in europe). The young man I knew had to spend 3 years in Uruguay before having the chance to move up - to Argentina - where he still is after2/3 more years.

If your goal is just to get to europe you'll have a better chance in getting a business degree with additional courses in international relations and a strong language background - and working for a major corporation - which places most staff in the major markets rather than obscure ones.

Do you have interests other than International Relations? I know Americans who work in food marketing, fashion design, hotel marketing, and other aspects of tourism who work in Europe. Mastering at least on European language is necessary.

&lt;&lt; Im going to start doing college Ap's very soon...&gt;&gt;

&lt;&lt;If you're really about to begin college APs I think you may be in for a bit of a shock...&gt;&gt;

I think that Mbfr is using the word &quot;Ap&quot; to mean &quot;applications&quot;, and the reply from StCirq is refeferring to Advanced Placement courses (or their associated exams) in high school. A high school curriculum with AP courses (and success in them) does rev up the likelihood of success in a &quot;brighter&quot; undergraduate college path... hopefully Mbfr has already been taking some of those.

But there are successful people in college, and in life after higher education who never had a single AP course. Getting where you want to go is a five-legged stool - - smarts, educational foundation, opportunities, hard work and persistence. Many make up for lesser strengths in one by adding more to another.

I favor encouraging (with a big tablespoonful of reality) over discouraging.

Hello Mbfr, I certain aplaud you for setting your goals for the future, for seeking out advice etc. You sound like a very mature young person.

I would like to make one gentle comment though, and I did the same with a grandson of mine this past week.

Please note the spelling in your title.
Mbfr, you need to improve either your spelling skills or your typing skills. And I say that after a conversation with a family member who is a teacher that told me that spelling is not that important. It is. No doubt you are a wonderful speller, typist etc. but I would gently suggest that you use those skills whenever you write/type something so that they are second nature to you. I wish you all the best for your future. May all your dreams come true!

&lt;&lt;Hello Mbfr, I certain aplaud you for setting your goals ...&gt;&gt;

I disagree, LoveIt... this is an internet message board. Better to post here and not worry about making the occasional typo, than to not post here at all.

Likewise, better not to take Mbfr to task for spelling errors... and then spell &lt;red&lt;ap&gt;<b>P</b><font color="red">laud</font> incorrectly!

Posting here is not like writing a term paper. Communicating with other adults, experienced in Europe travel, may serve our OP's goals well - - holding back and not sharing ideas, perspectives and experiences for fear of being chastised over typos... is the worse plan of action.

Last of ll, let's stick some of the blame up Fodors' nose, while we're at it. They provide this &quot;Prebiew my reply&quot; fucntion - - but when you use it, you find out that making an edit to the message header is not possible.

For those who are curious... what can you do when you discover an error in the message header once you are previewing? Your only choice is to cut and past the entire body of your post... cancel, and paste it into another new attempt at posting.

Uggghh... looks like I should have used preview, huh?

That mess was supposed to read <font color="red">ap</font><b>P</b><font color="red">laud</font>!

Uh Rex, reread your post &quot;prebiew&quot; typo! I have often said I am a terrible typist. Never typed until I had my first computer. I hired employees to do all of the typing.

Rex, you seem to be on a mission to argue and disagree with people lately. I truly hope that you are not having a serious problem in your life. You do not seem to be a happy person lately.

I merely made a suggest to Mbfr along with congratulations to him regarding his future goal. So many people at his age have no idea what they want to do in the future.

I am sure you will find something wrong with this post of mine. But I truly wish you gentle and happier days in the future.

Rex, the OP's original posting didn't just contain the occasional spelling error/typo. It was fraught with run-on sentences, antecedent problems, missing words, subject-verb disagreements, and just a basic lack of cohesiveness that is necessary to ask a cogent question, whether on a message board on the internet or in a more sophisticated intellectual setting. I'm willing to cut a kid some slack, but one who's asking a serious question about getting into the international diplomacy field ought to know that he needs how to write well just for starters.

I have a wonderful daughter in college now at Berkeley who did pay attention to these kinds of details and benefited greatly from them, as well as a rather ho-hum sophomore son in high school who thinks I'm nuts for harping on these kinds of details, as to him they're not at all important, yet he thinks he's going to become the world's next WunderChef. So it's not as though I'm not thinking about how the finer points of education in high school ultimately affect one's life and career. All I can say is this kid cannot express himself clearly, even though he has high aspirations. And the particular aspirations he has demand that he have the ability to produce superior oral and written skills. That's all. I admit I probably mistook AP to mean the Advanced Placement exams and not college applications - but let's not forget that college applications demand an ESSAY, which requires sophisticated writing skills. When my daughter applied for colleges two years ago, I remember being terrified by the parent essay I had to write, and I write for a living! This kid may be &quot;mesmorized by Europe&quot; but he's got to get a handle on proper English if he wants to get into a decent college and pursue that dream of being in &quot;international business&quot; unless he means selling Starbucks in Paris.

I've made loads of typos in posts recently - mainly because it's my busy season at work and I have no time to preview my work. I'm ashamed of that, as I am something of a perfectionist when it comes to writing, but there you have it. This kid's problem isn't typos - it's that he's gotten the short end of the stick on education in general and doesn't know how to express himself. One can see that he is making a valiant effort to try to do so, but probably his schools have failed him. I wish him all the best, and maybe before he gets out of high school his parents or his teachers can get him the help that he needs to upgrade his basic skills so that he can realize his dreams, which are wonderful ones.

Mbfr07

If your goal is to work in Europe, I would suggest you develop a career as an academic researcher. It is possible to find work in universities in Europe (as two friends of mine have done) on the basis of merit alone, particularly in the sciences. Often, too, academics take sabbaticals at universities in Europe.

On the other hand, International diplomacy requires having the right connections, as someone has already pointed out. And even then, European posts are the 'plum' jobs. You'd likely have more luck finding work with European firms, say pharmaceutical or engineering.

But if you're determined, try to contact an embassy or consulate and see if they have any advice for you.

First of all, I commend you on your desire to dream internationally. This is a good time to figure out what you want to do.

And it really does depend on what you want to do. If you want to go simply to live there and to make ends meet, there are plenty of ways to learn about that. But you sound as though you want to achieve goals that include a long-term challenging career involving international interests. So I will assume that you want a career that is fairly far-reaching.

If so, all the advice above (particularly Rex's longer post) is invaluable. My personal experience seconds his. I actually speak 5 languages - have an MBA in Intl. Management (from the U.S) - and worked for 20 years in international business mostly based in the U.S. but with a lot of travel. I was most recently in international healthcare. Three years ago, I left the international arena (with great sadness) because I have a little child and couldn't sustain 200K+ miles annual travel.

I can tell you, though, that even with my background and experience, I would be hard pressed to find a job in Europe. Being employed anywhere except at the most junior level is about networking and contacts, meaning who you get to know. You must build your reputation in order to become employed abroad, and that is hard to do unless you're local to a country. Also, the countries you mention are quite advanced in terms of skilled labor..arguably more so than here, certainly in some industries. So there is little to gain from hiring expensive Americans -- who rarely speak a second language to boot. It's not unheard of, certainly, but it's not your interest in going abroad that will get you there. You need more. I can see two routes, one which you mention: You either get some education abroad and get recruited that way, or you get your education here, and work for a multinational that can either send you soon at a junior (i.e., cheap) level or that invests in you and you eventually hopefully can go there as an expat. Those are possibilities.

Re: the education route. It is feasible, depending on the field you choose. I have a younger brother who now lives and works in London and has worked in Europe since the beginning of his career. He chose a different route and got there. He went to Cornell U undergraduate and majored in economics. He looked into the diplomatic route and decided it wasn't for him. So then went to a graduate school in Switzerland where he received a doctorate in international economics. On the way, he learned fluent French, Italian, and Spanish. Without at least 2 languages, he wouldn't have been admitted to a graduate program or gotten the job he has.

This is not to discourage you - but to share with you that you have a lot of work to do, both research wise and from a learning perspective. It won't be easy -- it's feasible, but will take a while.

If I were you, I think I would start in an American University - as strong as you can get it - and gain fluency in a second language. And I am talking FLUENT -- meaning almost as good as your English. Unfortunately, in the States, we don't learn fluently in high school, unless it's a bilingual school. If you have one, then great, learn another one! I would then do the junior year abroad to strengthen fluency and start making contacts. Then you can either try to go abroad with a B.A./B.S. or if that doesn't work, you can select an international graduate school that will then allow you to be recruited into international companies abroad. For instance, for an MBA, INSEAD in France or IMD in Switzerland would be great choices. There is a great one in Spain, too. From there, you can almost certainly get a job internationally, through the recruiting networks.

Now for the diplomatic route: I suggest that you look into getting into the best U.S. university that is strong in international relations (e.g., Georgetown has an excellent program.) Remember, when you are hired in this field, it's by the American government - so they will be interested in your American credentials supplemented by your international experience/knowhow. So the more prestigious and rigorous the program here, the better. That could definitely include a stint in a college abroad. But also realize that the European embassy jobs are &quot;plum&quot; jobs - you wouldn't necessarily get to pick the location you wish to start.

Anyhow, sorry this is long, and I do wish you the best. You have plenty of time to make your dreams come true - it will take work and focus, but it's really true, anything is possible with hard work and a vision!

Well said, St.Cirq, and I agree with you. Meanwhile I would suggest that buying a new keyboard with an apostrophe key might be a worthwhile investment as well, Mbfr07.

Meanwhile, I have a niece who was a whizz at languages. After mastering French and German in college, she became totally fluent in Russian. On a group study trip to Russia in her senior year, she was often mistaken as a Russian or as the group leader -- as she had no discernable accent. She was receiving many offers from major businesses branching into Russia (this was about 6 years ago) but chose to get married instead. I'd really attempt to become a MASTER of at least one language if you want to make a good impression in international studies.

This is regarding my original post, first of all I would like to thank you all for taking time and replying in such a short time. I read your comments and I think I am leaning more towards international business and will most likely start here in the states. Regarding language proficiency I already do speak Spanish fluently and my forte is in foreign language. I hope to master my French studies on the collegiate level.
I’ve come to realize international diplomacy requires much more time to actually make something of myself then I am willing to give. I know if I want to do something internationally I will of course have to pursue graduate school, but international relations will need even more additional time. The business between foreign countries has always intrigued me especially the importing and exporting aspect of it. I hope this has given you a better understanding of what my goals are. Thank you for your inquiry.

Do not give up your dreams! - you may need to adapt them slightly but you will fall into the right career eventually. Just think how many people you know who still don't know what they want to do when they grow-up

LoveItaly was very gentle with you and now you have posted here again I personally would suggest that you copy your original post into Word and see how you can improve your spelling/typing or even just your spellcheck.

I think you might be best to try to learn Chinese or Japanese - I worked for Toshiba in the UK who have Japanese classes for their UK employees, I did hear that while it is hard to write it is easy to learn to speak.

Spanish is a good language but you may need to outside Europe to work to get experience.

Best wishes - may you find your niche in the world.

Very good follow up post, Mbfr...

Aim high... it's all within your grasp.

You might consider Georgetown University in Washington, DC. I think they are considered the best in the US for degrees for those who are most interested in foreign service jobs, particularly diplomacy/embassy work. The specific degree is called Foreign Service, and I think they have a school or dept. with that name. They have both bachelor's and master's degrees in Foreign Service. Of course, you have to take the qualifying exam to be considered for foreign service, and I know it is very hard. I know some who've taken it and passed, and even after that, you are eligible for consideration for a job, not guaranteed one, and the competition is high. It is a good school for many other reasons, of course.