What can you do with a double major in International Relations and French?

What can one do with an international relations major?

• I'm really interested in international affairs and world politics. I was wondering what are my career opportunities if I pursue a major in international relations? Can this major alone stand or is it essential to double major in something else?

• Answer:

  It's more a question of what you can not do. I have finished an IR degree and am just doing my masters on the defence, development and diplomacy approach to IR. If you decide to go further into education friends pursued law degrees, IR masters, business majors anything you like. Yet in terms of true careers there is a vast range - I won't lie and say the jobs we typically associate with Politics are easy to come by - charity and election/political party jobs are essentially like entering the Hunger Games arena. In some cases 500 people can apply for a basic role in an MPs role or as a charity staff member. Yet it's the skills an IR degree teaches which are transferable, I have just been accepted on to an Accounting graduate scheme in my government (the UK) for my skills of analysis which is what politics is. I then hope to audit charities and supranational organisations (hopefully the UN) and ensure they can get the best from the funds they have :) Yet friends of mine now work in government- we call it the civil service or local government. Others have entered the media (again cut throat but damn fun), consulting is an option available if you can get your internship first. International finance is certainly a realistic goal if you can get on to a couple of Econ majors during your course. Work in quantitative methods or in qualitative content creation - statistics or speech writing - are also available if you are interested and can get on to the correct courses as part of your course. Additionally the armed services are a popular option too :) Basically if you can sell yourself right and plan ahead you can get whether you need to be from an IR degree, as the study of politics is the study of how the world works. I'm so sorry for the cliche! If you got any questions just ask :)