International Relations career workshop

Dr. Thomas Dolan held an International Relations career workshop for political science students and other UCF students interested in jobs in the international arena last month.

You can watch videos from the workshop here.

The workshop focused on helping undergraduate students—particularly sophomores and juniors—plan how to use their time at UCF to best prepare themselves for those careers. In his presentation, Dr. Dolan focused first on the kinds of career paths available in international relations, ranging from government and international organizations to academia and the private sector. While many students are aware of government jobs in international relations, fewer are aware of private sector opportunities like political risk analysis, government relations positions in business, and the defense contracting industry.

Dr. Dolan then addressed how students might plan to seize all of the opportunities they have while at UCF by selecting courses in the major focused on their career interest, by improving their writing skills, and by adding to their skills by taking mathematics, economics, and language courses.

Students were also encouraged to enrich their education through activities such as undergraduate research and internships. Additional presenters included Ambassador Harriet Elam-Thomas (Office of Global Perspectives), Dr. Roger Handberg (Political Science internship coordinator), Dr. Angel Cardec and Dede Wilson-Mosley (Office of International Studies), Nicole Gelfert (Office of Prestigious Awards, Burnett Honors College), and David Jenks (Career Services). Dr. Dolan closed the presentation with advice about when and how to pursue graduate work. All presenters were available for questions at the end of the workshop.