Post: #1

If you guys could recommend me a list of college degrees that are good for working abroad, what would they be?

This whole college thing has me on the low, as I can't quite decide what I want to do.

At 20 years old, I really can't see anything else to do, other than perhaps take up the family tradition of running a supermarket or something.

Truth be told, I'd love to snag a degree that'd enable me to do lots of traveling. I was thinking of a Nursing degree, but are nursing degrees from the USA taken elsewhere?

Any life tips you could give to a kid, I'd appreciate it!

Happy new years to all of you.

Post: #2

Engineering. Especially petroleum and chemical

Post: #3

Only a tiny handful of universities are known universally: Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, MIT, Yale, Princeton. Maybe one or two more but that's about it.

Apart from those, it makes no difference, from an international perspective, whether you have a degree from the University of X or from Community College Y (unless you're seeking a position in a major international corporation - in which case, a top 100 or top 200 world university on the resume might be a deal-breaker, but otherwise it's irrelevant). And unless a particular degree subject is required, usually anything goes - within reason, of course.

Post: #4

It all depends on you & what you like. After all you dont want to go into a career for the next 40-50 years that you hate. That being said here are my recommendations. #1. Anything technology related such as IT or some type of Engineer. Technology these days are where it's at and it's constantly evolving & becoming more advanced so the demand for this field isnt going down any time soon. If you're lucky you could even snag a job that lets you work mainly from your home. #2. Business and/or Finance degree. For these you may need to work your way up the corporate ladder a bit before you land a title that allows you to travel. An example would be a Financial Advisor(FA). I personally know many & it took them a while to build up their client list here before they started thinking about traveling to pursue international clients. You start off as a PMD(trainee) & get clients. After passing the Series 7 & Series 63/66 tests you become an FA. Depending on where you work you can take up to 6-7 vacations a year.

Post: #5

(01-01-2013 04:55 PM)BIGINJAPAN Wrote:  Engineering. Especially petroleum and chemical

Resources are global and so is the money that chases them!

I have friends whom either where on the technical side of resource or in the trenches, of buddies whom did the investment arm of it for capital funds and such and all have been sent abroad for work for whatever reason.

Post: #6

Engineering is a good one. Computer science is in high demand.

For warning, nursing is a solid career however only about 5-7% of nurses are male and there is definitely still a stigma with a guy being a nurse. Its a shame. Anyway if you don't care about the occasional weird look then go for it.

Post: #7

If you can program, you can work from home and find jobs pretty easy. But it takes patience and analytical mind.

Post: #8

what do you guys think about doctors?

Post: #9

if you want to live abroad study a foreign language and major in teaching english. this will be the best access to foreign tail

Post: #10

(01-01-2013 11:42 PM)the chef Wrote:  what do you guys think about doctors?

In the English speaking world, almost every country is slamming the doors shut against foreign doctors. The countries with the worst doctor shortages especially. The medical regulatory authorities are generally made up of doctors, and they can manipulate supply and demand - in the presence of a doctor shortage but with a weak economy, there are barriers put up to maintain the doctor shortage in the face of rising demand, which keeps doctor salaries up. The incentives to keep doctors out are paradoxically greater in a country with a shortage of doctors. It's still possible to break into a foreign job market but the amount of barriers you have to jump over make the process expensive and exhausting. The people I know of who most easily entered a foreign medical service were the guys who hustled and networked and were able to arrange special exemption.

Furthermore, medical skills are not truly portable. Every community has its own disease profile and relationships with their healthcare providers, and part of being a doctor is not just being familiar with the diseases in your community but having good relationships with the various specialists and health care providers that you will need to pull in to provide healthcare for your patient. Quite often in medicine it's not what you know but who you know.

Lastly, unless you've hustled special exemption, countries will attempt to dump you in rural areas where you are not competition for the local docs. You are tied down to a shithole.

To be truly international as a doctor, you would need to develop skills that do not need to go through licencing procedures. Examples would be: international evacuation medicine (international SOS is the company you'd target), pharmaceutical medical advisor (I met someone working for Novartis in this capacity, spends most of her time flying around the world), academic, researcher (this requires networking with a sponser at your target institution).

In my opinion, the US medical degree takes too long and is too expensive (4 years undergrad + 4 years postgrad + internship + residency; compared to my medical degree which was 6 years undergrad + 2 years intership + 1 year national service to become a generalist doc). You can't enjoy world travel if you are in debt, and believe me, watching other people graduate and earning money long before makes you feel like an idiot. Unless you strike a sweet speciality (which will often involve you working like a slave tied down to your practice) the money will not be great (and if the money is great, chances are the lifestyle will be awful).

Doing well in terms of lifestyle and money on a medical degree requires far more careerhacking than its worth. There are easier ways to be successful.

Post: #11

The route to being a doctor sucks. If you're looking stateside you might want to consider becoming a Physician's Assistant. It's a 4 year undergrad in just about anything as long as you take all the prerequisite classes and a 2-2.5 year masters program after that. Starting salary is typically around 70k and only goes up from there. You work under a doctors indirect supervision (the same way paramedics work under a doctors supervision), can write scripts, and with the right experience can do just about anything a doctor can. No residency. No decade worth of debt. You generally have to do a bunch of month long clinical rotations that are included in the 2.5 years, so no time wasted on that. It's a growing field, but at the moment it is super competitive.

Post: #12

I'm about 6 months away from graduation and I am coming to the realisation that a degree is little more than a piece of paper that says you can hand in papers on time and pass a few tests. I did an internship at IBM over the summer and one of my higher ups who is a family friend basically said a your degree or your GPA isn't the most important thing. Its just a box that is useful to be able to tick if you want to be a white collar worker. Being sociable, well spoken, learning languages, networking, and being able to work in a group are the skills that you should hold on to and are valued by employers much more than every tom, dick, and harry that has a BA in Business Management from xyz university.

Post: #13

Pick a region and become fluent in the language they speak there. That will be THE number one most important thing you could do.
...I'd also avoid anything to do with medicine, as most countries have their own certifications/standards/procedures and you'll most likely have to start from scratch once you got to wherever you're going. I dated a Colombian physician for a long time and one of the big reasons we didn't get hitched is because she had dedicated so much time to her profession and if she moved to the States she would have had to do everything all over again. And she would have had to learn English--which echoes my first point--learn a foreign language.

Post: #14

Engineering would be my pick.
I would stick with the main engineerings: mechanical, chemical, electrical, civil.

I've finished Biomedical Engineering, and I'm having a bit of trouble finding a job. It will be easier to do one of the main engineerings, and then specialize in something else than the opposite.

Also, computer science/engineering is a very good bet. You can start your own business, or decrease associated costs with yours.

Post: #15

Well since you're in the US, and if you studied nursing there, your degree/training would be portable to pretty much anywhere. It's the other way around that is the problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GzBKoCK3Ik

Post: #16

Another route you can go if you are mathematically inclined and don't want to go to school and rack up a pile of debt is CFA. If you can pull that off you can work anywhere in the world that has banks. Which every country does. Or work for brokerages, pension funds, mutual funds or even governments.

Post: #17

(01-02-2013 03:40 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  

(01-01-2013 11:42 PM)the chef Wrote:  what do you guys think about doctors?

In the English speaking world, almost every country is slamming the doors shut against foreign doctors. The countries with the worst doctor shortages especially. The medical regulatory authorities are generally made up of doctors, and they can manipulate supply and demand - in the presence of a doctor shortage but with a weak economy, there are barriers put up to maintain the doctor shortage in the face of rising demand, which keeps doctor salaries up. The incentives to keep doctors out are paradoxically greater in a country with a shortage of doctors. It's still possible to break into a foreign job market but the amount of barriers you have to jump over make the process expensive and exhausting. The people I know of who most easily entered a foreign medical service were the guys who hustled and networked and were able to arrange special exemption.

Furthermore, medical skills are not truly portable. Every community has its own disease profile and relationships with their healthcare providers, and part of being a doctor is not just being familiar with the diseases in your community but having good relationships with the various specialists and health care providers that you will need to pull in to provide healthcare for your patient. Quite often in medicine it's not what you know but who you know.

Lastly, unless you've hustled special exemption, countries will attempt to dump you in rural areas where you are not competition for the local docs. You are tied down to a shithole.

To be truly international as a doctor, you would need to develop skills that do not need to go through licencing procedures. Examples would be: international evacuation medicine (international SOS is the company you'd target), pharmaceutical medical advisor (I met someone working for Novartis in this capacity, spends most of her time flying around the world), academic, researcher (this requires networking with a sponser at your target institution).

In my opinion, the US medical degree takes too long and is too expensive (4 years undergrad + 4 years postgrad + internship + residency; compared to my medical degree which was 6 years undergrad + 2 years intership + 1 year national service to become a generalist doc). You can't enjoy world travel if you are in debt, and believe me, watching other people graduate and earning money long before makes you feel like an idiot. Unless you strike a sweet speciality (which will often involve you working like a slave tied down to your practice) the money will not be great (and if the money is great, chances are the lifestyle will be awful).

Doing well in terms of lifestyle and money on a medical degree requires far more careerhacking than its worth. There are easier ways to be successful.

shit. i'm currently in med school now (have 2 years left before i hopefully get a residency for internal med... then off to subspecialize in who knows what...) and am trying to weigh my options here. i'm really passionate about medicine and science but i'm starting to wonder how often i can experience "playtime" once i get into the working world. the more i shadow physicians during rounds all the doctors seem so fucking lame and dry... like where the fuck are the bitchin rockstar MD's? does such a thing exist?

either way i can't see myself venturing off into any other field. anything that doesn't involve science doesn't excite me.

Post: #18

Another good route for the mathematically inclined is to become an actuary. Those guys make bank and have pretty low stress jobs for the most part. Also a portable skill.

Post: #19

(01-02-2013 03:03 PM)the chef Wrote:  

(01-02-2013 03:40 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  

(01-01-2013 11:42 PM)the chef Wrote:  what do you guys think about doctors?

In the English speaking world, almost every country is slamming the doors shut against foreign doctors. The countries with the worst doctor shortages especially. The medical regulatory authorities are generally made up of doctors, and they can manipulate supply and demand - in the presence of a doctor shortage but with a weak economy, there are barriers put up to maintain the doctor shortage in the face of rising demand, which keeps doctor salaries up. The incentives to keep doctors out are paradoxically greater in a country with a shortage of doctors. It's still possible to break into a foreign job market but the amount of barriers you have to jump over make the process expensive and exhausting. The people I know of who most easily entered a foreign medical service were the guys who hustled and networked and were able to arrange special exemption.

Furthermore, medical skills are not truly portable. Every community has its own disease profile and relationships with their healthcare providers, and part of being a doctor is not just being familiar with the diseases in your community but having good relationships with the various specialists and health care providers that you will need to pull in to provide healthcare for your patient. Quite often in medicine it's not what you know but who you know.

Lastly, unless you've hustled special exemption, countries will attempt to dump you in rural areas where you are not competition for the local docs. You are tied down to a shithole.

To be truly international as a doctor, you would need to develop skills that do not need to go through licencing procedures. Examples would be: international evacuation medicine (international SOS is the company you'd target), pharmaceutical medical advisor (I met someone working for Novartis in this capacity, spends most of her time flying around the world), academic, researcher (this requires networking with a sponser at your target institution).

In my opinion, the US medical degree takes too long and is too expensive (4 years undergrad + 4 years postgrad + internship + residency; compared to my medical degree which was 6 years undergrad + 2 years intership + 1 year national service to become a generalist doc). You can't enjoy world travel if you are in debt, and believe me, watching other people graduate and earning money long before makes you feel like an idiot. Unless you strike a sweet speciality (which will often involve you working like a slave tied down to your practice) the money will not be great (and if the money is great, chances are the lifestyle will be awful).

Doing well in terms of lifestyle and money on a medical degree requires far more careerhacking than its worth. There are easier ways to be successful.

shit. i'm currently in med school now (have 2 years left before i hopefully get a residency for internal med... then off to subspecialize in who knows what...) and am trying to weigh my options here. i'm really passionate about medicine and science but i'm starting to wonder how often i can experience "playtime" once i get into the working world. the more i shadow physicians during rounds all the doctors seem so fucking lame and dry... like where the fuck are the bitchin rockstar MD's? does such a thing exist?

either way i can't see myself venturing off into any other field. anything that doesn't involve science doesn't excite me.

Being a doctor sounds great on paper- stable career, saving lives, respect from others. Then there is everything people don't talk about - huge med school debt, absurdly long hours (80-100/wk in residency), ton of paperwork and red tape to deal with.

Physician assistant has less headaches- less years of education, no residency, less debt. You don't have as much freedom and might not get as much respect a doctor gets but in turn you get to actually enjoy life and not be an emotionless empty worker drone.

Post: #20

(01-02-2013 03:03 PM)the chef Wrote:  

(01-02-2013 03:40 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  

(01-01-2013 11:42 PM)the chef Wrote:  what do you guys think about doctors?

In the English speaking world, almost every country is slamming the doors shut against foreign doctors. The countries with the worst doctor shortages especially. The medical regulatory authorities are generally made up of doctors, and they can manipulate supply and demand - in the presence of a doctor shortage but with a weak economy, there are barriers put up to maintain the doctor shortage in the face of rising demand, which keeps doctor salaries up. The incentives to keep doctors out are paradoxically greater in a country with a shortage of doctors. It's still possible to break into a foreign job market but the amount of barriers you have to jump over make the process expensive and exhausting. The people I know of who most easily entered a foreign medical service were the guys who hustled and networked and were able to arrange special exemption.

Furthermore, medical skills are not truly portable. Every community has its own disease profile and relationships with their healthcare providers, and part of being a doctor is not just being familiar with the diseases in your community but having good relationships with the various specialists and health care providers that you will need to pull in to provide healthcare for your patient. Quite often in medicine it's not what you know but who you know.

Lastly, unless you've hustled special exemption, countries will attempt to dump you in rural areas where you are not competition for the local docs. You are tied down to a shithole.

To be truly international as a doctor, you would need to develop skills that do not need to go through licencing procedures. Examples would be: international evacuation medicine (international SOS is the company you'd target), pharmaceutical medical advisor (I met someone working for Novartis in this capacity, spends most of her time flying around the world), academic, researcher (this requires networking with a sponser at your target institution).

In my opinion, the US medical degree takes too long and is too expensive (4 years undergrad + 4 years postgrad + internship + residency; compared to my medical degree which was 6 years undergrad + 2 years intership + 1 year national service to become a generalist doc). You can't enjoy world travel if you are in debt, and believe me, watching other people graduate and earning money long before makes you feel like an idiot. Unless you strike a sweet speciality (which will often involve you working like a slave tied down to your practice) the money will not be great (and if the money is great, chances are the lifestyle will be awful).

Doing well in terms of lifestyle and money on a medical degree requires far more careerhacking than its worth. There are easier ways to be successful.

shit. i'm currently in med school now (have 2 years left before i hopefully get a residency for internal med... then off to subspecialize in who knows what...) and am trying to weigh my options here. i'm really passionate about medicine and science but i'm starting to wonder how often i can experience "playtime" once i get into the working world. the more i shadow physicians during rounds all the doctors seem so fucking lame and dry... like where the fuck are the bitchin rockstar MD's? does such a thing exist?

either way i can't see myself venturing off into any other field. anything that doesn't involve science doesn't excite me.

If you like and are passionate about it, I wouldn't stress.
With a degree from a US med school, you'd be able to work in most places you'd want to. And after you get through your residency, the time commitment is not as bad. That's why you see plenty of doctors who also teach and write, or have Phd's as well... because they have the time and means to do it.

Post: #21

(01-02-2013 03:50 PM)philly22 Wrote:  

(01-02-2013 03:03 PM)the chef Wrote:  

(01-02-2013 03:40 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  

(01-01-2013 11:42 PM)the chef Wrote:  what do you guys think about doctors?

In the English speaking world, almost every country is slamming the doors shut against foreign doctors. The countries with the worst doctor shortages especially. The medical regulatory authorities are generally made up of doctors, and they can manipulate supply and demand - in the presence of a doctor shortage but with a weak economy, there are barriers put up to maintain the doctor shortage in the face of rising demand, which keeps doctor salaries up. The incentives to keep doctors out are paradoxically greater in a country with a shortage of doctors. It's still possible to break into a foreign job market but the amount of barriers you have to jump over make the process expensive and exhausting. The people I know of who most easily entered a foreign medical service were the guys who hustled and networked and were able to arrange special exemption.

Furthermore, medical skills are not truly portable. Every community has its own disease profile and relationships with their healthcare providers, and part of being a doctor is not just being familiar with the diseases in your community but having good relationships with the various specialists and health care providers that you will need to pull in to provide healthcare for your patient. Quite often in medicine it's not what you know but who you know.

Lastly, unless you've hustled special exemption, countries will attempt to dump you in rural areas where you are not competition for the local docs. You are tied down to a shithole.

To be truly international as a doctor, you would need to develop skills that do not need to go through licencing procedures. Examples would be: international evacuation medicine (international SOS is the company you'd target), pharmaceutical medical advisor (I met someone working for Novartis in this capacity, spends most of her time flying around the world), academic, researcher (this requires networking with a sponser at your target institution).

In my opinion, the US medical degree takes too long and is too expensive (4 years undergrad + 4 years postgrad + internship + residency; compared to my medical degree which was 6 years undergrad + 2 years intership + 1 year national service to become a generalist doc). You can't enjoy world travel if you are in debt, and believe me, watching other people graduate and earning money long before makes you feel like an idiot. Unless you strike a sweet speciality (which will often involve you working like a slave tied down to your practice) the money will not be great (and if the money is great, chances are the lifestyle will be awful).

Doing well in terms of lifestyle and money on a medical degree requires far more careerhacking than its worth. There are easier ways to be successful.

shit. i'm currently in med school now (have 2 years left before i hopefully get a residency for internal med... then off to subspecialize in who knows what...) and am trying to weigh my options here. i'm really passionate about medicine and science but i'm starting to wonder how often i can experience "playtime" once i get into the working world. the more i shadow physicians during rounds all the doctors seem so fucking lame and dry... like where the fuck are the bitchin rockstar MD's? does such a thing exist?

either way i can't see myself venturing off into any other field. anything that doesn't involve science doesn't excite me.

Being a doctor sounds great on paper- stable career, saving lives, respect from others. Then there is everything people don't talk about - huge med school debt, absurdly long hours (80-100/wk in residency), ton of paperwork and red tape to deal with.

Physician assistant has less headaches- less years of education, no residency, less debt. You don't have as much freedom and might not get as much respect a doctor gets but in turn you get to actually enjoy life and not be an emotionless empty worker drone.

Those are good points - there are some good alternatives that pay pretty well and only take a few years to complete after college (compared to 10 or so for med school). It depends what you're looking for.

Post: #22

(01-02-2013 03:03 PM)the chef Wrote:  shit. i'm currently in med school now (have 2 years left before i hopefully get a residency for internal med... then off to subspecialize in who knows what...) and am trying to weigh my options here. i'm really passionate about medicine and science but i'm starting to wonder how often i can experience "playtime" once i get into the working world. the more i shadow physicians during rounds all the doctors seem so fucking lame and dry... like where the fuck are the bitchin rockstar MD's? does such a thing exist?

either way i can't see myself venturing off into any other field. anything that doesn't involve science doesn't excite me.

Here are a few options I've discovered (there are probably more but I have yet to discover):

1) The traditional route where you become a slave to the system superspecialist and earn lots of money and have no life.
2) The slacker route where you find a chilled clinical family medicine niche or anaesthesiology niche or virology niche or something like it and have a limited practice. You have control over you life and a stable income and chill lifestyle, but not much money.
3) The part-time gun-for-hire route. Get some super-specialised skills that are in high demand. Choose your hours, work on a contract basis. IMO international medical evacuation is the best option, really long missions that can stretch over days, but you can earn in one mission what some people earn over months. Once the lifestyle becomes too exhausting you can upgrade to the desk jockey version - medical evacuation co-ordinator.
3) Go corporate. Contact pharmaceutical and insurance companies and find out what roles they have for doctors. Become a doctor desk jockey.
4) Go academic. Find vacancies in academic research posts in basic medical sciences, where you won't be competing with people who are specialising eg. physiology, anatomy, histology.

Post: #23

For Healthcare inclined and specifically Doctors who want to have International Playboy Life style, Options are limited.... Either Work hard for 5- 10 years make your money and then go part time , This breed of Players is also looking for what the rest of the forum is looking for

Location and Financial Independence.

Find means to get there, even when you are working a full time Job at a Hospital, look for Investments that can provide you Passive Income. Once you attain that , you can say Fuck you to the conformist life style.

Thomas the Rymer is spot on with his ideas, some more .....

Radiologist: Can read your X-rays/MRI's on your Laptop sitting anywhere in the world

Travelling Physician: Can make good money on short term contracts.

Expert Opinion: In Legal Cases.

Happy Hunting Fellas

Post: #24

Ok guys, I went for broke, took the necessary classes, and got into the first phase of the Nursing program at my local community college.

Wish me luck, everyone. I'm hoping with the right connects, and Associates would be enough to land me a decent nursing job in NYC.

Post: #25

Look into the CRNA nurse graduate degree...
120k+ salary guaranteed.