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[Chris]

Hi,
How does one go about looking into finding work abroad as an administrator?  I did my study abroad in Vienna Austria and would love to work in Austria, Italy, Germany, or Swiss.  How does one go about finding this kind of work?  What kind of education is required?  Is an MBA good enough?  MA? or PhD?  What kind of pay can be expected if you can find a job?  How fluent do you have to be in the language?  Are there any websites that are geared towards study abroad or other types of work for americans abroad?  whew... Thank you...

[European in the UK]

I've only met one American who worked in university administration in the Netherlands, but she did this in order to support her PhD. There might also have been some foreigners working in the administrative sections for MA programmes for foreign students. I would say that even in a very internationalised country like the Netherlands, you would have to speak the language for meetings and dealing with other sections of the administration. Another issue is that it's hard for Americans to get a work permit in most European countries, unless your employer can proof that you are the only person who can do the job, etc.

[%sig%]

[pendant]

Chris, If I were "Swiss", I wouldn't hire you to work in "Switzerland". So use the proper terms. It is not Swiss, it is Switzerland!

[anon]

US study-abroad programs might be a place to start looking. Some of them (mostly schools or consortia that handle arrangements for a number of schools) have one or two administrators permanently on-site abroad, or perhaps one administrator and someone like a counselor to handle student problems and help students negotiate the local health and mental-health services when necessary. Now I'll admit that all of the people I know who have held these posts have been the American spouses of local residents, but if you located some major study-abroad centers and found their US home base, you might be able to start getting more information. I can't really imagine any university in a country where the language of instruction is not English hiring anyone in an administrative post who was not fluent in the local language. (Do you know of any administrators at US schools, except perhaps a rare IT person, who is not fluent in written and spoken English?)

[pendant or pedant]

give me a break...

[Mimi]

Dear Chris,

In response to your question about working in administration in Western Europe, the short answer is that it is difficult to get a job abroad due to the work visa issue, although not impossible.

You did not really state what type of role in administration you are interested in pursuing? For an academic position, you might need your PhD in that area (as well as a reasonable understanding of the language). If you are interested in pursuing a career in student affairs administration, you should minimally possess a degree in counseling, higher education (or related) and have work experience that will allow the hiring institution to validate why they would give you work visa over other applicants.

It is not incredibly easy to get a job abroad for a study abroad program (since these jobs are hot commodities). I personally think that the best way to do this is to first work in the selected institution's Study Abroad Office, network and make connections, and from there find out about positions abroad. I recommend you also attend/get involved in U.S. organizations such as NAFSA: http://www.nafsa.org/

You can also consider the prospect of pursuing a graduate degree in the country of your choice, as this would allow you to make connections for future positions and gain fluency in the language; but you would most likely to do this at your own expense.

Don't be discouraged!! It may not be easy, but I've seen people succeed. Best of luck to you! :-D

[Chris]

Do european institutions have similar degrees to american in education? (higher ed admin etc.)

[Been there done that]

I worked in two universities in Scotland, once in registry and once in student welfare. Heard my accent and moved me directly to the American Federal Loans section....both times.  It seems they thought that as I was American-surely I would love to do the American loans! Not. One job was cross-over with the foreign exchange office...much better. To be honost, I heard of both jobs through coworkers so I could not even begin to tell you where to look. I will tell you there are jobs out there. I had to go to training provided by the US government for loan applications. At my training session, there were recruitment and admissions advisors, foreign exchange and loan officers from all over Europe (mostly Americans).

I might suggest checking with colleges and universities here who have affiliated schools in Europe. I might also check American Universities, such as the American University in Rome.

Hope that helps.