MA/PhD Politics

cocaholic

I'm currently in 4th year considering my options (I'm an humanities, so don't have a defined career path suffice to say). I'm considering a Masters in the area of political science particularly IR but would also consider politics in general and public policy orientated ones and then potentially a PhD after. The colleges I have been looking at are UL, UCD, QUB, UCC. Ideally, I would like a career along the lines of government/political advisory/INGO's etcetera or maybe academia. Any advice?

Cannibal Ox

Don't do a masters. Spend one or two years getting experience through voluntary work and internships in Ireland and abroad. Then do a masters in a specific area that you're interested in and have some kind of experience in.

Working for a regional or global organisation is not an easy job to get or an easy career to stay in (particularly in development). You'll be competing with people from all over the world with good degrees from good universities, many of whom will have voluntary or intern experience of working for major international organisations. You will mostly like find yourself in a career that requires relocation, language skills, low levels of pay as well as potentially challenging environments.

If you go into these kinds of fields without a good plan of what you're going to do and why you want to do it you'll be lucky to get far. Some people do but if you approach it with an idea of what you need to do you will make life a hell of a lot easier for yourself.

EDIT: Re-reading that, it makes it sound like they're crap fields to work. They aren't, but it can be hard work and financially challenging in the initial phases.

EDIT 2:
Links for websites with jobs:
Reliefweb - international and regional organisations in development
Eurobrussels - for EU, someone else might be able to give you a better site
Activelink - Irish NGO jobs
Have a look at the job sections and the intern and entry level jobs. You'll get a decent idea of what kinds of people they look for and how you can fit the job specs.

gutenberg

I would second Cannibal Ox in trying to get some experience in these fields first, it seems so crucial.

I would also advise looking at study in the UK if you're serious about policy/development as a possible career. All my political science friends, without exception, who are interested in going into these areas have left to study in the UK: the LSE, Oxford, SOAS, Sussex (for development). Just fyi.