When discussing this topic, I’m fond of using a baseball metaphor to say today’s workforce is like a sports team—there is a “free agent” outlook on building a career for many young professionals. Commitment and loyalty seem to extend only until a better offer and salary come along. I’m not judging this practice, only stating a new reality. But, for those reaching mid-career in 2012, it’s likely they have spent quite a bit of their career in just a few long-term roles.

The most important first step to take in managing a successful career transition is a self-assessment to determine the key priorities in one’s personal and professional life. Your self-assessment should enable you to craft a clear and focused message about your new career direction—a message that needs to be conveyed consistently throughout your job search. Whether at professional meetings, in private conversation and informational interviews, in a cover letter or online, you need to inform people why you’re looking, where, and for what type of assignment. It’s essential to craft a search process that is purposeful and that builds upon the success and accomplishments of your career to date.

Finally, in the current economic climate, the search process will very likely take longer than expected; I suggest planning, at a minimum, for a six-month transition period. Careful planning, purposeful self-assessment, and research, together with a focused “pitch” outlining your new career direction, will provide a strong foundation for a successful mid-career transition.

What are your tips for making a smooth career transition?

Read the complete article by Martin Tillman for tips on overcoming obstacles to a smooth transition, identifying your key priorities, and creating a focused “pitch” that outlines your new career direction.

Marty Tillman has been a NAFSA member since 1977 and recent chair of the NAFSA Task Force on Career Development Resources. He has over 30 years of senior management experience in higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations. Tillman is currently the president of Global Career Compass, an international consultancy; formerly, he was associate director of Career Services at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His consulting focuses upon the impact of education abroad on career development. An authority on global workforce issues, he is a frequent NAFSA speaker and regularly writes for the International Educator magazine.

Upon entering the receiving room just off the governor’s office, our group continued to joke and chat with the young staffers who were interning at the office, and I would like to think that we made a positive impression.

As soon as I got back to my office, I drafted thank you e-mails to everyone who helped in getting the proclamation signed and getting us in the door to meet with the Governor. I connected the Governor’s priority of preparing competitive students to the role that international education has in doing just that. I am happy to say that in just a few days, we heard back from two of the three staffers to whom we sent thank you messages.

This experience reminded me about the importance of staffers in any office: that they are the eyes and ears of the politicians or whoever they may be serving. Making meaningful connections with staffers can help to ensure that our cause will continue to be supported.

As I move into the state-wide phase of my Connecting Our World Grassroots Leadership Program project, which focuses on state supported scholarships for study abroad, I am more conscious of fostering these relationships and am looking forward to continuing to build a community of support in our state.

Rebecca Bacon is a NAFSA member, trainee in the Connecting Our World Grassroots Leadership Program, and advocacy subcommittee member of the Georgia Association of International Educators. She coordinates the undergraduate degree-designation program, the International Plan, at Georgia Institute of Technology, which focuses on developing students’ understanding of how their discipline is practiced in an international context and enhancing their ability to function effectively in multicultural environments.

Before crafting a networking strategy, we need to apply a working definition: It’s a process of developing professional contacts—or strategic connections—and building relationships for the purpose of obtaining field or sector-specific career advice and identifying related professional contacts. Are there unique strategies that apply to our field? Every profession has its own norms of behavior and patterns of communication and interaction.

In my 30-plus years as a member of NAFSA, I feel confident in saying that we are a gregarious bunch of professionals, easy to interact with, sensitive to differing interpersonal expectations when communicating across borders and in different languages, and quick to share advice and information with colleagues whom we might be meeting for the first time. Right? Think about your own early regional meetings and how quickly you were able to build collegial relationships with those at other institutions in your region. Think about the ways in which you’ve already created your network during grad school and in other venues to further your education and training in the field.

But apart from the obvious instrumental reasons for being widely connected in our field, what are the implications of growing strategic connections for your professional development and career advancement? I’d suggest these advantageous reasons for being very deliberate as you go about building your professional network:

• Provides access to insider information and informed insights about the field.
• Builds long-term mentoring relationships.
• Provides competitive advantage in the job search process and interviews.
• Results in clearer self-assessment of how a job is or is not aligned with your career aspirations.

Read more about the types of connectivity, how to develop a strategic approach, and the networking competencies that will help you build and sustain a professional network in the international education field.

What tips and strategies have you developed to build your professional network? How will you incorporate the strategies you have learned here?

Marty Tillman has been a NAFSA member since 1977 and recent chair of the NAFSA Task Force on Career Development Resources. He has over 30 years of senior management experience in higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations. Tillman is currently the president of Global Career Compass, an international consultancy; formerly, he was associate director of Career Services at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His consulting focuses upon the impact of education abroad on career development. An authority on global workforce issues, he is a frequent NAFSA speaker and regularly writes for the International Educator magazine.

But sometimes the day-to-day things connect, in unexpected ways, to the big things. For me, it was a light bulb moment. A student I had worked with over the recent years kept hitting snags in dealing with the U.S. immigration system – months-long, complicated, more-than-the-norm snags. It turned out he had one, seemingly intractable problem: he had just one name. The United States requires every foreign national to list a last name in all immigration systems. But this student had no first and last name—just a single name. This caused him problems throughout his stay in the United States. I hated telling this student, “There’s just not much I can do.” It’s a helpless feeling for an advisor committed to helping students navigate through the broken immigration system. So you could say that it was this small but significant issue that encouraged me to attend NAFSA’s Advocacy Day.

NAFSA’s Advocacy Day teaches you the tools you need both nationally and locally to advocate for international students and scholars, study abroad, and other international education policy issues. On my flight to D.C., I thought, “I’m just a blonde, 25 year-old from Georgia—where the political climate for international matters is not very encouraging. There is no way I’ll be taken seriously. I’m just another Elle Woods from the Legally Blonde movie.” My friends, I was wrong. I left my meetings “on the hill” with a new spring in my step. The greatest thing I gained from Advocacy Day was being able to go back to the international student, now a good friend of mine, and tell him, “I told your story in Washington, D.C.”

A few months after I returned from Advocacy Day, I got a call from Boston. A major marketing company had hired my friend with no last name and was sponsoring his H-1B visa. He would hold a position of senior business analyst. I cannot say that I had anything to do with his success except for one thing I did. I went to D.C., I went to Advocacy Day, and I came back with encouraging words – and he kept working toward his dream. He didn’t give up. This might just happen to you too… I’m going back. Hope to see you there. Register here.

Ashley Johnson is a NAFSA member and an international student advisor at the University of Georgia. After attending NAFSA’s 2011 Advocacy Day, her interest in public policy and advocating for the students she serves have become a priority.

On the final day of our Region XI Conference in Manchester, New Hampshire last month, I was at our registration table when one of our team members informed us he had just met Newt Gingrich in the hotel lobby. Curious, I headed down the hallway and found the Gingrich party had set up in one of the rooms we had used for the conference.

I was met at the doorway by his New Hampshire campaign manager. He explained it was a private event but if I wanted to meet Newt and his wife, Callista, I was welcome to come in. He was very gracious as most of the Region XI team members had followed suit and we were all welcomed. I hadn’t planned on advocating but as I was getting my picture taken, I was asked about my conference badge with its many ribbons. I mentioned my work and then spoke about NAFSA and our concerns with visa issues and the importance of study abroad.

After the meet and greet, Newt spoke and then opened the floor to questions, and we were able to ask him his views on immigration and study abroad. He acknowledged that our current visa system is “broke” and needs to be fixed. He feels we need to do a better job of allowing students and entrepreneurs who want to come into the United States the ability to learn and establish businesses. It was a unique opportunity. I don’t think anyone in the room would have imagined the meteoric rise in the polls that Mr. Gingrich would have over the ensuing weeks.

I am not a public policy expert. All I learned, I found at www.connectingourworld.org. The Connecting Our World Web site has all the information needed to keep you informed and inform others. I don’t know if I’ll run into any other candidates this year, but I plan to stay informed just in case.

Vincent C. Schaff is a NAFSA member, chair of NAFSA Region XI, and director of university outreach at Institute for Shipboard Education and Semester At Sea. He blogged about his experience at NAFSA’s 2011 Advocacy Day in the post, “Teaching an Old Dog, New Tricks – Connecting our World through Armchair Advocacy.”

In the four years that I have been involved in the Academy, I have spoken with many supervisors of Academy trainees. These colleagues have consistently commented on the many benefits of Academy participation for their staff member, their office and even their institution. Academy trainees develop the skills and confidence they need to take on additional responsibilities, provide increased leadership, and expand their professional network – all to the benefit of their office and their institution. The many learning opportunities trainees have in the Academy expose trainees to best practices in the field of internationaleducation. Many supervisors have shared with me that their staff member was able to use this information to enhance their work at their institution and to develop new initiatives. Supervisors also report that Academy trainees often demonstrate an increased commitment to the field of international education and an interest in further training and education opportunities.

Please take a minute to think about the new professionals on your staff and in our field. Would they benefit from the Academy? What about your colleagues at other institutions? Do they have staff members who would benefit from the Academy? If so, please encourage them to apply for the Academy. You can find more information about the Academy, including the application, at http://www.nafsa.org/events.sec/academy_main/

Applications are due December 1, 2011.

Krista McCallum Beatty directs international student and faculty services at Ohio University. In this role she advises international students, scholars, faculty, and staff on many different immigration and cultural issues, advises the International Student Union, and directs a very busy office. She has also worked in education abroad, including a stint as a resident director. McCallum Beatty enjoys interacting with the many different people she meets through her work and believes international education is a transformative experience for all involved, including her. Having been a coach twice, she thinks the Academy is a great program and is excited to be serving as the chair for the Academy.

See how each western state benefited in this chart and keep reading for insight into how NAFSA member Bob Ericksen leads efforts to engage international students at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA). Learn more about how you can be an advocate during International Education Week at Connecting Our World.

Making Global Connections a Reality

By Bob Ericksen
“Global” and “international” are not slogans at UCLA; they are concepts which are fully integrated into our daily lives.

The Dashew Center for International Students and Scholars is where it all comes together. As director of the Center, I have the privilege of overseeing how our team works passionately and enthusiastically to enhance the UCLA experience for international students and scholars with programs and services; assist academic departments with employment-based visa services; and serve as a resource and learning center for the entire UCLA community to promote global connections, international understanding, and cultural sensitivity.

This important work is showcased across campus each year during International Education Week. I hope you enjoy this video that highlights how students benefit from the rich and extensive international education opportunities UCLA has to offer. You can find more information at www.international.ucla.edu/educationweek/2011.

Bob Ericksen is director of the Dashew Center for International Students and Scholars at University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and a former NAFSA board member. His work in the field of international education started during his time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran.

See how each southern state benefited in this chart and keep reading for a first-hand account of how NAFSA member and associate director of international student services at Clayton State University, Brett Reichert, welcomes international students to Morrow, Georgia, and advocates for all students to get the education they need to be prepared for a career in our globalized economy. Learn more about how you can be an advocate during International Education Week at Connecting Our World.

When Globalization Travels Through Your Backyard

By Brett Reichert
Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia, is located in Atlanta’s “Southern Crescent,” which alludes to the agrarian, “main street” towns of yesteryear. They were connected more with the State Farmers Market nearby than with the world outside. In 1968, Clayton Junior College, as it was called then, opened to serve the needs of this area.

Today, Clayton County touches one of the largest industrial distribution networks in America, and “mall sprawl” is the landscape beyond our serene, piney woods campus. Clayton State is now a comprehensive university of 7,000 students with a graduate school, residence and campus life divisions, nationally ranked athletics programs, and degree programs ranging from nursing and teacher education to MBA’s, supply chain management and archival studies. Jumbo jets, sometimes 4 or 5 in number, are visible floating overhead near the world’s busiest airport just 10 miles away.

Given this picture of then and now, where does international education fit in?  Though our current international student population is relatively small, our campus has a large and diverse population of students from multi-cultural and multi-ethnic backgrounds. Global awareness is more critical than ever here in “rural SE Atlanta.” Our students still come primarily from nearby, but with challenging, uncertain questions: How is my education relevant? Will I be equipped to compete and succeed? Simply put, I see skyscrapers and jumbo jets in the distance, so how can I access the job market they represent?

I strive to help our international students feel welcome and secure while fostering global awareness across campus too. Our students may still find “hometown jobs” after graduation, but their customers, managers, colleagues, and vendors could be a world away. Just recently, I visited a nearby elementary school for its teacher development workday; their principal had asked me to talk about globalization, which literally takes off and lands in their “backyard.” I gave the example of a factory in Americus, Georgia, which now exports chopsticks made in the USA to China! Do our own students get it? Are we giving them the tools to compete in this paradigm? I ask the same questions of elected officials.

Here at Clayton State, I walked into a brand new position a little over a year ago with a computer, a notepad, and the job of building a well-connected ISSO (International Student Services Office). I started out with a holistic approach: compliance, programming, and advocacy. That last piece has found voice at local, state, and national levels. Last year, I was fortunate to participate in NAFSA’s superb Advocacy Day program, with assistance from a NAFSA Region VII travel grant. I continue to use those advocacy skills whenever I can. On a state level, I advocate regularly to fix a bureaucratic flaw in Georgia’s driver license renewal process for international students here on F-1  visas, which has literally stranded some students waiting to be approved for OPT (optional practical training, a temporary non-immigrant employment status) and prevented them from staying in the United States. Though simple to understand, issues like this are not easy to fix; they require awareness and advocacy. The training I got from NAFSA prepared me for that task as a citizen – who happens to be an international educator for work.

I also coordinate with our study abroad programs to streamline the gospel of international education on campus. We are thrilled to be rolling out an excellent program for International Education Week (IEW; November 14-18) this year:  an international feast, a Brazilian speaker, and a global citizens project combining money, advocacy, and soap! Students will chip in spare change for Turkish earthquake victims, and chip in soap for Africa. Several campus units are collaborating with the Global Soap Project, including University Health Services! The week will wrap up with a cultural trip to Atlanta on Friday.

Every day, I am energized by my work, my students, and the mission of international education and exchange. It’s much more than a catchy college trend; it’s reality whether you have a passport or not.

Brett Reichert is a NAFSA member and associate director of international student services at Clayton State University. He has been involved in international education since 1998.

See how each state benefited in this chart and keep reading for an insider’s view into how international students contribute to our economy and fashion from Erika Rohrbach, an international student advisor and NAFSA member at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City.

Creative International Students Succeeding in Fashion and Business

By Erika Rohrbach
I’m not a numbers person. I suspect I would fail statistics miserably if such a course were forced upon me. But I must confess, when I hear how many international students are in the United States and how much they contribute to our economy, I get a little giddy. 723,277 students; over $20 billion: those are big numbers. These kinds of figures make it easier to open conversations about the value of international education with relative strangers who can translate their meaning into the universal languages of commerce and politics much more easily than I can.

But I’m not in this profession for the numbers. I’m in it for the people. For the students who walk into my tiny, windowless office in this city that hosts the most international students in the country. For my colleagues in academia as well as in government, who share and appreciate the privilege of interacting with those from other cultures as individuals. We are a lucky bunch. We needn’t turn on the television or set foot outside our doorways to encounter the world.

And let me tell you, the glimpses of the world I’ve gotten through students at FIT have opened my eyes in ways I never could have imagined. Kosuke ‘KOOan’ Okawa from Himeji-shi, Japan showed up on campus in spring 2005 as a sweet, frenetic fashion design student sporting a giant afro. By the time he finished his AAS in fall 2006, KOOan was designing clothes for Beyoncé, was later featured in the TLC reality show I’ve Got Nothing to Wear, and has gone on to design his own line of couture fashions.

And then there’s Mokgadi Matlhako, who earned her BFA in Accessories Design in 2004, and in 2006, secured the first order for her breakthrough line of high-end handbags for the NBA, becoming an NBA licensee at the tender age of 25. She then went on to design and supply bags for the 2010 FIFA World Cup held in her native South Africa. Mokgadi’s dilemma now, at age 30, is whether to continue expanding her licensing or attempting to develop the production end of her business, Kgadi LLC, at home and in neighboring Botswana.

These and other students come to us with their abundant creativity, but what they give back is their enterprise. Our students learn here how to transform their ideas into things—in this case commodities in the global marketplace—and do so with remarkable results. They don’t just affect the way we look at things; they shape the way we look. If that doesn’t impact our economy, I don’t know what does.

Having met a number of other design- and business-minded FIT international students with similar ambitions and talents, I’m at a loss as to how the national conversation regarding the cultivation of the world’s “best and brightest” perpetually focuses on those in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) disciplines. This past spring, over 13% of our international graduates were sponsored for H-1B temporary worker visas, none of them in a STEM field. The 2011 Open Doors report, like last year’s, shows Business and Management as the top major of international students in the United States. If these students are coming to learn how to do business with us, does it not stand to reason that we might benefit from allowing them to stay and apply that knowledge?

I’m fortunate to work in a town where the mayor not only isn’t afraid to utter the term “H-1B” but has repeatedly urged Washington to relax the restrictions limiting the ability of international students to enter our workforce and remain here. Michael Bloomberg, like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, recognizes that these highly skilled individuals not only contribute significantly to this state’s fiscal and cultural well-being as students, but, as graduates, have the great potential to go on to create American jobs. In every sense of the word, they can and do make our lives richer.

The compelling, real-life stories about the positive impact foreign students make on our campuses and communities often come from the experiences of international educators who work with them every day. This week, NAFSA will be featuring their stories from around the country. Today we have a post about international students in Kansas from Emily Lee, assistant director in the International Student and Scholar Services office at the University of Kansas. If you would like to share your own story, visit the Share Your Story page on Connecting Our World, and be on the lookout for more state-level data and personal stories on the NAFSA blog throughout the week.

Student Friendships in Kansas

By Emily Lee
My personal story of discovering international education often begins with me remembering being able to count to fifteen in Spanish while in elementary school. I thought that was quite an accomplishment, but it was not until I went abroad in high school that the impact of how little I really knew about the world and my inability to truly speak another language hit me. It was humbling to meet so many others who spoke multiple languages and seemed to know more about my country than I did. Like many others, that “aha” moment led me to study abroad and travel, and it influenced my career choice. I am now able to see our international students and witness their “aha” moments and the melting of barriers between them and the local community.  One of the most inspiring events I see each semester is when we hold a panel discussion featuring current international students during which they speak to our incoming students during orientation about the challenges they have overcome and friendships they have made. It is hard to deny the benefits of international education during those sessions.

For those of us who work in the field, it is easy to see the benefit of international education through our own personal stories and the stories of our students; however, I am sometimes surprised when I leave my little bubble here on campus and encounter those who have a negative, and sometimes fearful, outlook on the influence that “outsiders” have. Showing that international students make a great positive impact both on a personal, and at a larger community level, is essential to convincing others of the merits of international education.

While I would love to be able to convince everyone that the understanding and breaking-down of barriers that comes from international education is enough of a benefit to prove its merits, approaching the situation from a financial standpoint can be a helpful tool in promoting the value of international education. NAFSA’s Economic Impact Statements are a great way to show your institution, community, and government representatives that the positive impacts of international students are not only the “warm fuzzies” of friendship and understanding, but also firm financial benefits. According to NAFSA’s Economic Impact Statements for 2010-2011, international students and their families contributed over $200 million to the Kansas economy. That is an impressive number to be able to present.

I’ve shared the personal stories and the financial impacts at both a local everyday level and also on a national level with my members of Congress during NAFSA’s annual Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C. If you have not been to Advocacy Day, I would highly recommend that you attend if you can. It truly makes you realize the impact you can have with your government representatives on national policies that will influence your state, students, and institution. I was intimidated the first time I prepared to meet with my members of Congress, but was pleasantly surprised to see how making the case with a combination of personal stories and financial benefits from NAFSA’s Economic Impact Statements can sway those with whom you meet.

It is hard to imagine a more rewarding and inspiring profession than working with international students, who are not only trying to improve themselves and their countries, but are contributing to increased understanding among all of us as global citizens. I enjoy being able to share and participate in this.

Emily Lee is an assistant director in the International Student and Scholar Services office at the University of Kansas. She is also the current state of Kansas representative for NAFSA. These reflections are representative of her personal views only.