There isn't a typical path that environmental engineers follow.  Routes I've explored? One is in the development sector in consulting: you're working with international donors, and a lot of international donors require an environmental component to any project. You can be the environmental expert on a broad range of infrastructure or non-infrastructure projects. Then there's more of the typical emergency-response route, and there you're focusing on smaller-scale technology for water and sanitation. I think that a common mistake that I see in my age group and my sector is that people don't value balance enough, and it's very much career, career, career.  They realize maybe 15 or 20 years down the line that they should have spent more time building and maintaining relationships. Don't forget that there's a lot of benefit to long-term friendships, and keeping in touch takes effort, but it's worth it. Advice my dad has given me—and he's worked with the United Nations before—and he says 'You'll gain a lot more by entering [the UN] at a higher level, than entering it at a lower level and trying to work your way up.' Even if you've already graduated or worked, it's never too late to get international experience. There are many NGOs that would welcome people to come and share experiences.  You may not get paid, but there are definitely ways to travel and start that process. It doesn't even have to be in your field. You could just have three weeks in Tanzania working on conservation, even if that's not directly related to your field.

Many employers are willing to train students in the hard skills. For example, if there’s a new system we don’t teach. They are happy to spend time training someone as long as they come with the right attitude. I hate to say it, but the soft skills are almost as important, if not more important, than the hard skills. One great thing about this industry is the diversity. There are just so many opportunities that it’s almost hard to describe. What we’re finding more and more is a return to a retail agent. We’re finding that people still want that face-to-face communication, and they are willing to pay big bucks for it. The way retail agents now work has also changed. Now, the retail agents are often working from home, they’re marketing, they’re salespeople, they’re customizing packages, so they are almost their own small tour operator. In the travel industry, there is a labour pool shortage. There are more jobs than qualified candidates. Most sectors of the industry need young talent. They say that in the next five years, more than 200,000 jobs in the industry will go unfilled. What employers really care about the most is the attitude. Someone who really cares, is passionate about the industry, has great customer service and is great at dealing with people and communication. It’s a reality of recent generations that there’s so much focus on that phone that sometimes it’s almost like face-to-face communication sometimes lacks. I always say we in the travel speak the language of business. Although it’s a very exciting industry, if you don’t understand commission structure, you don’t understand marketing, sales, some of these really business-heavy skills… loving travel is unfortunately not enough to make you do well in this industry. What is so great about this industry, and what I love about it, is this: if you really love photography, and that’s your thing, and you know where the best destinations in the world are for photography, you know what time you need to get up to get that perfect shot of the leopard in the tree, then you can commercialize that. If you love a region, so you love South East Asia, and that’s your specialty, you could work in South East Asia, taking people around, or you could sell very well to people who want customized trips to South East Asia. It’s all about specialization. It’s really about finding what you’re passionate about and making that your business. The more specialized you are in a location, the better off you’ll be. As a guide for G Adventures, I had been going down to Latin America regularly, and had travelled extensively through there, and picked up Spanish, so those were really my selling points. If you don’t have those kinds of selling points, it can be hard to get in the door.

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Every opportunity I have had—whether it was to study in my undergrad or to take a year off and travel or then to go and do an internship or whatever—I have managed, at first through luck and then through conscious decision, to incorporate language into that. And I think that's really gotten me far. I grew up speaking just one language to the age of near 20, and now I speak four language at near enough to fluency, if not full fluency, that I am able to work efficiently in them. Importantly, for the career that I have since I got into, I did a lot of extracurricular things. I wrote papers on a given human rights topic, or something that I was learning about in my studies. I knew people who were organizing a conference on different human rights issues at a more theoretical, abstract level, but I talked to them, interested them in what I was interested in, and I managed to get to spot on a panel speaking about it. I worked as a research assistant and teaching assistant to a professor, and in that way I was also able to delve more into issues of constitutional law, Indigenous law, things that ultimately gave me valuable experience to put on a CV. I that this, more than my studies themselves, more than my work at the Department of Justice, really highlighted an interest of mine that was ultimately flagged by my first real job. People would actually just come to our office and say, "Yesterday, there was fighting near my farm, and it caught fire and half of it burned down, and we had to flee, and now we're here and we have nowhere to sleep and can you please help us?" We would talk, and explain what we can do, what we can’t do. As much as the language opens doors, anyone who finds themselves working in a language that is their second language—a language that they did not grow up with, but learned as an adult— at some points you will find yourself, or feel yourself, to be handicapped by this. At times, you are "the rich guy" to a population that makes a dollar a day, no matter how much you want to just go and grab a beer with them. It's just hard to get over that—more so, I think, than the culture language itself in terms of making friends. These are not things that one can deal with alone, I think, or at least not easily. And so, having friends at home, even if they have no real idea of the kind of the day-to-day reality you're living, but who you can still reach out to... that's a big thing. It’s a fine line. I did I have, and continue to see, colleagues who I think have crossed the line and to kind of de-sensitivity towards this kind of thing— people who have seen it too often, and their way of dealing with it has become to just stop caring. I think for those who have stopped caring, there's no more reason to work in this field of work, and they shouldn't, and I don't think it's healthy. I'd say, those are the two best: internship programs, and programs in UNV. Otherwise, like I said, motivation and general knowledge of the field definitely do help. So, if you're able to get involved locally with NGOs, with a nonprofit or Red Cross, for example. Red Cross, recruit volunteers all the time. Do I think of graduate studies as being necessary? Yes, at least for the work that I do, involvement in the ICRC period, or work in the United Nations in any substantive and rewarding way. And, for that matter, I think it is necessary even with more the more respected and known NGOs, such as Doctors Without Borders, or Norwegian Refugee Council—having a master's degree is a minimum. Unless you have perhaps a decade or two of very relevant experience, the door will be closed to the majority of really interesting positions in the humanitarian sphere, at least internationally. Networking while it is omnipresent in every sector, it is less important, I think, than in most private sectors. What people will get through contacts is they'll get put on the right track with the right advice. That is where networking will really help you, at least in my experience in this sphere of work.

Relevant degrees, hard skills, soft skills and global competencies, and international experience are all important elements to succeeding in international business

While humanitarian aid and international development are often talked about together, there are some important differences that are vital to understand if you are considering entering these fields.

Careers for Globetrotters: Meet Sahar Ghadhban - Foreign Service Officer in Canada & Russia