Today’s interview is with an international officer working at a Top 20 university in England.
- How many years have you been working in international student recruitment? How did you get into the profession and what were you doing before? Just over four years, with 7 months off in the middle for maternity leave. I previously worked for a ‘meaningful travel’ company and before that I did a graduate scheme.
- Which countries do you regularly travel to for student recruitment? Do you have a favourite country to recruit in and why? I currently recruit in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the US and Canada. I have previously recruited from China, Hong Kong, India and Mexico. I haven’t yet visited Bangladesh so I can’t really comment on that but I really enjoy visiting all my other markets.
- Do you find students in one country are different from students in another, and do you have to alter or modify your recruitment style to depending on which country you are in? Yes. I find it also depends on how students in a particular country perceived your institution, for example, we are well-known in China as a quality institution so it doesn’t take much to persuade a student they would like to study with you! I find students from the US and Canada tend to ask much more detailed questions, and really appreciate the ‘customer service’ aspect of individual student meetings during a conversion visit.
- Where do you see yourself going from here, professionally? I’m not sure and it is a concern. I really enjoy my job at the moment but I think there is a limit to how long I might want to remain in the role. I am tied to a certain location for family reasons and I am not keen to take on more travel as I have a young child.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I have just found your blog, very interesting with lots of useful information. I have recently accepted a role as an IO for a College, so good to know what i’m letting myself in for.
Hi,
Happy New Year and good luck with 2013, i am a recent convert to your blog and other links etc, i am waiting with fingers crossed for an interview date for a position as IO. I am in the final stage of my transition from Soldier to civilian after a very long and intense Career in the British Army ( 22 years). I have spent 5 years in 2 different positions within Army recruitment including oversees recruitment and loved every minute of it, hence the application for an IO position, i want to pick your brain and ask you how long are your average trips away? i know its slightly ambiguous but if you could give me a bit of steer on what to expect if i was successful at interview. I hope all is well keep up the great & interesting articles.
Kind Regards
Mark
Hi Mark
Thanks for commenting and I’m glad you’ve enjoyed reading the blog. I’ve not done much work on it lately, due to baby being born, but hope to get back into it soon.
To answer your question – I would say that two weeks on average was the length of an overseas recruitment trip for me. However, I do know some international officers working at other universities who are on the road for three to four weeks at a time. So it really depends on the university and what their policy is. I’d say, if asked in the interview, you should be OK with up to a four week trip. Although, having said that, most will probably not be that long.
Best of luck in your job hunt! Fingers crossed for you!
Jessica
Hi Jessica,
I stumbled on to your blog while searching the internet for info on recruitment/admissions opportunities. Do you have any advice for people who would like to get involved in international recruitment for universities?
As for myself, I am a Canadian with a lot of overseas experience. I am actually just wrapping up 3 years as an instructor at a major university in Seoul, where I also had to interview and evaluate students interested in our program. Before that I was a coordinator for a student work abroad program in Vancouver, and before that I was a teacher in public schools in Australia, and my home city in Canada. I would like to work as a recruiter or something of the like in Canada or the USA (my fiancé is American so I will most likely be applying for my green card at some point). Any thoughts?
Many thanks, and great blog!
Mich
Hi Mich
thanks for commenting, and I’m pleased you’ve enjoyed the blog!
Last year I wrote two posts with advice on working in international student recruitment at a university; you might want to read those?
http://www.theinternationalstudentrecruiter.com/do-you-have-what-it-takes-to-be-an-international-officer/
http://www.theinternationalstudentrecruiter.com/do-you-have-what-it-takes-part-2/
It sounds like you have some good overseas experience, so all I can suggest is that you start applying for jobs. Some universities may want people with more marketing experience or specific recruitment experience, so you might have to start off in a different role within an international office and then work toward a recruitment role. But perhaps not – it really just depends on what the university is looking for.
Some good jobs websites for jobs in USA:
NAFSA Careers Center http://www.nafsa.org/careercenter/default.aspx
The Chronicle of Higher Education http://chronicle.com/section/Jobs/61/
Higher Ed Jobs http://www.higheredjobs.com/
Best of luck in your search!
Jessica
thanks again, jessica. my brief experience in advertising might come in handy there then.
hi jessica,
thanks for this. i’ve been looking at job in the UK and all seem to require a marketing background or some sort of marktg experience. is that really necessary? is there a way to get around that.
taran
Hi Taran
Hope you’ve found the blog helpful in your job hunt.
I really couldn’t say if there was a way to ‘get around’ a marketing requirement in a job description. Each university will have it’s own essential skills for an international officer position, and many of them may very well want marketing experience. Even if you don’t have direct marketing experience, you could have some related skills that are transferable which you could highlight, perhaps?
The marketing requirement you are seeing in job descriptions might be because a lot of what an international officer does is write the text for promotional materials/website or help design marketing leaflets and brochures for the overseas markets.
Good luck in your job search!
Jessica