Career Choices, some advice for me?

[wiseheart]

Hi everyone,

Cliff's notes: what career? skills listed at bottom
I warn you it is kind of long.

I think this forum has been used for career advice b4,
so I thought I would give it a shot, move it if it needs.

Im finishing college this fall with a degree in Int'l Relations.
GPA: ~3.71 I did coursework towards a minor in
International Business, but I decided
I didn't want to go another semester just to get the minor.
I have about 12 hours in IB. My major emphasis is Latin
American studies, I speak/write Spanish and will possibly
learn Portuguese.

I know choosing a career is mostly about what I want to
do with my life, but I still have way too many options
and could use some help narrowing stuff down. I have a
strong interest in International Business and Investing.
I have maintained my stock portfolio for a few years.

I have strong computer skills with experience in
all Office products, Dreamweaver, HTML, some javascript,
a little bit of C/C++ programming, computer repair,
networking, etc. I have held student assistant jobs with
computers, and did computer consulting jobs on the side
(with references) I don't have certificates, but could
get them if needed.

Id like to get into an International Business kind of job
that involved traveling&investing, but I don't know where
to start with that. Im in the Bay Area. I do not want to
move to Washington, D.C. to get a government job. I would
work for government elsewhere though, I just hate D.C. I
am willing to move out of country. I am also willing to
work long hours at a job short term to earn good money,
although long term I would prefer to work an easy job
for less pay, I can easily live off 25k/year while saving.

I could go to grad school. Options are PolySci Ph.d at
Stanford, Berkeley, or Rice; Master's of Intl Economics at
USF, Master's in IR from State, M.B.A. from anywhere, or
Or Ph.d in Economics from one of these schools, but I would
have to take 2 more semesters of math, currently just have
Calculus. Ph.d programs are extremely difficult to get into.
I have good odds at Berkeley, but longshot at Stanford.
One professor who did Phd at Stanford says it wasn't worth
it. The program takes 7 years. My dad also thinks polysci
degree is fairly worthless. He is a successful businessman,
but had an undergrad in polysci.

Other options include taking one of the jobs below or
going off and joining PeaceCorps. I did Americorps in
Boston and enjoyed it, but PeaceCorps is longer and
more difficult.

My current job at my school has offered to take me full
time for about 45k/year to start, but the job is computer
documentation work which I don't enjoy. It is flexible
though if I wanted to do a Master's and would give me
free tuition.

One old boss has had an offer on the table for me to come
back to my home state and take over his business as he
slowly works towards retirement. It is a self-owned HVAC
business. I worked there 2 years, but would have to get
certified to run it. He gets about 80-100k/year, but does
a lot of under the table work. It would only be like 25k/yr
for we to work there to start, but I would pull in around
what he is getting after he retires in 5-8 years. I enjoy
the work, but not to a great extent.

Also, I have about 16k in savings. I could use this to
start a business with my dad's help. Not sure of the
viability of that option though.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated, as are questions.
I listed relevant facts below to help. Thanks!!!

relevent facts:
3.71 GPA
IR major, with IBUS coursework
Lots of job experience
Skills in Computers (started out as a CompSci major
before switching) also held 3 computer jobs
Previous bosses are very happy with me, have given
me good recommendations and will continue to do so
Generally, at top of most of my classes, professors
will supply very good recommendations.
Languages: Working on Spanish fluency, currently intermed.

[Korch]

Maybe try to find some funds that invest south american businesses. The job will utilize your skills and you'll probably have to travel a lot to do due dilegence.

If you're considering grad school in Econ at the places you mentioned (unless you're deluded) then you must have great quantatative ability also so perhaps fixed income investing/ emerging market stuff would be of interest to you.

[scott1]

Foreign Service Officer ?

[wiseheart]

You are right about needing the Math abilities for Econ stuff.
My abilities are not up to par in that area, I would have to take another year of Math, which is a major deterrent. However, I do enjoy the field a lot, although I find the armchair economics more interesting with stuff like Freakonomics, etc. The real nitty gritty math is hard. I
have a brother is has a Phd in Theoretical Physics and can
thus help me along with the Math, but it is still hard.

[wiseheart]

Scott,

Thanks for mentioning that. I forgot to mention that I
pretty much consider FSO a non-option. Most of the lower
level work starts out pretty crappy, and the higher level
stuff is all very political which means towing the party
line. I don't want to be a lackey out there trying to tell
foreign governments that they need to follow our policy
(because our policy is usually pretty damn dumb) I would
rather be working in a position that could actually
influence policy rather than just carry out, but again
it is all politics and I don't want to play the politics game.

[Korch]

getting a ph.d is a grueling amount of work. you have to be driven and like to study especially b/c in economic terms it doesn't provide a good return on your investment.

[wiseheart]

The ph.d is a lot of work, my Mom got one and my brother is getting one and they both talk about the difficulty of it.

Yet, I think the economic return is probably worth it depending on the position. Especially, Economics Phds tend to average about $60/hr according to the BLS reports. However, I guess it is more debateable for something like a Polysci Phd, where the main option is teaching, and that only nets like 55k-60k/year starting out.

By the way, here is a funny comic about grad students:
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

[Korch]

"Yet, I think the economic return is probably worth it depending on the position. Especially, Economics Phds tend to average about $60/hr according to the BLS reports."

If you're smart enough to get into a top econ Ph.D program, then you could easily land a wallst job that pays roughly $60/hr right out of school. Compare that WallSt salary after 4 years to your starting sallary out of econ grad school and you'd probably be astounded. There are lots of reasons to get a Ph.D, money doesn't seem like a really good one though.