Finding an international job in Brussels: The early career path

As we've seen, even the early phase of an international career is competitive, but having got yourself started, the possibilities and opportunities multiply.

Let's have a quick look at how these early stages of career tracks work:

Ann is 22 when she arrives in Brussels. She's French, speaks German and English equally well as second languages, and has a degree in economics. Her career path, even in the first five years, is a little complicated, but certainly not dull. She first does an internship with the European Commission (EC). This internship is a good grounding for her next job, working with a French Member of the European Parliament (MEP). She knows her way around the EU organizations very well, as a result of these experiences, and her work with the French MEP has created her early career network among her friends and acquaintances in Brussels.

Her network of friends is mainly made of friends who share many common interests. Professional information is shared, naturally, and like any group of people in a common career field, when opportunities come up, word does get around the network pretty fast.

Ann finds a really good job which uses her economics degree to its best advantage, after two years with the MEP. This is another EC job, and her by now very good practical knowledge of the EU does the trick. After going through the competition phases and interview, she's the successful candidate. She's now 25, and this is a permanent EU position in the trade area of the EC.

From here on, Ann has some choices. She can develop her position in the EC, and move up the ladder. She's still very young, and she's done very well to get herself established in a good position where she has a large range of possible career moves.

This is where an international career really begins. Ann has an array of future possibilities:

• She can develop her EC position,
• She can use her EC position as a stepping stone to other positions
• She can obtain further qualifications, and develop her professional status
• She can look for opportunities in corporate roles
• She can look for opportunities in non government organizations (NGOs)

In other places, this would be a difficult, complex career path. In Brussels, these opportunities are a local phone call away. This is how Brussels operates. The 'European Ghetto' has another role useful for those setting out on an international career: It's one big multinational professional gossip column. It's almost impossible not to be up to date on what's going on in your profession. Useful information is practically unavoidable. There's another, less obvious, element to the international careers in Brussels: Depth of experience. Career paths are difficult things to develop, and sometimes tricky. In a place like Brussels, where a large number of people are in mid career, though, you can see a lot of examples of career management, and learn a lot.

A good career is the result of good career moves. Some career moves are made to rectify bad career moves. Everybody learns eventually, but it's good if you an get yourself into a position where you can learn a lot.

Ann, for example, is in a very good career position, in terms of being able to check out a very wide range of career options. Three good career moves have put her in the enviable position of being able to make informed decisions.

She's not just looking for 'better jobs'. She's looking at, and planning, career goals. Ann has also made some very good preliminary positional moves for her next career step:

• She's an economist by qualification.
• The EU is above all else, an economic entity.
• She's currently doing an EC Trade job.
• Trade is a major EU portfolio.

Trade contains multiple career ladders, through the EU, the UN, NGOs, European governments, and non-European governments. That's without even mentioning the private sector or corporate jobs. Those who know how to work in Europe are valuable, and Ann is in the process of becoming one of Europe's most valuable commodities, an EU professional. Her career options are excellent. She can work within the EU institutions or outside them, with equally good career opportunities.

At 25, she's already qualified, in a good career building job, and has created a huge range of options for herself. Not bad, eh?

Her choice of Brussels as a location for her career moves was no coincidence, either. Brussels is one of the major crossroads of the international community, and one of the nerve centres of the global economy. Ann came to Brussels for the best place to start an international career.