Finding an international career in Brussels: The Red Cross

The Red Cross is the world's biggest humanitarian organization. It's actually a Federation of national organizations, and its official title is The International Federation Of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The European office of the Red Cross is in Brussels. This is another peak organization with a local branch. Brussels' role as a natural centre of government and trade has a lot of obvious advantages for an organization which has to deal with the world's worst crises on a daily basis.

Careers with the Red Cross As an employer, Red Cross operates across the professional spectrums. This is a true top level organization, they want, and get, the best. The Red Cross is a working classroom for people who want to have international careers. People employed by the Red Cross are in many ways peak performers in their professional international careers. These are jobs for the truly successful people in international management, development, logistics, and health. It's worth studying the Red Cross jobs as the benchmark for achievement in international careers.

One of the most important things to be learned from studying the Red Cross is that these international careers are built on solid professional achievement. The competition is fierce for these jobs. It's rightly considered an honor to work with the organization, which is unquestionably one of the most highly respected on Earth.

Working with the Red Cross

There are various forms of employment with the organization. The jobs are categorized according to employment status:

Volunteer workers, working in the Red Cross' many programmes around the world. Volunteers can include national society presidents, and many professionals in all walks of life provide their services as volunteers.

Actually volunteer experience is invaluable, not only in terms of your own work, but in terms of learning the Red Cross culture and concepts. If you've never worked with a non government organization, or a non profit organization, you will find that the people and the motives are very different to the corporate and government spheres. These organizations face challenges which simply don't exist in 'normal' careers.

To get some idea of the sort of jobs and the work available with the Red Cross, it's worth checking out the Red Cross official site.

You'll notice there's a special section which says 'Red Cross / Red Crescent Experience Essential'.

They're not kidding. This section includes jobs like Federation Representative, acting on behalf and liaising with governments, aid agencies, community representatives, and essentially being the eyes, ears and voice of the Red Cross / Red Crescent, all over the world. To do that job, you have to know the Federation's own goals, the culture, and the way the Red Cross operates. Only an experienced person would have any hope of doing a job like that.

In career terms, if you expressed the basic essential job criteria of a job like Federation Representative this person would be:

• A person with proven ability to work at senior government level
• Advanced management skills
• Familiar with international law
• Familiar with Red Cross management procedures and protocols
• Strong leadership skills
• Proven financial management experience
• An expert negotiator

With those skills are likely to be required: Emergency response management experience Knowledge of refugee program management Able to work with other agencies like the UN Acting as representative of the Federation in joint action and coordinated responses to crises with other aid agencies.

And that's just some of what's involved. You can see why we say this is a good look at what a real international career can be. Check out the links, check out the Red Cross, and above all, take a good look at what a real international career can accomplish.