What degree should I get to get a job at a company where I can travel abroad on business trips?
Tags: Travel Abroad, Travel Business, Work Experience
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An MBA by itself is not a guarantee that you’ll get to travel a lot. It is just a masters degree in business. There are many industries that involve travel–business, engineering, science, academics, international relations, politics. It’s really a matter of choosing an industry you would enjoy working in, then targeting a career that involves travel. As for number of years, usually US companies send their experts to travel, so I would say at least 5 years of experience in a particular area.
No degree can guarantee that the job you get will involve travel. Many MBA jobs require travel, and many do not. This is true of many other degrees, such as engineering or any science, political science, international relations, diplomatic service, etc.
MBA programs accept students in any undergraduate field. They prefer students who do not have a business background because they give you the business training but they cannot provide the broad background that managers should have. I have taught MBA students with degrees in Music, Medicine, Dentistry, Law, Psychology, Political Science, Chemistry, Biology, Engineering, and many other fields. Most MBA programs prefer students with 2-3 years work experience after the first degree., Some accept students right out of college if they have good grades and a high GMAT score. Some MBA programs are designed specifically for new college graduates without work experience. But in those programs you don’t get the benefit of learning from other students who have work experience. A lot of valuable learning takes place through class interaction.
Before you decide on an MBA program explore the Internet for information on available programs. There is a lot of information available. Some sites are limited to specific countries, such as Germany, UK, or Australia. There is a comprehensive free public service with more than 2,000 MBA programs listed worldwide. The nice thing is that it allows you to find the program that best fits you. It allows you to search for programs by location (US, Europe, Far East, etc.), by concentration (finance, marketing, aviation management, health management, accounting, etc.), by type of program (full-time, distance learning, part-time, executive, and accelerated), and by listing your own criteria and preferences to get a list of universities that satisfy your needs. Schools report their accreditation status (look for AACSB accreditation or at least AACSB membership), tuition cost, number of students, class sizes, program length, and a lot of other data. Schools provide data on entrance requirements, program costs, program characteristics, joint degrees, joint degrees such as MBA/JD, and much more. You can use it to contact schools of your choice, examine their data, visit their web site, and send them pre-applications. You can see lists of top 40 schools ranked by starting salaries of graduates, GMAT scores, and other criteria. some of the other sites are less comprehensive, but all are useful.