International Affairs/Foreign Policy interest in LA? (job market, university)

[Tar Heel01]

Hello -

My husband and I recently decided to move to LA, after he received a huge promotion from his company. We now live in Washington, DC. Currently I work for a federal agency in foreign policy issues, and have my masters in the same field. I have been looking at the potential for jobs in in international affairs/policy in LA, and have found a few organizations - RAND, Pacific Council on International Policy, International Relief, The Mayor's Office of International Trade, CBP, and of course any potential center at a university, like UCLA or USC. I know there are several NGOs related to a specific region and minority advocacy groups as well.

Are there some additional organizations I missed? Are there any known networking groups for international affairs or foreign policy? Also, any idea on how competitive the job market is in this field would be great.

Thanks for your help!

[SoCal35]

I think you are going to find a pretty thin job market in LA for this area. The Rand Corp. certainly springs to mind as one of the more promient.

I have heard it's not an easy place to get a job. Lots of highly qualified competition. I don't mean to be discouraging but I would look for any contact you might have that would get you an in there. No doubt your degree and DC experience will be a plus...if you add a contact or two inside the org. I'd imagine your chances would only increase.

[Tar Heel01]

Thanks that is exactly what I was thinking!

[smokingGun]

I can't be of much help, but i remember one of my friends from college (who worked for Brookings & was a fellow at CSIS) wanted to move back to LA and she applied to all the big consultancies plus Manatt Jones, a global strategy advisor that's an offshoot of the Manatt Phelps law firm. She had an interview with them but it didn't lead to anything :/

[blackkoffeeblues]

Network your own agency. Do not bother with state or municipalities right now, no funding, they are shutting down, not hiring. Unless you have contacts in higher education, that's going to be really thin here too without a PhD. Not to be a dooms-dayer but the market here is bad, like SoCal35 said, there is a flood of highly qualified canidates in the pool. You might consider the elections industry, there are some private companies in the area. Its been my observation that proffesions who are finding work in LA are doing so by networking like crazy.

Good luck!