International careers without a degree?

The problem is, to work in a foreign country, you'll need a work visa. In order to get a work visa, you'll need a sponsor. In order for someone to sponsor a work visa, they need to prove to "immigration" that you are better qualified for the position than any other local.

Honestly, do you think someone with no degree and a little entry level work experience would qualify you to work overseas?

I was going to say that your chances are close to none because you explicitly rule out the two obvious choices; Teaching English and getting a degree. But then I noticed that you work in the auto industry. That's a global industry with plenty of work involving international trade. For example I live in Japan and this country is the world's largest supplier of used auto parts. There are plenty of dealers who come to Japan to import them back home.

You may not have a degree nor qualifications but you do have auto industry experience. This will probably be your best asset as plenty of people asking for similar advice have no usable experience as opposed to your "sales" experience which usually will not get you work visas. You should carefully study what types of jobs are available in the auto industry as there should be quite a few that will involve international travel or live in another country.

More and more I am starting to realize that going to college is an essential part to reaching my goals. I guess I was just looking for some easy way out of this job into a career abroad, but now that I think about it, that's not really who I am anyway! I've always been interested in hotel management, so I'll probably explore a career path there. Now onto find a school... Thanks guys.

Both the previous posts give you some good feedback and I would add that - given the job skills you have - you will need one other thing and that would be language skills. Good skills in a specific foreign language tend to be needed to succeed in business in the country where that language is spoken.

So, if you goal was, as suggested before - Japan - then you might want to get at least some good basic skills in Japanese. Business is about competing and without those language skills you'll have some difficulty knowing the when, where and how of your industry in that country.

I have used my sales background to help me immigrate to NZ from the UK. I do not have a degree, but I did have over 10 years of experience in corporate sales, account management and business development. Not all sales people are created equal and it's one of the few careers that academic qualifications (or rather the lack of them) are not a prerequisite of success.

If you want a carrer change, then stay in sales but shift industry. IT is always a good platform to have sales experience in and I do not mean working in the local computer super store.

You are 24 so you can also qualify for a WHV (working holiday visa) for Australia and/or New Zealand. Which allows you to live and work in either country for 1 year.

Hope that is food for thought.

1. Thank you for bring this up, definitely a good point. On the world stage, being bilingual is definitely an advantage, if not a must I'd imagine. I actually have been learning Russian via Rosetta stone for the last 5 months. I know its not as common as some other languages to learn, but I realize that is around the 6th most spoken language, and more importantly it interests me. I am sure this can only help me in my career possibilities.

2. Thanks for sharing your story and advice, and I will play up my sales background in whatever career I choose.

Through my research on this forum and other websites, I have pretty much realized that it would be better for me to go to college, and earn a degree in either hotel management or international business, where I believe I can succeed. Obviously I still have a lot of research to do, but will keep you updated in whatever decision I make. Thanks guys!

I would tend to disagree - rather strongly - with #7 who wrote:
>. . . Hotel/hospitality management degrees and see what you find. In my mind, it's a 'fluff' degree that has little practical value in the real world. You don't need a degree in Hotel management to manage a hotel and it is of little use for anything else.

Having taught at an industry management college (and having watched my students placed into major resorts and cruise lines) and having a spouse who worked directly in the industry at a major international destination for ten years - I think hospitality is a different animal unto itself. From special accounting methods and softwares to very different marketing arrangements to managing restaurants to luxury hotels - very little of it is directly translatable from a generic MBA (I have an MBA - I have a pretty good idea what would be involved).

While I don't doubt that an MBA holder could do well in the industry, I think someone with good specialized training will go further faster and find their initial entry much easier. I don't believe though that you can get that kind of education from your local community college, you probably need to do some serious research on the better schools and make sure a first class internship at a five-star property is part of the process.

I can sing the praises of working onboard cruise ships. I did it for 3 years and met a few people who didnt have college degrees. They were from all over the world as well. US, UK, Aus, NZ, SA, Canada and all over Europe. They were making OK money, $1500-$3000 per month, some made more than that, but more importantly they were living onboard, traveling and working with no expenses. They could be found in positions of entertainment staff, shop sales, tour sales, lounge techs, etc. I was the broadcast tech. It was 3 amazing years of my life and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to travel with the security of a job behind them.

Thats my two cents

It may be as you say zzark, I am no expert in hotel management. However, I stand by what I wrote about finding out which degrees tend to lead to which jobs/income. A hotel/hospitality degree is by its nature limited to a specific field and frankly, one that does not pay overly well for the average holder of the degree.

The same cannot be said of an MBA or a degree in some other field such as engineering, health care or computer science. You do not find someone with a degree in hospitality becoming the CEO of General Motors. I doubt the CEO of Hilton has a degree in hotel management either.

I think far too many people think getting a degree of any kind is good enough. They do not look far enough into the future to evaluate the value of a specific degree. Hence all the taxi drivers with a degree in the arts & humanities or whatever. http://education.yahoo.net/articles/six_in_demand_degrees.htm

Not all degrees are born equal is what I am saying and there are certain core degrees that give entry to a far greater field of opportunities than others. A hotel/hospitality degree is not one of those. Wanting to work in the hospitality industry is fine. But there are half a dozen degrees that will give you an equal chance of working in that field. However, not all of that half dozen will help you if you decide to change fields down the road.

In the case of the OP, I would seriously suggest continuing to work while getting a degree at the same time. I was a high school drop out who then went back to night school to get a degree in Marketing and then an MBA. During my 25 year working life I changed industries about 6 times. Try doing that with a hospitality degree. I started out as a salesman just like the OP but moved up into higher management over time. I ended my career as a business consultant with Fortune 500 companies as clients. My sales skills allowed me to retire at age 43. In my opinion, sales is THE most remunerative career to have. I earned more than my doctor, lawyer, dentist, or accountant ever did.

You can set your sights at managing a Hilton hotel or you can set yourself up to to manage all of the Hilton Corporation if you have the ability to get you there and the RIGHT background degrees.