Universities and Careers
Foreign Policy Magazine ranks the top International Relations universities for both undergraduate and graduate degrees
QS Top Universities Ranking of International Relations Schools
Research shows that the most consistent predictor of job satisfaction is engaging work, which can be broken down into five factors (this is known in psychology as the job characteristics theory):
Independence—To what extent do you have control over how you go about your work?
Sense of completion—To what extent does the job involve completing a whole piece of work so that your contribution to the end product is easily visible, rather than being merely a small part of a much larger product?
Variety—To what extent does the job require you to perform a range of different activities, using different skills and talents?
Feedback from the job—How easy is it to know whether you’re performing well or badly?
Contribution—To what extent does your work “make a difference,” as defined by positive contributions to the well-being of other people?
As well as job satisfaction, each of these factors also correlates with motivation, productivity, and commitment to your employer. Moreover, these factors are similar to those required to develop flow, the pleasurable state of being so immersed in an activity that you’re completely free of distractions and lose track of time, which some psychologists have argued is the key to having genuinely satisfying experiences.
There are other factors that also matter to your job satisfaction, such as whether you get a sense of achievement from the work, how much support you get from your colleagues, and “hygiene” factors, such as not having unfair pay or a very long commute.
MacAskill, William. Doing Good Better (pp. 151-152). Penguin Publishing Group.
