Do you want to study at a university at the undergraduate or postgraduate level, or join a professional organisation in an English-speaking country? Then IELTS Academic is designed for you.

Each year, thousands of university teachers leave their native environments to go and teach and/or conduct academic research in a foreign country. Indeed, in this increasingly globalized world populated by a highly networked mobile workforce, there are seemingly unending possibilities, incentives and occasions to teach in a higher education institution in a foreign country. Gaining such experience is encouraged to the point where it is now even expected on your CV. Personally speaking, having taught on 3 continents, I can attest to the value of gaining such international experience. Even as a student in higher education, I fondly recall that my most interesting, passionate and captivating teachers were those who had benefited from a similarly international experience.

If you are interested in working or studying in a French, German or Spanish speaking country, you will almost certainly need to provide proof of language skills. While exact requirements differ between institutions, there are certain exams that are more widely accepted than others. Following up on our recent post on English proficiency tests, in this post we will offer you an overview of the most respected language exams from around the globe for French, German and Spanish.

We spoke to top hiring managers Kalpana Kochhar, Director of Human Resources Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Jordi Roca Solanelles, Head Manager of the University of Barcelona’s School of Economics (UB) and Professor Dr Florian Englmaier, Professor for Organisational Economics as the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), to discover what challenges economics post-graduates should expect from prospective careers in some of the biggest institutions around.

If you're an academic looking to extend your career and find the right next position for you, many opportunities are available in Northern America. For postdocs and junior lecturers especially, it's important to be able to relocate to the best lab or department that you can for your work. For many disciplines, some of the world-leading institutions and researchers are based in the US, so many academics choose to spend some time working there in order to gain the best experience possible.

Australia is growing a reputation as a centre of academic excellence, with increasingly prominent universities both teaching and contributing to international research.

If you are from outside of the EU, then you will need a visas to work in EU countries such as Britain.

For people looking for a job in the private sector, there are numerous sources of information about best places to work, like Fortune Best Companies or Best Places to Work by Glassdoor to name just two.

In a previous post we delved into the topic of how studying abroad can help your future job prospects. Yet, whether or not you’ve spent time in other countries as a student, it can help your career to broaden your search parameters when looking for work later on. We’re not just talking about a semester or year spent volunteering in some remote part of the world (though that’s arguably quite a valuable experience as well) but rather about a serious career step that leads you to living and working in another country.

With student mobility continually on the rise, the number of foreign students earning degrees in Europe is ever increasing. Yet, the long-term visa opportunities for such graduates are not equal across the European Union. With immigration laws changing regularly, sometimes it can be difficult to know exactly what to expect in a given country. In this post, we offer you updated information about the types of work visas available to university graduates in the most popular European destination countries for foreign students: France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Last year, we posted an article titled “Internships in Economics – Lessons from an Economist,” which offered useful advice about the importance of internships and how to find what you’re looking for. Now, as spring is flying by and summer is just around the corner, we know that many of you are in the process of finding a summer internship. In this post, we’ll highlight a few specific internships and delve into the many great places to intern for anyone interested in economics and finance.

Many believe that once one decides to follow an academic career path there is no way out. Working at a university is not only said to bring you respect and stability, but also a gradually increasing income. How high the latter might get obviously depends on many factors, such as your qualifications and the institution you graduated from, as well as the country where you are teaching.

While it was the UMP, France’s conservative opposition party, that won the majority of votes in Sunday’s first round of town hall elections in France, the far-right Front National also made decisive gains, particularly in areas that used to be bastions of the left wing. The ongoing difficulties in the French economy are often cited as one of the key reasons for this redrawing of the political landscape and the losses for the ruling Socialist Party.

Despite the uncertain outlook for the labour market in the Iberian region, the percentage of foreigners working or studying in Spanish institutions is higher than in other countries like Germany or United Kingdom (for more information access reports from other regions here). Many of these economists study or work at one of the numerous highly ranked institutions found in Spain, such as the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics or the University of Barcelona.

There are many factors affecting one’s decision when choosing a job, and as the INOMICS Economics Job Market Report showed last year, a friendly working environment, flexible working hours and time to conduct one’s own research seem to be the top three priorities worldwide. Salaries are rated fifth, but as we all know, expected remuneration can easily affect one’s career choice.

On Wednesday, January 29, INOMICS released the Economics Job Market Report 2013 (UK and Ireland). This report, based on the findings of the Economics Job Market Survey conducted in 2013, introduces the reader to various aspects of the job market in economics, business and finance, concentrating primarily on the academic field.

Figure 1. Average number of applications per position

As previously mentioned in our articles about Spanish professionals moving to South America and Brazil as a new destination for skilled migration, Latin America is becoming ever more attractive in terms of professional development for people from all over the world. Latin American migration trends are undoubtedly connected to demographic and economic indicators for the region. In some cases, countries like Brazil stand out thanks to promising conditions for foreign employees, or increasing living standards and wages for the higher-educated workforce.

Yesterday INOMICS released the Economics Job Market Report 2013 (Worldwide Overview). The report contains insights about the academic job market, compiled from answers from almost 2,500 economists and recruiters from all over the world who completed a survey earlier this year. The findings of the report include salaries, recruiters’ and candidates’ employment preferences, regional disparities, skills & specializations most in demand and other general trends in the economics job market.

Since its foundation by Portuguese colonists, Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, has experienced an important immigrant flow. Over time, the Brazilian government has influenced this flow by implementing policies that support the needs of the economy. If during the first half of the 20th century governmental policies targeted low-skilled immigrants for work in the agricultural sector, in the last quarter of the century the government aimed to attract highly skilled immigrants to the country. The new trend was marked by the adoption of a new immigration law in 1981, which introduced new processes for visas and work permits and created a number of obstacles for low skilled migration.

According to our study last year, 35% of economists are working outside their home countries.  The majority of economists go to work to the US, Germany and France (11% of the respondents respectively), followed by Switzerland (8%), Italy, Netherlands and the UK (6% respectively).