to aspiring humanitarian aid workers...

Chris Blattman is an accomplished cook, a good friend of mine and a professor of political science and economics at Yale. He writes a fun blog on international affairs and development. Apparently, he gets a lot of questions from idealistic twenty-somethings who want to go abroad to save the world. I can relate. So he asked me to write a few paragraphs on how I started with Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

The week before my interview with MSF, I reread my notes from a class on critiques of development and humanitarian aid. My interviewer, a no-nonsense Liberian woman and former refugee named Hawah, ignored my academic and policy credentials. I never had the chance to wax on about how I would avoid the pitfalls of the disaster relief industry and the dangers of neocolonialism. Instead, she honed in on my sparse management skills. Had I ever led a group of people in accomplishing a concrete task? I knew vice-president of the debate team wasn't going to cut it. She wanted to help me. Maybe I had managed a restaurant...or a car wash? Thankfully, Hawah gave me the benefit of the doubt. I had worked for a non-governmental organization in Pakistan. I passed the accounting exam. I smiled a lot.

I started working with MSF in 2002 as a country administrator for two HIV/AIDS treatment programs in Kenya. Most recently, I took a break from my doctoral program in cultural anthropology to serve as a field coordinator in China after the May 2008 earthquake. I now know how to manage a team in an emergency setting. I understand better the balance between critique and action in the field.

If you're interested in humanitarian aid, it's best to start by cultivating a few relevant skills. That sounds basic, but I know from experience that backpacking in Nepal and completing a Masters in Public Administration alone don't pass muster. For non-medical volunteers, there are two main areas of entry-level work: logistics and finance/human resources management. To build experience, you could help coordinate an international supply chain or organize safaris for travelers. You could work with a diverse HR pool or manage a big, busy office. Idealism, relevant coursework, adventure travel and volunteer stints are important because they indicate that your heart is the in the right place and that you're not going to quit because the toilets don't flush. But to start out you also need a set of transferable skills.

Most aid workers, medical and non-medical, manage multicultural teams. The bulk of the work is about organizing staff and supplies in complex situations. It's rewarding, but it's not glamorous. Hawah was wise to ask about my car wash credentials. Since I'm now an idealistic thirty-something, I hope I'm qualified to dispense a tiny bit of advice: start in the field even if your goal is to work in policy or research. You'll see the challenges of development and aid from a perspective that will continue to be valuable in work and in that other journey too.