Politics/International Relations: Transferable Skills?

I’m thinking of studying International Relations as an undergraduate degree, and I’m wondering weather the course provides useful transferable degrees, compared to other subjects such as law, languages or history. I’m interested in related careers such as the Foreign Office (I will most likely need a MA), but I also want to keep my options open incase I change my mind to finance or law, for example.

International Relations, like other degrees, will give you transferrable skills, e.g. time management, verbal and written communication skills, research and organisation, working in group and independently, dissertation (should you choose to do one). At the same time, look to get work experience and extracurriculars to boost your applications.

Is there any particular transferable skills that IR offers that isn’t really found with other degrees? What extra-curriculars would you recommend?

I’m thinking of studying International Relations as an undergraduate degree, and I’m wondering weather the course provides useful transferable degrees, compared to other subjects such as law, languages or history. I’m interested in related careers such as the Foreign Office (I will most likely need a MA), but I also want to keep my options open incase I change my mind to finance or law, for example.

Studying International Relations provided me with some transferable skills e.g. my writing improved, which is good because my current job involves a fair amount of writing. However it is important to emphasise that in 99% of cases it is not the degree which gets the job, it is the person. No matter what skills you gain from your degree, if you can't write a good cover letter or pass the tests/questionnaires and do well at interview then you likely won't get the job. And this applies to all degrees. Also employers nearly always expect graduates to have some work experience already by the time they graduate.

Moving onto the specific degree subjects you have mentioned- with the exception of a few heritage jobs, History and Politics open the same number of doors really. Languages can open a few more doors if you get fluent enough to a near native level and are confident enough to speak in another language at work. Law obviously opens up the legal sector once you have a qualifying law degree and either a solicitor or barrister qualification. The good thing with law is that you can do a law conversion course following any other degree if you've decided after starting university that you want to go down the law route. Getting training contracts and jobs at the better known law firms is extremely competitive though.

Thanks for the advice! How did you find your IR course? I’m ultimately stuck between IR, history and law. I’ll most likely do a joint course such as Pol + IR. I think I’d prefer IR since I feel that law is too competitive and my favourite area of law would be international law, and my favourite areas of history are those including foreign affairs (empires, WW2, Cold War etc.)