The hot job market for business school graduates is even hotter for students who have worked in overseas internships.

"Employers don't see international internship experience very often," said Dee Dee Wolff, assistant dean of DePaul University's Kellstadt Graduate School of Business in Chicago, USA. "Many schools have foreign exchange programs where students study abroad, but it's very different when a student has actual work experience overseas. A three-month internship with an international firm in another country is a real attention grabber."

Wolff is director of Kellstadt's MBA in International Marketing and Finance (MBA/IMF), an 18-month, full-time graduate business program with an enrollment that is half American and half international students. Students take MBA courses at DePaul in Chicago. Then the unique program requires them to work as interns in marketing or finance for ten weeks at multinational firms located outside of students' home countries. The work experience makes graduates of the program hot commodities in the job market, Wolff said.

Kevin Hickey, 29, who recently earned his MBA/IMF degree, is an example of the trend. With a bachelor's degree in liberal arts, Hickey worked as an English teacher and in sales before deciding to pursue his interest in international business by enrolling in DePaul's program two years ago. "For someone with an undergraduate degree in liberal arts, it was an excellent way to become more well-rounded in business," he said. "The program's specialty in international business creates a great niche, and the shorter time frame for completing it was ideal."

Hickey interned for three months in the Global Sales Division of Lufthansa Airlines in Frankfurt, Germany, where he helped track corporate sales and evaluate strategic and financial opportunities. "It was a great to work in another country, utilize language skills and experience firsthand how foreign companies operate," he said.

Hickey's internship work was so impressive that when he sought a position in the airline or consulting industries after graduation, he received multiple job offers. Hickey now works in e-commerce business development with Delta Airlines in Atlanta.

"My experiences at DePaul and my internship helped tremendously," he said. "Employers are always emphasizing 'thinking outside the box,' and nothing does so more than having a unique specialty like international business."

Students in the program have landed a wide variety of unusual and rewarding internship positions abroad, working for companies such as Croatia Telecom in Croatia, Samsung in Korea, Whirlpool Corporation in Italy, J. Walter Thompson Co. in Thailand and Affinity Logic Corp. in South Africa.

After graduation, some students accepted offers from the companies where they interned, and others were hired by Baxter Healthcare Corp., Arthur Andersen, Eli Lilly and Co., ABN- AMRO Bank and Abbott Laboratories, among other firms. The most recent graduates were offered compensation packages that averaged $78,298 per year, with 73% of the class receiving sign-on bonuses that averaged $3,780.

Wolff said employers are impressed with international internships because the experience proves that the students are "adaptable."

"The internships show that students can assimilate to a different culture and succeed in the workplace," she said. "International marketing and finance skills are very marketable, and the internships are a concrete example of how students utilize those skills."