Tracy Morrison could write the book on how to build a successful career in international development. Spend years toiling for peanuts in the developing world. Earn your Master’s by 27. Learn a few foreign tongues. Work in the public, private, academic, and volunteer spheres. Blaze your own, bold and exemplary path and you just might end up, like her, as the chief international recruiter for CARANA, one of the bigger contractors for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Her interest in development began when she was still working towards her undergraduate degree at Indiana University, Bloomington, where all elementary education students were required to teach for a semester. Ms. Morrison — who at that point had not left North America — decided to do her practicum in Australia. She stayed with a host family in the Clare Valley, a rural region on the south coast with some of the best wineries in the country. Sheep grazed on grassy hillsides and big, curious kangaroos bounded constantly about, not unlike the young students she taught at a local school.

She enjoyed her time in Australia immensely, and upon graduation in 1990 Ms. Morrison joined the Peace Corps. She was assigned to Bahawalpur, a town in southeastern Pakistan, where she and a colleague were the first foreigners since three nuns had been killed some years prior. “It was a very difficult country to get adjusted to,” says Ms. Morrison. She wore a hijab and tried to steer clear of “a government spy” in civilian clothes.

Ms. Morrison overcame the initial culture shock and made friends. She remembers Pakistani people as “extremely hospitable, very welcoming, and extremely generous.” Seven months into her assignment, however, the Gulf War began and all American volunteers were evacuated from the region as a precaution. She and the townspeople were crestfallen. “My Pakistani friends and colleagues were all crying,” says Ms. Morrison.

She was reassigned to Tatum, Cameroon, which quickly became a home away from home. “They love to dance, they love to drink, and they LOVE to joke,” says Ms. Morrison. “They love to argue for the sake of arguing, as it is a sport.” One may think they are going to go to blows, explains Ms. Morrison, but it’s just an argument; when they are done, they do cheers and laugh before they move to the next topic.

Her primary assignment was to teach ESL and English literature and to monitor and evaluate student-teacher performance. But Ms. Morrison often went one better. For instance, at one point she got some paint donated and worked with a painter and other volunteers to make welcome and farewell signs for Tatum. Lots of villagers with construction materials also came out. Some donated their nails, some their hammers; they cut down a eucalyptus tree to post the signs.

“The day the signs were completed the town crier called everyone together with his cow bell,” she recalls. People came out of their houses and shops, celebrating. “Before that, you never knew where you were passing through,” says Ms. Morrison.

On another occasion she had some volleyballs and a net sent over from her old high school. Tatum held a grand net installation ceremony for the town’s only volleyball court.

Because of her commitment and upbeat personality, Ms. Morrison was crowned Village Queen. “My village was my family in Cameroon,” she says. She stayed for three full years and was in the Peace Corps for almost four — well beyond the two years that volunteers normally give. “They basically had to kick me out,” she says, laughing.

She finally left Cameroon in 1994, to return to Indiana and work at her alma mater. As a university employee, Ms. Morrison was eligible for a certain amount of free tuition. Always looking to expand her skill set, she decided to study Arabic, having learned Urdu in Pakistan and Pidgin in Cameroon.

Ms. Morrison completed her M.A. at the School of International Management in Vermont, and her Arabic helped her win an internship at the American University of Beirut. She was later hired there as a consultant to revitalize exchange programs and establish the first office for international student services.

When she returned to the U.S. after a successful experience in Beirut, Ms. Morrison found yet another recruitment-related job. As program officer for the Council of International Exchange of Scholars, she managed the Fulbright Visiting Scholars’ Program. This post exposed her to a wide variety of topics — from physics to public policy, she had to read post-doctoral applications and seek a fitting assignment. This job was about matching people’s skills with the appropriate project, the essence of recruiting. Ms. Morrison says her CIES experience “was pivotal to me becoming a recruiter now in international development.”

After short stints with the State Department and a Washington D.C. area consulting firm, Ms. Morrison landed her current job as director of international recruiting at CARANA Corp. CARANA implements economic development projects for major bilateral donors, mainly from the U.S. She recruits consultants for projects and proposals, performs reference checks, and interviews candidates. She regularly employs her Arab bargaining skills while negotiating salary and benefits packages.

A very important part of recruitment is building and maintaining relationships, Ms. Morrison explains. She devotes much of her time to networking and recruiting events and keeping in touch with government contractors, consultants, and trade associations.

With almost a decade in recruiting and several more years involved in development, Ms. Morrison is careful not to make generalizations about recent trends. She admits, however, that large donor agencies set the trends in the industry and that lately she sees huge demand for “competitiveness experts.”

For young people interested in development, Ms. Morrison says study and get a graduate degree, but most important is foreign experience. Having enjoyed her time in Pakistan and Cameroon, Ms. Morrison says the Peace Corps is one great way to gain experience. But there are many internship and volunteer opportunities, not only with NGOs but also with firms and contractors that hire consultants for permanent positions or on a project-by-project basis. Even unpaid posts impart transferable skills, and in the long run they are definitely worth it.

“Find any method you can to get yourself overseas for a little bit of work experience,” says Ms. Morrison. Trust her, she knows what she’s talking about.