How Studying Abroad Will Help You Get Your Dream Job
The advantages of studying abroad are numerous; the whole experience will bring you into contact with a variety of people from completely different walks of life, boost your confidence, enhance your problem-solving capabilities, make you more confident in dealing with unfamiliar scenarios, and develop your patience and tolerance.
So how can you include the richness of the studying abroad experience in your resume when chasing your dream job?
Here’s our guide to how including aspects of your study abroad experience can boost your resume.
Planning ahead
If you’re about to embark on your study abroad experience, consider publishing a study abroad blog to document the experience. Blogging the entire adventure shows several sought-after work skills: sticking to a task, creativity, writing content, proofreading and editing, networking, social media, marketing and brand building.
Additional things to consider to make the most of your time studying abroad include:
Consider some of the following as ideas, and include them if you think they apply to you:
Financial management – dealing with a foreign currency, and even budgeting on a daily basis can be a challenge in a foreign country where even the cost of living is unfamiliar. Managing your money and being able to budget for travel and other activities shows good sound financial management skills.
Language skills – if you study abroad in a non-English speaking country then you will no doubt pick up quite a bit of the local language. While you may not become proficient enough to work as a translator, being able to communicate with reasonable fluency is a seriously valuable skill. Make a little extra effort to learn more than just enough to get by and your new language skills will show persistence, learning ability, and the savvy to adapt and flourish in unfamiliar environments.
Problem solving skills – when you’re in a foreign country you’ll constantly be challenged. Figuring out how to get about, how things function, and dealing with unfamiliar language and customs all show your ability to deal with, and overcome, a series of challenges, and keep moving forward.
Enhanced people skills – studying abroad brings you into contact with a whole range of new people you might not have otherwise met. You may have to deal with officials in a strange language, fellow students from different cultures, or simply people who do things in a different way from that which you’re used to.
Being able to interact and engage successfully with people and navigate your way through such scenarios seriously enhances your people skills and makes you far more confident in dealing with a wide variety of people from different backgrounds, and in unfamiliar situations.
In Part 2, we’ll look at other aspects of studying abroad which will help boost your resume, and land you your dream job.
So how can you include the richness of the studying abroad experience in your resume when chasing your dream job?
Here’s our guide to how including aspects of your study abroad experience can boost your resume.
Planning ahead
If you’re about to embark on your study abroad experience, consider publishing a study abroad blog to document the experience. Blogging the entire adventure shows several sought-after work skills: sticking to a task, creativity, writing content, proofreading and editing, networking, social media, marketing and brand building.
Additional things to consider to make the most of your time studying abroad include:
- Learning a foreign language
- Traveling on your free weekends
- Doing volunteer work
Create a study abroad subheading in your resume
Don’t try to include all the benefits of studying abroad under your Education section in your resume. Studying abroad is a rich experience and deserves more space on your resume – so create a separate section where you can really expand upon the experience, and skills that you learned during your time abroad.What new skill sets have you developed by studying abroad?
Traveling abroad and studying in an unfamiliar environment helps build personal character and makes you a better all rounder as a person. But there are probably some solid lessons you’ll learn along the way which you can include in your resume.Consider some of the following as ideas, and include them if you think they apply to you:
Financial management – dealing with a foreign currency, and even budgeting on a daily basis can be a challenge in a foreign country where even the cost of living is unfamiliar. Managing your money and being able to budget for travel and other activities shows good sound financial management skills.
Language skills – if you study abroad in a non-English speaking country then you will no doubt pick up quite a bit of the local language. While you may not become proficient enough to work as a translator, being able to communicate with reasonable fluency is a seriously valuable skill. Make a little extra effort to learn more than just enough to get by and your new language skills will show persistence, learning ability, and the savvy to adapt and flourish in unfamiliar environments.
Problem solving skills – when you’re in a foreign country you’ll constantly be challenged. Figuring out how to get about, how things function, and dealing with unfamiliar language and customs all show your ability to deal with, and overcome, a series of challenges, and keep moving forward.
Enhanced people skills – studying abroad brings you into contact with a whole range of new people you might not have otherwise met. You may have to deal with officials in a strange language, fellow students from different cultures, or simply people who do things in a different way from that which you’re used to.
Being able to interact and engage successfully with people and navigate your way through such scenarios seriously enhances your people skills and makes you far more confident in dealing with a wide variety of people from different backgrounds, and in unfamiliar situations.
In Part 2, we’ll look at other aspects of studying abroad which will help boost your resume, and land you your dream job.