Marketing Your Study Abroad Experience to Employers and Graduate Schools
Toppel Career Center
www.HireACane.com
Why Study Abroad?
- Study Abroad Experience can further your career development.
- Build transferable skills and qualities that employers and graduate schools look for.
- Study Abroad is beneficial for your academic, personal and professional development.
What Employers Are Looking For…
How valuable is Study Abroad to a potential employer? Focus on what you gained from your time abroad…
In a 2003 study, employers ranked:
- “interpersonal and relationship skills” - #2
- “ambiguity tolerance and adaptability” - #3
- “cross-cultural competence” - #5
Employers are looking for candidates that have the added the “real-world” experience.
How to speak about the experience
Study abroad alumni can…
- Creatively solve problems
- Contribute to an ethnically diverse team
- Be self-confident, yet able to listen and learn from people whose value systems are different
- Take personal risks and act independently
- Be flexible and adaptable to rapidly changing situations
- Have a basic command of the local language, and be able use it in practical situations
- Imagine, forecast, analyze or address business situations from a different cultural frame of reference
Ask yourself…
- What am I trying to communicate to a potential employer about my international experience?
- What skills did I learn abroad? What cross-cultural competencies did I develop?
- Where should I include this experience on my resume so that it will have the most impact?