Special skills: promote your study abroad experiences

Your study abroad experience has allowed you to develop specific skills. Help employers to identify them. Find out how to market yourself by highlighting these abilities!

Cultural Understanding

Living, working, and studying in another country can afford alumni with an impressive understanding of that country’s cultural customs. This allows alumni to become more tolerant, open-minded, and understanding of others’ cultural diversity. In the workplace, this translates to applicants being easy to collaborate with, as well as applicants being able to deal with many different types of people in the office. These skills are extremely crucial to a productive workplace environment, but it can be difficult for applicants to know exactly how to highlight these capabilities.

Make sure to underline this facet of your study abroad experience in a cover letter or an interview, and link back to how your developed cultural savvy can easily improve productivity by ensuring that workplace interactions are smoother.

In addition, applicants with international mobility may be better able to deal with external parties, like clients (both domestic and international), due to their increased experience with various kinds of people.

Curiosity

Moving to another country requires an international curiosity that is indicative of an inquisitive mind. Your curiosity can translate to employers into workplace initiative, and shows that you are enterprising. Furthermore, your curiosity is an indicator that you are always striving to learn more about the world – a quality which shows that you are interested and observant. Though you might not be able to write “curiosity” as a skill on your resume, by highlighting that your study abroad experience was one that allowed you to cultivate your knowledge of the world and explore your interests, you show that you will be an eager and dynamic addition to the workplace.

Resilience

Though study abroad experiences are rewarding, they can also be difficult. Moving to another country alone is an understandably nerve-wracking experience. However, you persisted throughout any difficulty and allowed yourself to have an enriching exposure to a new culture. This resilience is a viable workplace asset that shows you won’t shy away from a task simply because it may be challenging. Market this skill in interviews by highlighting a particularly trying experience during your time abroad, and how you overcame this struggle.