Returning from abroad
How to sell your experience
The Office of Study Abroad and the office of Career Services and Placement offer a presentation on "Unpacking your Study Abroad Experience: How to sell your study abroad experience to employers and graduate schools." This interactive and highly informative session will give you the information and skills you need to effectively present your study abroad experience in your résumé and application cover letters, and during job interviews.
Among other topics, you will learn…
- How to best place your study abroad experience on your résumé and curriculum vitae
- How to describe the knowledge, attitudes, and skills you have acquired through study abroad in application cover letters
- How to link these skills to the requirements of prospective employers and admissions criteria of graduate schools
- How to highlight your study abroad experience and skills during job interviews
- How to go about finding a job with a multinational employer
To help you begin reflecting on your experience and thinking about how you can present it in the future, take a look at the following skills/competencies identified by employers that are associated with an international experience that can apply to the workplace (taken from the Collegiate Employment Research Institute Research Brief, March 2008).
- ability to work independently
- adapting to situations of change
- allocating time effectively
- applying information to new or broader contexts
- assessing impacts of decisions
- being dependable
- communicating ideas in a manner that gains acceptance/agreement
- conceptualizing a future for oneself/organization
- conveying ideas verbally
- gaining new knowledge from experiences
- identifying new problems/alternative solutions
- identifying creative possibilities/solutions
- identifying social/political implications of decisions
- interacting with people who hold different interests, values, or perspectives
- resourceful in accomplishing assignments
- setting priorities
- understanding cultural differences in the workplace
- undertaking tasks that are unfamiliar/risky
- working effectively with co-workers
*Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to read PDF documents.
