How to use International Education to your job-hunting advantage
Posted date: 11 Feb 2021
Study abroad has the potential to change your life and to create unforeseen new perspectives on your choice of career. Even if you made a decision to go abroad without any consideration of how this might affect your career, experience is critical as this has been shown to be linked to career choices made years after graduation.
In the current difficult economic climate, there is intense competition for jobs in every sector. The question is how well prepared are you to compete and what can you do to stand out among your peers when the time comes to do a job search in your senior year? Well, internships and service-learning abroad offer unique opportunities to build important skills and competencies, but studying abroad has many unique benefits that you can leverage. If you carefully evaluate and analyze the results of your time abroad, you'll want to do more than just add the experience to your resume.
The most important thing you will learn is that employers may not place any special value on the fact that you have studied abroad; but they will appreciate how well you explain how your time abroad has strengthened the skills and competencies that are important to the company or organization. Well, not every employer is looking for employess who speak a foreign language or who have a "global perspective," but since you've chosen to study abroad, there's a strong likelihood that you're looking to work somewhere that values your international experience and gives you a strategic advantage.
You need to develop a purposeful job search strategy and develop an intentional game plan to move your search forward in a successful way. There are important steps you can take to identify employers whose objectives and objectives are consistent with your values and interests. You can also design a networking strategy that will lead you to talk to alumni, family and friends both on campus and in the community who can provide valuable insights and information on the field you're interested in.
Networking is about building strategic links. Develop a plan, stick to it, give yourself time to identify people you want to communicate with, craft a message, follow up, and keep up with it. Job searching takes preparation and, in particular, time while you're finishing your degree, something you don't have a lot of. Therefore, you can organize and prioritize the tasks you need to do month after month. Don't wait until your graduation is around the corner, as soon as you go back to the campus, get started.
Posted By
GSP Admin
