5 Skills You’ll Learn Abroad That Employers Love
Landing your dream job often takes more than a college education. Past perfect grades and learning the technical lingo, you need to develop professional skills taught beyond the classroom.
Employers value these soft skills or interpersonal skills. These abilities can make the difference between you and someone more experienced in the field getting hired for a position.
Volunteering abroad is actually a great way to learn soft skills! Here are five skills you can develop by volunteering abroad:
1. Greater Adaptability
If you volunteer in another country, you’ll encounter many cultural and societal differences. Spending significant time overseas not only shows you can adapt to change but that you’re open to new experiences.
With an ever-changing workplace, employers seek new hires who can reliably tackle change.
2. Higher Confidence
Volunteering abroad reveals a certain level of assertiveness. It takes a confident individual to volunteer overseas, especially if you’re flying solo. Such experience shows you are willing to push past comfort zones, meet new people, and make your mark.
Employers look for new hires who offer their best and can handle the task at hand with confidence.
3. Effective Communication
Depending on where you travel, communicating with locals can be challenging, especially if a language barrier is evident. As the foreigner, you must learn how to communicate, which might involve learning a bit of the local language.
Clear and concise communication is a soft skill many surprisingly lack–and employers highly value.
Bonus: Employers seek to hire bilingual speakers more than ever!
4. Critical Thinking Skills
While overseas, you’ll need to acquire new tools for solving everyday problems. With different currencies, transit systems, and ways to shop for groceries, performing the simplest tasks will take creative processing. This daily, brain exercise to solve simple tasks will teach you to approach problems critically and realize there are many ways to acquire an appropriate solution.
Employers look for creative, problem-solving skills, especially within growing industries.
5. Professionalism
Living in another country implies diving into another culture. This exposure will open your worldview as you gain sensitivity, understanding, and respect toward people who differ from you. As globalization and diversity continue to expand within the workforce, such cultural understanding is invaluable to employers.
Did you know volunteer abroad experience could help you develop soft skills in landing that perfect job? What other skills have you acquired from traveling abroad?
Looking to communicate your volunteer abroad experience on your resume? Check out these tips!
