Let’s be honest, how you’re going to look to employers is not the first thing you’re going to think about when you get ready to study abroad. You’re going to a new country, getting ready to completely change every social aspect of your life, and trying to get an understanding of how life works in another part of the world. However, when you get back. you’ll realize that having the experience on your resume provides a huge boost to your professional profile.
Studying abroad has been proven to develop soft skills that employers look for. A quick glance at this section of your resume and employers can make a fair assumption that you are open-minded and able to provide different perspectives when approaching tasks in the workplace. Even if you don’t intend to work overseas, you still have skills such as foreign language experience, independence, and your ability to face challenges in new environments.
This study from the Erasmus Student Network shows that their students have better employability skills after studying abroad than 70% of all other students. More than 90% developed an improvement in soft skills, such as their ability to communicate and work with individuals from different cultures, adaptability, and proficiency in foreign language.
Here’s a snippet of the findings from the study
64% of employers consider an international experience as important for recruitment
Former Erasmus students are half as likely to experience long-term unemployment compared to those that do not go abroad
The unemployment rate of Erasmus students five year after graduation is 23% lower
64% of questioned employers report that graduates with an international background are given greater professional responsibility more frequently, a proportion that has increased by 51% since 2006
And this study is not alone. The 2012 IES Abroad Recent Graduate Study reported that
Nearly 90% of IES Abroad study abroad alumni found their first job within six months of graduation
More than 65% of the IES Abroad students surveyed found a career-related position within a timeframe that met or exceeded their expectations
50% felt the overseas experience helped them get their first jobs
84% felt that studying abroad helped them build valuable job skills such as foreign language skills, cultural training, tolerance for ambiguity, adaptability, communication, and more
90% got into their first or second choice graduate or professional school
Even without the studies, it simply makes sense that having education and experience abroad would be an attractive trait for job seekers or students entering the job market. In personal experience, I can say that having done a study abroad is a huge talking point for interviews, and gives you plenty of experiences to come back to when you need something to discuss. You can tie nearly any skill or interview question to a story of you in another country. This is also without having international work experience. Having an internship abroad increases your chances even more than simply studying abroad, so if you’re ever worried about how it would look to take a semester/year in another country, the correct answer is to always go for it.