Job search: how to leverage a stay abroad?
Every internship or experience abroad has its added value! From adaptability to open-mindedness, and of course, language progress… Languages and Travel, a language travel agency in Brussels, provides you with the keys to enhance and market your stay abroad in the best possible light to a potential employer.
Higher education abroad, sabbatical year on a Working Holiday VisaWhether it's an au pair stay, an internship, or a language immersion program lasting from one to several weeks… Making a difference to recruiters by leveraging foreign language skills has never been easier! Whether short or long, any trip will help you enrich and boost your application: from your CV to your cover letter to the interview.
How to demonstrate progress in language learning?
Understanding intonations, accents, sentence structures, expressions… Professionals are adamant: the best way to learn a language is to go there and “experience the language.” Today, this is hardly an option anymore, but rather a minimum requirement.
One of the best ways to enhance your experience in an English-speaking, Spanish-speaking, or Dutch-speaking country is to validate your skills by taking certified exams at the end of your stay or upon your return. These include IELTS, TOEFL, or Cambridge exams for English , the DELE test for Spanish, and TestDaF exams for German—all qualifications recognized worldwide by employers. Prefer not to take tests? Another tip is to refer to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) before your trip and again after your return to assess your progress and highlight it during interviews or in your cover letter.
Highlight your adaptability during the interview
Being abroad inevitably means facing situations to which you've had to adapt. Whether it's making new friends or chatting with professors or professionals, reaching out to others becomes essential to combat loneliness and move forward. It's not always necessary to overdo it with a recruiter; concrete, simple examples will demonstrate your adaptability.
Furthermore, you've almost certainly experienced getting stuck on a word during a conversation, a word that gave meaning to the entire discussion. How did you deal with it? What stressful situations did you encounter, and how did you manage them? These are all points worth highlighting. Moreover, if the company or sector you're targeting might lead you to work abroad, whether in customer relations or at a subsidiary, this type of experience will undoubtedly reassure a recruiter and certainly help you launch your international career.
To use open-mindedness
Traveling abroad also means adapting to the surrounding cultural diversity. A taste for challenges is something employers will greatly appreciate. Therefore, consider explaining how you managed to navigate these different perspectives and ways of thinking through concrete situations. Have you had the opportunity to do an internship or work for a company, even a small, paid job to support yourself? Take advantage of this to explain your adjustment, demonstrate your understanding of how businesses operate in the country by providing specific examples to illustrate your points.
List your new skills in writing
Final tip: it can sometimes be difficult to recognize changes on a personal and professional level. To help with this, write down your new skills and use them to enhance your resume, cover letter, and presentation. Especially since, when it comes to selling your experience abroad, what better way than to answer recruiters' questions more easily in the language you've mastered! Here are some examples of questions to ask yourself and prepare:
Why did you leave?
Why did you choose this destination?
What was the initial project and what did you actually get out of it?
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