Six Ways Travel Experience can Enhance Your Resume
When you are developing your resume you need to be sure to include your travel experiences. Traveling will show your future employer that you have a well rounded view of the world. A gap year devoted to travel can have a positive influence on your career. Here are six ways that travel experience can enhance your resume.
1. Volunteering
During your travels, if you volunteered anywhere be sure to include that in your resume. You want your employer to know that traveling enhanced your life. You were not just traipsing around visiting tourist traps. Include where you volunteered, what activities you performed, who you were volunteering with, and any other pertinent information. Volunteering shows that you took time out of your travels to learn about an area and help those less fortunate than yourself.
2. Working
If you worked as an ESL instructor or any other job in your travels they can be included in your resume. You can talk about overcoming the language barrier, if applicable, or learning a new language. Discuss how you worked with your students and what lesson plans you developed. Working overseas shows your commitment to do what you desire. You will go where needed to get the job done.
3. Blogging
“If you kept a blog while traveling, include it in your resume. In fact, if you have not, you should include the blog on your website. That way, future employers will have access to the actual blog and they can see your communication and writing skills in action. Showing future employers that you were able to maintain a blog while you were gone shows them that you are dependable,” says an expert from VelvetJobs.
Dependability is a skill that employers are looking for. If any part of your blog was published anywhere you can put that down as a publication credit. Any advertising you managed on your blog should also be included in your resume.
4. Budgeting
You had to budget while traveling, so put that on your resume. This is a very important soft skill that many people have not gotten the hang of. You needed to maintain a budget to be able to travel so including that in your resume will show not only that you can budget, but you understand what an important skill it is to be able to successfully budget. Along with budgeting, you can include planning your trip. You had to make hotel reservations or find places to stay and eat. All of that fits under planning which can also be included in your resume.
5. Gap year
Rather than say you were unemployed for some time it is better to let your employer know that you were traveling. There are different types of travel and all of them can be used to build up your resume. Even if you did not work or volunteer during the time you traveled, you learned some skills that will impress your employer. Some employers are looking for employees with good soft skills and traveling can emphasize these skills.
6. Communication skills
Communicating in a country where English is not the primary language is one way of increasing your communication skills. Did you learn a new language? Did you negotiate a bargain? Any time you used communication skills, you were showing your ability to communicate and adapt to the situation. These are also important soft skills that employers are looking for. Be sure to include them in your resume.
Taking time to travel and see the world is not only an adventure, it is a life and skill-building experience. Whether you volunteered somewhere, worked, or just traveled you built up skills that will help your resume stand out and shine.
