5 Skills You Need On Your CV To Bag That Job Abroad
Today's guest post is brought to you by Augusta Henning, the PR Manager for CV-Library.
Working abroad is a great opportunity for you to experience a new culture and learn new skills. However, roles can be competitive and you need to make sure you stand out.
To do this, there are certain skills you need to include on your CV. Below, we explain these in more detail — read on to find out more and help you bag that job abroad.
1. Foreign language
Without stating the obvious, language skills are important to bag a job abroad. Even if the country you’re traveling to speaks English, you may have to interact with others who don’t.
While it’s not always a requirement to speak the language of the country you’re visiting, it would still benefit you and look good on your application.
Employers will think highly of someone’s application who has language skills, as it shows they’re culturally aware. Plus, learning a language is difficult and it suggests that you have high motivation, dedication, and commitment, which are qualities that most employers look for in candidates.
2. Independence
Moving abroad is a big step; you’ll properly be in an unfamiliar place with new people and a new culture to immerse yourself in. The work life is likely to be very different from your home country, with new expectations, rules, and standards.
You will need to use initiative and be able to think for yourself to succeed. Therefore, most employers will be looking for independent candidates who can adapt well to this.
Those who are independent are usually able to work without supervision, are self-motivated, organized and confident. To present these qualities on your CV, emphasize your passion and enthusiasm while giving examples of where you showed forward thinking and were proactive.
Although, be wary of making it sound like you don’t enjoy working in a team. Do this by focusing on how your independence and hard work also helped a wider group reach a common goal.
3. Communication
Communication is an essential skill in the workplace, especially when it comes to working effectively with others, without misunderstandings or confusion. It’s also important to build relationships with colleagues and/or clients and ensure that your company’s goals are met.
This is even more important when you’re working abroad as you’ll need to ensure you can communicate with others who speak another language, use new terminology and have different accents.
Effective communication also involves your listening, negotiation and writing skills. Which means that you need to give examples of where you’ve excelled at these. But also, you need to prove that you have these skills by constructing a well-written, coherent and mistake-free CV.
After all, it won’t convince the hiring manager that you have brilliant communication skills if they don’t understand what you’ve written.
4. Organization
Organized people usually use their time effectively, plan-ahead and can juggle responsibilities. Therefore, it’s no wonder that these skills are desirable in candidates — it means that the individual should be more productive and likely to meet their targets.
Plus there’s the practical side of moving countries — making sure you have the correct visas or work permits, accommodation, enough money to start you off, to name a few. Employers will be wary that someone disorganized may also be unreliable, making them more reluctant to hire you.
5. Adaptability
You’re going to be in a new place with different expectations. Therefore, the employer will want to know that you’re flexible and that you’ll adapt to your surroundings.
Part of being adaptable is also thinking of solutions and being open to change. For example, if your idea is rejected or needs updating, employers want to see that you can think of a better solution.
When working abroad you’ll have to adjust to certain cultural differences and adapt your skills and experience to this new environment. Make sure you show that you’re a positive, enthusiastic ‘can do’ individual who is keen to learn.
This might be through work experience, a hobby or a previous job and you must give evidence of the situation.
In summary
To land a job abroad, it’s important that you include these skills on your CV. But make sure that you always give examples to back up your claims, whether this is from previous on-the-job experience, education or even voluntary work.
Follow the above advice to help you out and you should be shortlisted for an interview in no time.
Now that you're all set with your standout CV, choose your next career adventure here 👇
Author’s bio
Augusta Henning is the PR Manager for CV-Library and has been writing about career related topics for over six years. She has a passion for communication and enjoys creating all sorts of content for her employer.
