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Division of International Affairs
Education Abroad

Applying Your Experience Professionally

Education Abroad is an impressive experience that will forevermore be added to your resume, yet students often struggle to describe its transformative nature by explaining how their experience changed them and what they learned during their time abroad.

To add more prestige to your experience, highlight it in your resume, and discuss it in interviews. Be prepared to share a story that emphasizes how you overcame an obstacle, gained or enhanced a new perspective, etc.

Here are a few other tips and resources:

On Your Resume

  • Include Education Abroad on your resume with the name of your foreign institution or program under the Education section of your resume. Include your honors, awards, or recognition in the appropriate section.

During Your Interview and Include On Your Resume 

  • Define the qualities reinforced by your Education Abroad experience and explain how they apply to the job, including but not limited to

    • dedication to a project,
    • perseverance in attaining goals,
    • creative thinking, and problem-solving abilities,
    • communication skills,
    • adaptability, and flexibility,
    • ability to work independently
    • adapting to situations of change
    • gaining new knowledge from experiences
    • initiative, and self-reliance,
    • identifying new  problems/ alternative solutions
    • interacting with people who hold different values, interest, or perspectives

    • willingness to be challenged outside of your comfort zone.

During Your Interview and Include On Your Resume 

  • Describe specific goals met during your time abroad such as competency or fluency in another language or understanding of a different culture.

 For more information, guidance and tips, on how to unpack your experience abroad attend the Own Your Experience Abroad Workshop with offered by Career Services and Education Abroad. For more information please click on the icons below.

As an Education Abroad returnee, Education Abroad offers Professional Development opportunities. The Education Abroad Ambassador Program and our annual Own Your Experience Abroad Event. For more information please click on the icons below.