Megan Riksen:

Hello and welcome to the Work Like a Laker podcast. I'm Megan Riksen and today I am joined by Grace Pushman. Hi Grace. Hi, Megan. And our topic today is study abroad. And more specifically, how you can use your study abroad experience in your career development, in your job search, kind of all the pieces that go with career we're talking study abroad and career today. So this topic is near and dear to my heart. I studied abroad during undergrad. I was in the south of France, so I really like talking about this stuff.

Grace Pushman:

Well, and I do want to ask, what was your favorite thing about studying abroad?

Megan Riksen:

Oh my gosh. That's so hard. I am a big Francophile, so I love French culture. And so just being able to be there and experience it around me instead of just through books and movies and food, but the authentic experience of being there. Like, I don't know, even like the smell on the street, not that it even is always a good smell, just like that experience of being there. I just loved, and you're a French major, but we'll talk today about how study abroad can be beneficial when you apply for positions, even if that's not your major, even if you had a language major, Bentley spoke the language, and I bet that was an added benefit for you to be able to tell. So was amazing because it clearly helps your ability to read, write, comprehend everything when you're immersed. And I haven't studied, I didn't study abroad, which is honestly a regret of mine, but I, you know, have traveled. That's definitely one of my passions and I do host a workshop for study abroad students where I it's honestly one of my favorite presentations that I do or workshops that I do because I love hearing about people's study abroad experiences.

Grace Pushman:

So it's so fun to do this because we get to share with each other, you know, where people have traveled to. And again, I, you know, I get to share some of my travel experience, even though it wasn't through study abroad. But I do think there's that difference of when you do study abroad and you get to live there versus just, you know, be there for a week or two. So I love this topic, even though I personally didn't do it. I think it will be fun to share some tips on this. Yes. Maybe someday you'll, you'll get sent abroad by the career center to go start a new office somewhere. I'll just start dreaming for you. Put that in someone's ear.

Megan Riksen:

Awesome. Okay. So we have just a bunch of tips today to talk about how you're going to talk about your study abroad experience and also some tips at the end, you know, how to make the most of your study abroad experience, if you still are planning to do that in the future. So I'll start with talking a little bit about study abroad on your resume. So probably the most common place. And if you agree with me, let me know it would be in the education section. Um I think it's a pretty natural fit there because you can be putting obviously grand valley state university, the Bachelor's degree you're getting, but then you can put the name of the institution where you studied abroad. And that also has a place like sure. If you're short on room, you can just put, yup. Here's the university I studied at the dates I was there. But you also can describe your experience there as well. So you know, think about what was meaningful about your experience, kind of like Grace's first question to me, like what was so great about it? Was it the courses you were taking maybe, but I I'd wager a guess that it's kind of a lot of the other stuff that happens when you're living abroad. Maybe it's, you know, the host family you were living with and how you got to experience their lifestyle. Just the experience of, of a new culture and people and way of life. Maybe it was the travel, you got to do the cultural experiences like museums and things like that. Where you felt like you learned a lot, maybe it was the skills that you feel like you gained, being able to talk to people who are different from you speaking a different language. If you, if you go someplace where you're not speaking English I think it's, you know, really good to describe some of those things. So if it's in the education section, maybe you throw a couple of bullet points underneath the university where you studied, where you're describing that. But you could also think about including it in other places, let's say if you did some other things while you were abroad, if you did an internship, certainly that could fit under your experience section. If you gained a foreign language skills, of course you could put that in your skills section. If you were involved in the community, you're volunteering in some way, you can absolutely place it there. So don't feel too limited by that. You really want to make it work for you because every study abroad experience is so different. And then when you're writing those bullet points, when you're describing that you want to be using what we call those accomplishment statements, where you're starting with a verb, you're adding in details as much as possible and you're speaking to results.

Megan Riksen:

So for example, let's say I went to China to study abroad and I got the opportunity to not only take classes, but I also got to be a tutor for some Chinese students. I could add a bullet point on my resume that said, tutored five Chinese students, weekly providing support for learning conversational English. You know, I'm just giving some details and some information that, that paints that picture a little bit more so, so that, you know, especially if someone is like why to study abroad matter to me, you know, you have that hiring manager, who's, you know, reading a resume thinking, why would I care if you did this start telling them why they should care, right? You wanna, you want to reflect on that and have that showman good point. So that brings us to, you know, you want to have on your resume, but then also, how do you talk about other points in the application process where it might be brought up is in the interview process?

Grace Pushman:

So often the first question you get asked in interview is tell me about yourself. And this is a great time to just drop that in just a little sprinkle of, I also studied abroad at XYZ because that is what we could call a teaser statement, which is something that's going to tease the interviewer to want to ask you more. So anytime in an interview where you can get them off script where you can get them to ask, oh, where'd you study your, oh, what'd you I've been there, what'd you like about it? That's always a great, you know a great outcome for any interview is when you can get them to ask you more. So it's great for that little intro, just to sprinkle in there. Now it's also can answer some questions they might ask. So we have these questions called behavioral questions that can get asked in an interview.

Grace Pushman:

And that is when they ask, tell me about a time when you did blank. And so we will have a podcast actually later on this year about behavioral questions. So if you want to learn more, that should be done sometime toward the end of the school year. But one question, you know, you can use your study abroad experience to answer these questions by thinking of stories, reflecting on your experiences there to answer them. So one way is by using the star method, which is where you give a situation, task, your action steps, the results and your reflection on the experience. And so for example, they might ask, you know, tell me a time when you were a leader. So maybe think about, even if you didn't have an internship abroad, maybe it was the study abroad. I think about a time where you organize a trip with some of your, you know, some of the other students who were there and talk about that, you know, when you were a leader in that situation, they might ask, when did you resolve a conflict?

Grace Pushman:

So think about it. Was there a conflict between you and your host family? How did you resolve that? So really reflect on your experiences there, and you can come up with some great stories and then I'll find a way that you might be able to talk about your study abroad in an interview is through the skills and strengths that you gained while you were there. So I always say a great way to prepare for an interview is to think of maybe five strengths of yours, with examples, and then how it ties into the job you're applying for. And so here's, you know, one example that you might use a strength that a lot of employers look for as adaptability, almost any job you have, you're going to need to be adaptable. And so, you know, here's an example of how you might phrase a strength of yours with an example from study abroad.

Grace Pushman:

So you might say one of my strengths is that I'm adaptable. For example, while studying abroad, my flight was delayed and my host family was no longer able to pick me up at the airport. I quickly made a plan for how to find affordable and safe transportation in a foreign city. So I could arrive at my destination. I stayed calm and quickly adjusted my plans. This adaptability will come in handy while working as a nurse or whatever the position is because a nurse needs to adapt to unforeseen complications throughout the day while remaining calm. So like you can come up, you know, you can tie it into any, any job you're applying for. But I guarantee if you really think about your experiences, you definitely gained some important strengths while you were there. You definitely could grow as a person. I think when you put yourself in another city or another country and culture.

Megan Riksen:

Yes. So give yourself credit exactly for that. I think that's, that's a big piece of this is that we come back from this amazing study abroad experience where we learned so much, and then it kind of feels like maybe your closest friends and family will ask you about it, but you don't get as many opportunities to talk about it as you want bursting out of you. You want to tell everyone because it was such an incredible experience. Think about using networking situations, interviews as an outlet for that, just kind of with that professional tone and examples that you're providing, but let them see that excitement coming through don't feel bad about being excited. Right? Exactly. So talk about it. And I think one of the biggest, the mistake someone could make is like, let's say you put it on your resume and then they ask you about an interview and you say, oh, I just took a few classes while I was there.

Grace Pushman:

Don't diminish what you did. Like even if you didn't, again, even if you didn't do an internship or something, or maybe you didn't tutor a student, but even if you took a few classes, you still immersed yourself in a whole different culture and like put yourself out there in the world. And a lot of people wouldn't do that. So again, do not sell yourself short. It's an accomplishment that you should be proud of and want to talk about. Absolutely good. So I wanted to talk a little bit about if you are considering studying abroad or you already have a trip coming up, let's say you're going this year sometime or next summer. There are definitely some things that you can do while you're abroad that I think can help you advance your career, help, help you to develop in that way. So when you're studying abroad, you're living there obviously for some extended period of time, you're going to have time to build relationships.

Megan Riksen:

So of course you're building relationships with maybe the fellow students in your program, the host family you live with, hopefully you have the ability to, you know, make some friends maybe in the classes you're taking or, or in other ways, but also think about it, maybe relationship building in a professional sense. So maybe you just do a blind reach out to an organization where you think it would be amazing to work or that you would just love to hear more about something that aligns potentially with, with some of your career goals. There also are always a lot of groups especially in ex-pat communities. I also lived abroad in the Netherlands post-college and I found that joining some of those ex-pat groups was an amazing way to meet people. And I actually was meeting people from all over the world cause it's, ex-pats coming in from everywhere.

Megan Riksen:

So that was like another even layer of kind of experience that I was able to get that I had friends from not just the Netherlands, but other countries as well. Because yeah, then you can of course learn more about people, but you're also learning more about organizations about work culture. There, you can ask lots of questions, you can do that, that true networking that especially if you have goals of ever wanting to go back there to work, you're kind of setting the groundwork for that. Volunteering is a great thing to do while you're abroad. I actually was kind of using my own experience in that tutoring example cause I was able to do that with a small classroom of French students while I was studying abroad. And it was just a great way to use a skill that I eventually used, right?

Megan Riksen:

I'm, I'm an education that was, you know, an educational pursuit helping those students. But if you feel more connected and internships are also something that you can do while you're abroad. So the Padnos International Center offers multiple programs in lots of cities throughout the world where they actually work with programs to help you to find an internship and get that set up and provide that support. But I also know students who started their study abroad experience, thinking I'm going to take classes, that's, that's my main goal here, but then we're able to on their own find some sort of an internship. So nothing is really off the table. I think there's always, you know, kind of, depending on what your goals are for that program, there are some really great ways to kind of further your career goals while you're abroad. Yeah.

Grace Pushman:

Good points. I think it's definitely worthwhile to think about it beforehand to think, how can we make the most of this experience exactly.

Megan Riksen:

Because you also want to have enough time to have fun and just like eat and experience food and all of those good things too. So so yeah, having a few goals around that I think is always helpful. Great. So those, those are our tips for today. I think, I think we covered a few short and sweet. Of course in the Career Center, who would love to help you with any elements of this, if it's before you're going on your trip and you want to brainstorm maybe a couple of organizations that you'll reach out to, maybe you even reach out to them before you go have some job shadows set up before you go, you can always do that. We'd love to help you with that. But then certainly when you come back as well, we are here to help with incorporating this information on your resume, talking through how you can share your experiences as well. So I think that's all we got for today.

Grace Pushman:

Sounds good.

Megan Riksen:

All right. Thanks so much to everyone for listening and we hope you tune into a future episode soon.