Highlight Your Study/Work Abroad Skills in a Job Interview
(The following tips and samples are edited from Lessons From Abroad Conference Handout, San Diego, CA, Feb., 2012)
First, think about some of the skills you may have gained/developed through study/work
abroad:
| Ability to establish rapport |
Familiarity with local customs |
Perseverance |
| Ability to handle stress |
Flexibility |
Goal establishments |
| Ability to make transitions |
Independence |
Relationship building skills |
| Adaptability |
Initiative |
Intercultural Competence |
| Responsibility |
Assertiveness |
Language proficiency |
| Self-confidence |
Creativity |
Teamwork |
| Curiosity |
Motivation |
Time management |
| Diversity tolerance |
Open-mindedness |
Self-reliance |
| Research experience |
Adventurous spirit |
Resourceful |
| Self-discipline |
Cross-cultural communication |
Managing, organizing, or leading |
| Positive outlook towards hardship, adversity and unfamiliar situations |
Second, reflect on the following prompts to help you identify and articulate specific
indicators of the skills you learned abroad:
- Identify an experience that would demonstrate that you have a basic command of the
local language, and be able to use it in a practical situation (Student in Spain, apartment,
work, took classes)
- Identify an experience that would demonstrate that you can take personal risks and act
independently
- Identify an experience that would demonstrate that you can creatively solve problems by
applying familiar concepts in unfamiliar situations
- Identify an experience that would demonstrate that you can contribute to an ethically
diverse team
- Identify an experience that would demonstrate that you can be self-confident, yet able to
listen and learn from people whose value systems are different from yours
- Identify an experience that would demonstrate that you can be flexible and adapt to
rapidly changing situations
Thirdly, use the experiences and situations described above to answer behavioral questions
asked in an interview.