Using Your Internship Abroad

Now that you have gone to the effort of interning abroad, make sure to take advantage of the experience and skills you've gained. We discussed a few of the career advantages of interning abroad in our why intern abroad article, but now we're going to explore this issue more fully. (If you're reading this and wishing you could intern abroad, check out our finding an internship abroad article as well.)

Resumé

After having spent time abroad, you're probably already aware that different countries have different expectations, particularly for applying to a company for a job. For instance, the US resumé is another country's CV. We're going to cover some of the basics as far as emphasizing the benefits you bring as an applicant that has interned abroad.

However, I'd emphasize that if you're applying for a job that's based internationally, you'll need to carefully research the different components of a CV or whatever form of application companies in that country expect. Aside from a very different format, there may be differences with the way you write certain pieces. One international student commented she had to rewrite her entire resumé to emphasize results achieved when she was applying for US jobs whereas she had written it originally to focus far more on functionality. If your study abroad office provides information on these topics, they might be a good place to start, and it's possible that your career counseling services might also have information on applying internationally. I also recommend The Big Guide To Living and Working Overseas, which has excellent information on international CVs.

Transferable Skills

In almost any format you use, you'll want to focus on your transferable skills. While you no doubt gained great experience interning abroad, it's rare that you would have interned doing exactly what you'll be doing in the position for which you're applying as a graduate. Often graduates feel like they're facing an uphill battle because they don't have the experience many companies are looking for. However, the alternative is to emphasize the skills that you've learned that will make you successful in the position and the company to which you're applying.

International experience tends to help students develop skills that fall into a few general categories:

• Communication
• Cross-cultural competency
• Problem solving
• Adaptability

Students who intern (or study) abroad are able to develop the type of communication skills that today's companies are seeking. If you developed fluency in another language, that's certainly valuable. However, even if you worked in an English-speaking country, by interning abroad, you learned to communicate with people of a different culture (or many different cultures depending on where you were: London, for example.)

Related to the issue of communication is cross-cultural competencies. Being comfortable not only communicating but interacting and working alongside people with different worldviews and backgrounds is invaluable in today's economy. As companies become increasingly team-based and adaptive with more interactive structures, the need for employees who are comfortable working in cross-cultural situations is key.

Finding an international internship requires significant effort, possibly some creativity and a great deal of persistence. Completing an internship abroad successfully requires adjusting to a new country, a new work environment and new co-workers. No doubt along the way you've improved your problem solving skills as you had to find solutions for new and challenging situations. Companies are struggling to find their own solutions to meet the needs of their increasingly complex markets and your experience in this area could contribute to those solutions.

Who hasn't heard the advice that you need to know how to laugh at yourself in order to go abroad? If you successfully completed an international internship, I'd be willing to bet you learned to adapt and be flexible. Once again, companies are seeking employees with this flexibility who can find creative solutions as needed, based on the environment.

Communicating Transferable Skills on Your Resumé

So we've gone through a few of the major transferable skills you may want to highlight on your resumé. This still leaves you with the question of how to do so. Basically, you're going to want to figure out which transferable skills you think make you the best candidate for the position to which you're applying. Then you want to describe your internship abroad on your resumé so that you highlight your skills.

For instance, rather than saying, "Directed callers to the appropriate contact within the organization" you might say "Developed multicultural communication skills by determining the needs of national and international customers and helping them find the correct resources." The format may vary widely depending on the position, industry and country. However, the point is that you describe your experience in terms of the skills that you'll be bringing to your new employer. Potentially you can elaborate even more on this in your cover letter. Clearly communicate the skills you bring to the position and why you feel you meet the ideal profile.

Communicating Transferable Skills in Your Interview

So after crafting the perfect resumé/CV with all of these transferable skills, hopefully you'll have the opportunity to meet with the employer for an interview. While there are a number of ways you can express these transferable skills, I think one of the best is to do so concretely using stories. Think of a number of examples from your internship abroad, and then work through the story in terms of what skills you learned that you could apply in the new position. This catapults your international experience from an interesting novelty for the interview to an invaluable experience that the company will be capitalizing on by hiring you. If you can demonstrate how your past experiences have uniquely prepared you for the position for which you're applying, you will likely shine compared to the other applicants.

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