How to Include International Experience on Your Resume

Do you dream of traveling the world in search of adventures, delicious food and exotic cultures, but your allocated vacation days are never enough to cure your wanderlust? Do you worry that an extended trip would look bad on your resume? Or perhaps you’ve finished the trip of a lifetime and are now faced with job applications, with no idea how to include this life-changing international experience on your resume? Sadly, many aspiring travelers never take the leap to travel the world because they’re worried that an extended gap in their resume could hinder their careers when they return.

How to include international experience on resume

Working abroad can be a major highlight for your resume.

The good news is that times are a-changin’ and many employers now favor candidates with international experience. With a little thought, planning, and by using our top tips, you’ll be able to make travel look good on your resume and stand out from the crowd.

What is the value of international work experience?

In an increasingly globalized world, employers are favoring candidates who are comfortable engaging with different cultures and people from different backgrounds. Navigating a new country, often in a foreign language, immersing yourself in a new culture and adapting to new customs shows that you’re resilient, respectful and resourceful.

Living and working abroad leads to personal and often professional growth. Even if your work abroad was in a different field to your current career, it will still have added a range of new soft and interpersonal skills to your skill set.

Find the perfect job abroad—one that lets you explore new interests or pad your resume for future opportunities

Having lived and worked abroad also shows an employer that you are willing to move out of your comfort zone, that you can integrate into a new work environment and build a new network. As with any experience, the value of international work experience depends on the job you’re applying to, so make sure to always customize and adapt how you describe your experience for each position.

10 steps to include abroad experience on your resume

Now you know that international work experience doesn’t need to be a hindrance to your future career and can even add significant value to it, follow these 10 steps to find out how to include international experience on a resume like a pro:

1. Be selective

Not all travel is created equal, so while it can add a lot of value to your resume, you must be selective in what you include and what you leave out. If you’ve been lazing around on beaches for the past 6 months, you’ll need to be quite creative to convince an employer that this was relevant experience. Only include experience that is actually relevant to the role you’re applying for on your resume.

For example, if you’re applying for a teaching position and have spent time abroad teaching English as a foreign language, then this is definitely relevant experience, even if you’re not applying to teach English. It shows that you’ve learned to adapt to new classroom environments, taught in a foreign culture, and bridged language and cultural barriers.

2. Find the right place

As important as it is to know what to include on your resume, it is equally important to know where to add abroad experience on your resume. If the experiences you had traveling are directly relevant to your job application, then definitely include them in the main body of your resume, just as you would with work experience at home. However, if it is not directly applicable, you should include it in a different section, possibly under ‘Other Activities’ or ‘Other Experience’.

Every resume should always tell your professional story. That’s why it’s important to add your travel and work abroad experience in the right place, to allow the story to progress naturally.

Teamwork and leadership skills can be a major resume showstopper

For example, if you’re an accountant and you volunteered abroad helping a non-profit with their bookkeeping and accounting, this is very relevant experience and should be included under ‘Work Experience’. On the other hand, if you had worked as a street fundraiser, you could still put skills learned from this experience (e.g. resilience, communication, sales) under ‘International Experience’ or a ‘Soft Skills’ sections instead.

3. Include hard and soft skills

If your abroad experience is not directly relevant to the job you’re applying to, it could still add value to your resume. In addition to hands-on skills you may have learned and practiced while working abroad, travel also teaches a lot of soft skills.

Hard skills are abilities that can be taught, such as your language skills or technical skills. Soft skills are a little harder to quantify because they are related to interpersonal skills, such as communication, leadership skills or being a great team player.

Any hard skills you acquired abroad should be added to your resume if applicable to the job you’re applying to. And any language skills should always be included, no matter the role. Employers will also always look for the right soft skills in suitable candidates, so make sure you include them to your resume and add specific scenarios and examples to highlight them.

Your soft skills might not be immediately apparent, so think about different challenges you’ve faced while traveling and living abroad. If you’ve traveled as a backpacker, chances are that you had to plan and maintain a budget in multiple currencies. You probably also had to navigate local public transport systems in foreign languages, haggle at markets to get the best deal and coordinate trips for yourself and new travel buddies. These alone could translate to budgeting, problem-solving, negotiation, leadership and organizational skills.

4. Always include languages

Languages are always highly valued by employers, so make sure to include all language skills you’ve learned while abroad.

If language skills are not directly required for the role you’re applying to, you would most likely include it in the ‘Skills’ section of your resume. But if the job is directly related to the foreign language you speak, you should highlight it some more. For example, if you’ve used your foreign language in job roles abroad, add it to your ‘Work Experience’.

The secret’s out: Working abroad isn’t only productive—it can be a great time too!

If you’ve studied any foreign languages, whether at a study abroad program or at a language school, make sure to include this under ‘Education’.

As with anything resume related, you should always be honest about your level of fluency. While even basic foreign language skills can make you stand out from the crowd, exaggerating your skills can easily turn into an embarrassing situation during an interview, or even later in the job itself.

5. Don’t forget study abroad

While work abroad experience can be of huge value on your resume, don’t forget to include study abroad programs you’ve participated in. Studying abroad challenges students in many different areas and can demonstrate your real-life application of language and communication skills.

Don’t forget about the different projects and programs you participated in while studying abroad. Even if they’re not hard skills, they can show how flexible and adaptable you are, or that you’re a team player and happy to step out of your comfort zone.

6. Include volunteer experience

If you don’t have any work or study abroad experience to include on your resume, international experience can also come in the form of volunteer opportunities and can be just as valuable to potential employers.

Whether you’ve volunteered for a non-profit, taught English in a school or even exchanged your skills for board through programs like Workaway, think about all the skills you’ve used and developed.

7. Include it in your cover letter

Some experiences are hard to summarize in bullet points and statistics, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t include them in your job application. Instead of adding them to your resume, you can include them in your cover letter.

Ask friends and colleagues to review your resume for errors or feedback.

Your cover letter offers more flexibility and creativity than your resume, so be creative and think of engaging ways to use travel anecdotes and experiences to tell your story. This is the place where you can show your personality and really stand out from the crowd. Of course, you should always stay professional on your resume, and global experience is no exception.

8. Plan ahead

Make sure you get a good head start on your resume and job applications. If you’re still abroad, you can ask current employers or volunteer program coordinators to write you a reference. You can show your future employer that you treat your overseas experience seriously by getting references translated into English if necessary.

If you’re still in the planning stages of your travels, make sure to keep your career advancement in mind. Are there any internships or volunteer opportunities you could apply to in countries you’d like to visit? Or, if you’re studying abroad, could you try to get some hands-on experience by finding some extra research work abroad?

Planning in advance might not sound as spontaneous and adventurous as you might have imagined your time abroad to be but being prepared and well informed can lead to some incredible opportunities.

9. Expand your network

Nowadays, having an extended personal and professional network can be a big advantage when applying for jobs. Having lived and worked in multiple countries instead of just your home country means you’ve built and expanded your network internationally. This can be a great asset, especially for jobs where networking and communication are required.

A large international network is more likely to be relevant if you’ve worked in the same field abroad as the job you’re applying to, so make sure you only include this if applicable.

10. Back-up your experience in the interview

So, you’ve managed to integrate your international experience seamlessly into your resume and have wowed the HR people. If you’ve been invited to an interview, this is the next opportunity to shine using your travel experience. Think of concrete stories to back up the facts and skills you’ve stated on your resume.

Travel makes you more interesting, and you’ll probably have a few great stories and adventures to weave into the interview that show your personality and skills. Never use travel as a way to boast though. No employer will like that. But, if you can use your travel tales to demonstrate situations that you handled well, this can be a huge asset.

Bonus: International experience resume SAMPLE

Now that we’ve covered the theory, let’s take a look at some real-life international experience resume samples:

Sample #1

This candidate highlights their Spanish language skills and the adaptability required to navigate a foreign country and language. [source]

Sample #2

This candidate highlights the classroom skills she developed in a foreign country and language. [source]

Sample #3

This candidate highlights how working in a culture very different to their own has improved their communication skills. [source]

You’re ready to get HIRED

Figuring out how to include international experience on your resume isn’t rocket science!

Before you jump right in and apply to a whole bunch of jobs, make sure you prepare first. Sit down with a pen and paper and make a list of all the experiences you’ve had abroad. Include all the places you’ve traveled to, whether you worked there, studied, or volunteered. Then make a list of all the different skills you’ve had to use and new skills you’ve learned in each place and each role. Remember both your hard skills and soft skills; you’ll be surprised how many there are!

For each job you want to apply for, go through the requirements carefully, at least two or three times and highlight all the various hard and soft skills the position requires. Now pair all the skills from the list you made earlier with the required and desired skills list. Make sure you add context and use concrete examples and scenarios to highlight your international experience.

Customizing your resume to each position will put you ahead of the masses and will impress any potential employers. Long gone are the days when travel and time spent abroad looked bad on your resume. If you play your cards right and follow our top tips, you’ll be able to wow future employers with the skills and experience you gained aboard. And let’s face it, if an employer doesn’t approve of travel, would you want to work for them in the first place? Probably not!

Now go ahead, make a list and create an impressive resume! Be proud of your international experience!