Sure it’s great to travel. We experience new places, taste new foods, and learn new culture all while having fun. Yet, did you ever consider that travel might be a boost to your career?
How? For starters, it can make you standout and make you memorable. When I was hiring for the intern program in the days I worked at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, many of the resumes read the same. The interns were new to the work world so most had the standard major/minor education and professional experiences on their resumes. One that stood out to me was from an international student who had travelled to the US for her studies. She was Swedish and had travelled Europe and been to much of the east coast during her time in the US. Because the work we needed the intern to do would be focused on training a diverse group on new skills and experiences, I thought this person had more exposure to different types of people from her travels and that it would serve her well in the role. And it did – she was a fantastic support to our team and all the employees loved her!
2. Next, travel builds skills that you can add to your resume; skills can then open doors to new career possibilities. Take my client Greg. He was a management consultant who loved the travel associated with the job. Still he craved more and took a six-month travel sabbatical. He started his time away with a Spanish immersion program and spent most of his remaining travels in Spanish-speaking countries honing his language skills. When he returned to work, Greg confidently added conversational Spanish to his resume. Imagine Greg’s happiness, when he learned that a new project in Mexico City was looking for a consultant at his level. Because he now had conversational Spanish on his resume, Greg was a shoe-in for the role and he lived and worked in Mexico City for 18 months. He credits his travels for opening him up to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
3. For experienced hires, adding a retreat or travel sabbatical to your resume helps in the interview in that it gives you something interesting to connect with the interviewer about. When you add “travel” or “travel sabbatical” to the Interests section of your resume, people want to talk with you about it. Greg found that when he went on interviews his sabbatical was often the first thing the interviewer brought up. Why? Not because they were concerned but because the interviewer also wanted to take a travel sabbatical and was interested in how Greg made it happen.
4. The travel connection also makes great thank you note reference. Recently I interviewed the author of a book called “Write To Influence!”. On my podcast, she shared specific ways you can use a thank you note to reiterate your fit for the job after you’ve interviewed. Her example was travel related – “I appreciate the time you took to discuss the job with me and especially appreciated the conversation about our mutual interest in travelling Eastern Europe.” Travel connects us.
5. Travel allows you to meet unique individuals. Anyone who travels will tell you they met some of the most interesting people on the road. It offers us a chance not just to learn from the destination and its people, but from the other travelers one meets on the adventure. Getting out of the daily grind, forces us to be and connecting with more of the world. We must remember life is a journey and it’s up to us to make it interesting for ourselves and traveling is the perfect way to add such people to our lives. For some of my clients, those connections led to opportunities and validation. One client was interested in a career with an animal welfare organization. She had a vacation getaway planned and on her trip, ended up talking with a local store owner. Coincidentally, the store owner had recently returned from a sting at an animal refuge in Africa. Her travels had led her to the perfect conversation. My client knew she was on the right path.
Does it matter what kind of retreat or travel you do? Do some experiences offer a better career boosts than others? Yes, it matters. I find that having some structure or objective to your travels enables them to be a better boost for your resume and interview conversations. Today there are opportunities to travel and give back by volunteering your skills, There are schools where you can learn a language and retreats where you can focus on personal development. Recently I delivered a Career Exploration and Soul Search Retreat in Lisbon Portugal where two of the participants were on sabbatical. In each case, they had taken time away to reflect on the professional and personal courses of their lives and the retreat was a wonderful support to that. One said of the retreat experience, “Traveling abroad always opens up the mind to new possibilities, so pairing that experience with exposure to a talented career coach like Maggie made this an extremely powerful experience. And sharing the trip with a group of people interested in (or in the midst of) similar transitions in their professional lives created a genuine sense of community that I know will last beyond the trip. The tour, tile making and volunteer components were icing on the cake, but they were profound, too -- creating authentic connections to the people and place. Highly recommended!”
As a career coach, I’ve seen it from all sides, first as a job seeker myself, then as a hiring manager and now as a career coach. I’ve learned that our resumes and interview conversations present unique and powerful opportunities to express who we really are and shape how we want to share our gifts and talents with the world. By taking that trip you’ve always dreamed or participating in that retreat that sparks your interest, you are actually sending a message about the kind of inspired, take action kind of person you are. So go for it, your career coach approves.
Learn more about Maggie Mistal and Venture with Impact’s annual Career Exploration and Soul Search retreat here.