How Studying Abroad Will Help You In Your Future Career

By Danielle Wirsansky on February 12, 2016

There comes a time in every college student’s academic career when you have to choose: to study abroad or to not study abroad?

Sometimes details like the cost or being away from home for long periods can be off-putting and enough of a deal breaker that a student won’t pursue the option. However, studying abroad is life changing and world expanding. The experience itself is usually more than personally rewarding: it can also help you get a job!

Read on to see how studying abroad will help you in your future career.

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A Global Perspective

With the way that communication has been opened up in today’s age and how interconnected people from so many different nations can be, it’s important to think from a global perspective. Understanding other people and countries’ cultures, their languages, their way of life — all of those things will help to shape you into a wiser and worldlier person.

One study showed that 89 percent of study abroad alumni reported that study abroad facilitated a greater tolerance for ambiguity while a German study compared personality development and found that students who studied abroad showed improvements in five core traits compared to their peers who did not study abroad: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and emotional stability.

All of these developments will help you not only find a job after graduation but to become a better and more well-rounded person.

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Maturity

College is a time when most of us are getting our feet wet and being adults and standing on our own for the first time. It takes us time to figure it all out, like how to budget, how to do laundry, and how to take care of yourself in general. But when you study abroad, you have to depend on yourself a whole lot more. You’re in a new country without your usual support system in place and your family and friends could be in a far off time zone that will limit your communication with them.

You might not know a lot of the people you are studying with, if at all, and you don’t know the lay of the land. Often, there is a language barrier as well. It’s up to you to navigate your way successfully through this experience and to make the most of every moment. A whopping 96 percent of study abroad alumni claim an increase in self-confidence attributed to study abroad. You become truly responsible for yourself, and when you return back home, those characteristics stick.

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Getting into Grad School

For many college students, the next step after graduation is re-enrolling in a graduate program. There are many career paths in which you need to attend grad school in order to stay in the field you’re interested in or to have a viable career. And guess what? Studying abroad can help you get into grad school too! Some studies have found that 90 percent of study abroad alumni who applied got into their 1st or 2nd choice grad school. That’s a considerable bump.

Aside from helping to develop you into a better person, studying abroad looks really great on a resume and can help give you a definitive edge over others competing for the same jobs.

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Gain Connections

Another really great aspect of studying abroad is meeting so many new people. From other students, professors, and the people native to the land you are studying in, the number of people you can connect with during this experience is limitless. These are all people that you otherwise would never have had the opportunity to meet; you never know what opportunities knowing these people could bring you.

It could be the people who work at the local café or your roommate who has a completely different major from you, but you’ll find great people. Sometimes students from outside universities will also study within your program or your program will be hosted by an outside university. That’s a whole smorgasbord of peers to connect with.

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The benefits to studying abroad in helping you with your career are many. And there are studies to prove it. A study showed that 97 percent of study abroad students found employment within 12 months of graduation, when only 49 percent of college graduates found employment in the same period. That means a student is almost twice as likely to find a job after studying abroad. Another UK study supports U.S. findings that study abroad returnees are more likely to find employment within six months.

So take the opportunity. Study abroad. Spread your wings. Let yourself fly or fall, swim or drown. It’s all about how you choose to take your experience and what you make of it.

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