Benefits of International Experience | A CAREER BOOST?

Taking a gap year abroad after school has many advantages. Until then, most high school or college students have still enjoyed the comforts of life with their parents. Now it's time to stand on your own two feet. If you find the courage, it will help you grow in many ways. But what exactly are the benefits of international experience that you hear so much about?

The benefits include:

• Deepen your language skills: You speak a foreign language in the new country in daily life and at work, so communicating in it becomes second nature. At some point it almost comes by itself.
• Get to know foreign cultures: Here too you encounter behaviors that differ by country and religion, which you learn to accept and want to understand. You practice acceptance.
• Look beyond your own horizons: You no longer see only your country, your parents' home and yourself. You may even reach your limits and grow from them.
• Make new contacts: All over the world there are people who come to mean something to you. You learn from good and bad experiences with people. Positive contacts are very valuable, and you'll keep them.
• On your resume, a stay abroad looks very good as work experience, and you'll also learn the people skills you need in working life.
• You grow as a person through experiences and problems abroad. You depend on finding a solution to many things yourself. You come out of these situations stronger.

Without a doubt, international experience has benefits. It matters a great deal for the rest of your life. Before you enter working life, you should treat yourself to something like this if at all possible. There are websites that report on the topic of "benefits of international experience". There you can read first-hand accounts from different countries. Almost all of them have one thing in common: the young people wouldn't want to miss this experience. They would do it all again at any time. Nobody can take the benefits of international experience away from you, and they'll be very important in your later career. They also help in your private life, in finances and in family planning. You get a good sense of what matters in life.

Au pair as another option

Working as an au pair, roughly a household helper in a family, also offers many advantages, and there are usually good opportunities in the USA. One skill you pick up here is a sense of responsibility. Planning a trip like this for a longer period is quite a big step. The experiences you gain are of immeasurable value, though. Self-confidence, if you didn't already have it, gets a big boost here. And later on you won't be so easily knocked down. If you're planning it, have courage and do it, because you take so much with you from this time for your own path.