1. Marketing your Education Abroad Experience
Emily Besen, Assistant Director, International Relationship Manager, Center for Career Development
Lorien Romito, Director, Education Abroad
Babson College
Volunteers hand out slips
Introduce yourself to the person next to you; and identify 3 competencies that are most salient for you, based on your international experience
LR/EB intros

2. Agenda LR 2:45-2:50 Energizer - EB 2:50-2:55 Agenda- LR
What Employers are Looking For
Components of Your Experience
Telling Your Story
Framing For the Workplace
Presenting Your International Experience LR
2:45-2:50 Energizer - EB
2:50-2:55 Agenda- LR
2:55-3:00 CCD – What Employers are looking for (EB slides 3,4&5)
3:00-3:10 Components, learned, skills reflection exercise(Lorien slides 6-9)
3:10 – 3:11: Identifying transferable skills (EB slides 10)
3:11-3:20 Practicing Behavioral Interview questions using “Telling Your Story” exercise (EB, students, slide 12-13)
3:20-3:30: Wrap up (Lorien slides 17-18)

3. Employers Value International Experiences
Ability to work in diverse teams
Understanding of the “global workplace” EB
Through my experience working with employers across all industries, I can say with confidence that employers value international experiences. They are seeking candidates who have the skills and knowledge to function in an increasingly global economy and workplace.; things like communicating in a second language, ability to work in diverse teams, etc. All of the things that we identified in the activity just a few moments ago. However it is unlikely that an employer will rank just having international experience highly on their list of desired qualifications. Why might this be?
Creative problem solving
Communicate in second language

4. International Experience Myths
Little to no interaction with local residents
Study abroad
is “just a party”
English spoken everywhere
Well, there are plenty of myths that surround education abroad; perhaps you have already encountered some of these from friends and family. BUT there is also the fact that an employer may simply not be connecting the dots between your international experience and the skill development necessary to enter the workplace.
Easy classes

5. NACE Job Outlook Report 2017*
Top resume attributes:
Communication skills
Leadership
Problem-solving skills
Strong work ethic, teamwork
Initiative
Flexibility/Adaptability
Entrepreneurial Skills/ Risk-Taker
Each year, NACE surveys employers to find out what are they top attributes employers seek in a candidate. Consistently, we find that nearly all of them are skills that we see students developing abroad; things like strong communication, leadership, adaptability, problem-solving skills; these probably look similar to what you discussed in the beginning of this session.
Are you starting to see some connection between your experience abroad and the skills employers are seeking?
*NACE 2017 Job Outlook Survey

6. You Stand Out
Good; because you do stand out! Only 1 in 10 Ugs studies abroad before graduating; most of which participate in summer or short-term programs; even fewer actually participate in a semester or year-long program. So great, you went abroad, you stand out. How can we now leverage your experience abroad for your future career? How can we help connect the dots for the recruiter or employer?
EB – ADD NOTE ABOUT RESUME
Only 3.9% of all U.S. college students are International Students – at Babson it is more than 25%
58.9% - Less than 8 weeks
37.9% - Semester
3.2% - Academic Year
In a year – all students = 19,626,742 of these 283,332 went abroad (1.4%)
All students during degree program - 9.4%
US Bachelors students during degree program – 14.2%
8.36% short term
5.38% semester
0.45% academic year

7. How was your experience?
It was awesome.
So why then; when asked about our study abroad experience—do we reply:
LR- reflection activity as individuals- write on a piece of paper

8. Components of Your International Experience
Babson Abroad 101
Components of Your International Experience
Guest Speakers
Internships
Service – Learning
Clubs / Orgs
Rural / Urban
Developed / Developing
Size of Institution
Language
Group experience
Time spent Abroad
Company visits
Direct Enrollment
Study Center
Housing
Academics
Community Engagement
Environment
Residence Hall
Apartment
Homestay
Hotel
Glavin – LR
How do we move from “it was awesome” to an articulate narrative about your experience abroad? One way to do that is to think about your program in components. Where did you live? What were the academics like? How did you engage, authentically with the community? What was your living environment?
Each person’s study abroad experience is unique as the components that make up the experience vary greatly. Think of each of the components of your experience – these are what makes each of your experiences unique
Others might be:
Components:
Housing
Academics
Community Engagement
Travel
Student clubs/ organizations
Volunteering
Internships
Visas process
After you have thought about the components of your program, it is important to think about things you learned from each of these experiences. For today’s exercise, identify one component that really sticks out for you. Next, try to identify what you learned from that component. Take two minutes to do that individually now.

9. London School of Economics, London, UK
Academics: Classroom Differences
Accommodations:
Urban Dorm Living
Debate Skills
Original Thinking
Logical Thought Processes
Emotional Intelligence
Adaptable to different working-styles
Engaging with students of different backgrounds
City Immersion
Maintaining U.S. identity
Being outgoing instead of shy
Staying active on campus
Public transportation knowledge
Geography
Cultural curiosity
Community Engagement:
Organizations
Living Environment
How to travel safely and frequently via trains, planes, and buses
International business skills
Application styles
Using culture to network
Example of student’s pie chart showing skills learned abroad
So let’s look at the academic experience for Chris. He identified how different the classroom culture in the UK was to the United States. He then articulated, more specifically what he learned from this different learning environment. Debate skills, original thought, etc.
The next step is to take what you learn and tease out the skills that learning experience helped you to acquire and how it would connect to the work place. So, for Chris, maybe, the skills are adapting to different colleagues working-styles as he had to shift how we learned and delivered information.
Now we are going to have you do this….
Professional Development:
Career Networking
Unstructured co-curricular:
Ease of Travel
Chris Minor, Babson College class of 2014

10. Telling Your Story LR- reflection activity as individuals 1.
Identify 1 salient component from your experience 2.
Write 1 thing you learned from that component 3.
Share the component and learned skills with a partner 4.
How is this transferable to the workplace?
LR- reflection activity as individuals

11. Identify Transferrable Skills
Improved Language Skills
Ability to adapt to variety of communication styles
Took classes with local students
Ability to contribute to a multicultural team
Organized and researched travel plans
Takes Initiative; Leader
Adapted to urban setting
Problem Solver; Flexible EB
How hard was number 4? Speak the language of the workplace. This is probably the hardest step. An employer is not necessarily going to care that you learned to use public transportation for the first time in your life; but its all about how you frame it. You have to speak the language of the employer. Once you have identified what you learned from each component of the experience, think about how that skill would be valuable in a work setting. Can anyone give an example?

12. Marketing your International Experience
Resume
Highlight your experience within the “education” section
Cover Letter
Emphasize an important skill you’ve developed abroad that is crucial to success for a given position
Interviews
Prepare to tell recruiters why you chose to study abroad and what you’ve learned

13. Telling your Story Behavioral Questions & Interviews
Can I tell this story in a compelling manner?
How does the story relate to the position/company?
How quickly can you adapt to a new environment? Provide examples.
Tell me about a time you took a risk.
Give an example of a time that you were faced with a problem and how you solved it. EB
Go back to the notes you have taken on what you’ve learned and the skills transferrable to the workplace, we want you to build a narrative to support your claim.
So now that you’ve identified what skills you gained abroad that are transferrable for the workplace; you’ve got to prove it by providing some concrete examples! Story-telling is memorable; and works very well with the style of interviewing that is very common at the moment—behavioral interviewing (tell me about a time when you…). By the way, you can use story-telling for any professional experiences you want to discuss in an interview.
Share example with partner; two students share out with group
DEBRIEF
Remember that an employer might not specifically ask about study abroad! Because you are not going to spend an entire interview talking about your experience abroad (probably); you should craft 2-3 stories that can illustrate that you have the skills a particular employer is speaking. Again, keep in mind that the story that you tell should be appropriate and relatable to the employer and position at hand. It’s also useful to call on these stories when you’re in an informal networking situation; speaking to a professor, your mom…really anyone! Taking time to craft a few compelling stories will help you move beyond, “it was awesome.”

14. Bottom Line Employers value your ability to . .
Demonstrate cross-cultural competence
Articulate lessons learned and skills developed through your international experience.
BUT it is up to you to demonstrate the link between your study abroad experience and the specific skills valued by the company or organization LR

15. Questions?
Emily Besen, Lorien Romito, LR