How to Include Travel on your Resume
So, you’ve just gotten back from a 2 year budget travel escapade around the world. It was the most memorable experience of your life, but now it’s over and time for the difficult transition back into “real life”. You find yourself with a million things to do. You have to find somewhere to live, buy a car, and most importantly GET A JOB!
In my experience, most employers look favorably on an applicant who has taken time out of their life to travel the world, learn new languages, and adapt to new cultures. However, not all employers are as progressive and worldly as the ones I have had experience with, and regardless of their outlook on world budget travel, you WILL have to explain and even defend what you have been up to for the past 2 years. Most long term travelers learn more in their years of travel than they do in any job or in any school, but you need to prove this to prospective employers so that they don’t think you’ve simply been partying for the last 2 years of your life (even if you have)!
Your resume will be a prospective employer’s first glance into your work and life history. The point of a resume is to make you stand out enough to get to the interview stage. A period of long-term travel should make you stand out in one way or another, so you just need to assure that your travel experience makes you stand out in a positive way.
In general employers are looking for tangible experience that you have had in the past, that would make you well suited for a position in their organization. Therefore you must look at your travel experience, and write about it as if it were a job. What specific things did you do that made you a successful traveler? Like any other past work experience, your description of travel section should not take up more than 4-5 lines, and should highlight points relative to the job you are applying for.
Below I have compiled a list of good, action verb descriptions that can be used to describe most long-term traveling ventures, and highlight commonly valued skills such as leadership, teamwork, dependability, creativity, and adaptability.
20 Blurbs to Describe Travel on your Resume:
These blurbs are meant to inspire thought on the many different aspects of travel you can highlight on your resume. They should NOT be simply copied and pasted into your resume, but rather combined with specific and honest travel experiences to emphasize all that you learned and accomplished.
- Adapted to foreign cultures and ways of life
- Mastered local languages
- Recognized key resources to aid in my travel goals
- Collaborated with local institutions to investigate travel options
- Incorporated local customs into my daily routine
- Encouraged open communication between foreigners and locals
- Budgeted ____ months of world travel on just $____
- Promoted intercultural exchange
- Forged lasting friendships and relationships with people of all backgrounds
- Inspired impoverished communities to take control of their lives
- Overcame societal differences to promote cultural understanding
- Motivated fellow travelers to share in local ways of life
- Equipped impoverished locals with western methodologies to achieve their goals
- Developed creative solutions to maximize travel experience on a limited budget
- Led fellow travelers through unknown regions of the world
- Modified my way of life to maximize exposure and opportunities for learning among foreign cultures
- Developed a deeper understanding for what is really important in life
- Organized fellow travelers to pursue travel goals that were of interest all involved
- Meticulously observed everything around me to ensure safe travel at all times
- Overcame ethnocentric tendencies to better understand foreign cultures within their own unique contexts
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Good advice… up until the “20 Blurbs to Describe Travel on your Resume” (you’re joking, right?)
As an employer and former career advisor, I wouldn’t take any of those blurbs very seriously. They do not provide specific examples of goals or accomplishments. Research, planning,budgeting and teamwork are all important skills. Flexibilty, problem solving and adaptability are all important qualities I look for… But what about specifics? What did you do and what did you accomplish?
For example, “Led fellow travelers through unknown regions of the world” — are there “unknown regions” of the world? If you were a tour guide or leader, list specific things you did such as researching and conducting tours, or supervisoring participants and taking measures to ensure safety. Avoid sweeping statements such as “to help locals realize their dreams”. That statement doesn’t tell me anything specific, and sounds overly altruistic.
Items 10 and 13 were especially problematic. Maybe U.S. employers are comfortable with that attitude, but elsewhere in the world those statements could be interpreted as “my-way-of-life-is-better-than-anyone-else’s”. If you were on a volunteer placement, focus on what you accomplished and the skills you gained.
My advice is to be specific: Focus on skills and accomplishments that apply specifically to the job you are seeking. Use examples. Avoid the Western bias. Above all else, be honest.
R. Timmons -
I absolutely agree with you, specifics are the key to any resume whether you are describing travel, work, or educational experience. I tried to make this point in the body of the post.
The “20 blurbs to describe your travel experience” are meant to inspire thought as to the many aspects of travel one can highlight on their resume. You are very correct that these ideas should be accompanied by specific experiences, and for that reason I have added a note to the effect before the list.
I understand your objection to points 10 and 13 (though I do not appreciate your generalization against U.S. employers - kind of hypocritical if you ask me…) Again, they are just ideas, that can be relevant if the traveler was involved in any kind of volunteer development work throughout their travels. For better or worse the international development field is highly focused on disseminating western practices into foreign contexts (it is not a “we are better than you attitude”, it simply a combination of effective methodologies).
Thanks again for your comments.
I’m sorry, I should have emphasized that you provide a lot of good advice in the body of the article. My critique of the “blurbs” isn’t a reflection of your writing, but I’ve seen a lot of points that have been copied and pasted directly from resume help guides and feared that your list might suffer the same fate!
I’m glad you called attention to the value of travel experience. I hope people will give it some thought when it comes to applying for jobs (as an aside: maybe you could write a companion article that addresses interview questions?)
R. Timmons -
No worries, you made a very valid point, which certainly deserved the attention you gave it.
I hope you will continue to keep me on my toes, and comment on future articles that I write.
A companion article addressing interview questions is a great idea, that I will certainly look into. Thanks for the suggestion!
I think that one of the greatest strengths traveling brings to an interview is the ability to connect with your interviewer through breaking the ice with a traveling experience.
good thoughts in the post,
Michael
Maybe in your next post:
“Now that you’ve attained independence, extend it by starting your own business! You can burn your resume AND continue to travel!”
Michael -
Very true and a good point. Anything that makes your interview stand out and breaks away from the standard, stuffy interview process is definitely a good thing.
Mike -
Haha, I will look into that! I think some people write entire blogs not to mention books on that topic, but I would definitely consider touching on it with a post or two.