Key Takeaways
- What do you do when you come back home? How do you explain the gap in your employment to the hiring person in front of you? How do you make travel see
- You’ve just finished your life-changing travels and now you’re back home and considering how you are going to find work again. Whether you’re travels
- Normally you need to account in some way for the time spent away from work. If employers see a gap in your resume that isn’t explained, you may not ma
What do you do when you come back home? How do you explain the gap in your employment to the hiring person in front of you? How do you make travel seem like a win? Those are all valid questions people who take a career break have so we invited career break expert Sherry Ott to tell us when (and when not) to use travel to boost our resume.
You’ve just finished your life-changing travels and now you’re back home and considering how you are going to find work again. Whether your travels were a career break, gap year, or sabbatical, you’ll need to figure out how to account for the time and experiences on your résumé.
Normally you need to account in some way for the time spent away from work. If employers see a gap in your resume that isn’t explained, you may not make it through the first cut of résumés.
We often work with travelers who are re-entering the workforce and are faced with the following questions when trying to update their résumé.
Travel: Where should it go on my résumé?
It depends. Do you think the experiences you had traveling apply to you finding a new job in your field? If so, then place it in the main part of your résumé. If you don’t feel like it applies, then it probably belongs in a section reserved for “Additional Information” or “Hobbies.”
Kristin Zibell of Take Your Big Trip is a frequent career breaker and she keeps her résumé flexible, saying, “I found the recruiters and hiring managers were looking for the professional story in my résumé. Every statement on my résumé needed to support this story and show the situation, action, and results. If my travels and experiences had a direct relationship to the position, like my blogging or volunteering abroad, then I listed it like a position: ‘Travel Blogger’ or ‘English Teacher.’ Most of the time, I found that travel was an interesting fact about me and explained the time gaps, but not directly related to the positions. In this case, I placed my travel experiences at the bottom in an ‘Additional Activities’ section that colored who I was and what I had done.”
Kristin’s résumé highlights her travels as international experience:
- Ten months of travel to India, Nepal, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, from October 2008 to May 2010.
- Activities included volunteer work at Mother Teresa Mission Charities in Kolkata with disabled women and teaching English to street children in Jaipur.
- Designed and authored three travel blogs during these multi-month solo trips. Currently editor of Takeyourbigtrip.com.
What type of information should I share?
It’s probably not a good idea to put that you were a beach bum for 12 months, or that you traveled the Full Moon Party circuit. Instead, think about what you did on your travels that had to do with education, skill building, volunteering, and business, and highlight them in a professional manner. But there are some other skills you might want to consider:
1. Volunteering
One should always represent any volunteering done while traveling on a résumé. For many, it demonstrates commitment to education, cross-cultural engagement, and global awareness. You should always include where your volunteering took place, what your responsibilities were, and if there was any measurable outcome. The outcomes could be tangible things such as building a house, cleaning up after a natural disaster, or restoring wetlands. Example:
- Extensive international travel background, comfortable working with and in different cultures.
- Volunteered with Cross-Cultural Solutions in New Delhi, India, teaching computers, conversational English, and interview skills in order to assist young adults entering the workforce.
If not covered elsewhere in your résumé, also consider including intangible, résumé-building results — such as improved leadership skills, proven ability to take initiative, and enhanced listening and communication skills. Finally, if your volunteering was for an extended period of time, such as six months to a year, then consider putting this experience in your work or education history.
2. Working
We’ve found that more and more people are working while they travel; for example, Sherry worked during her year in Vietnam. Work that is relevant to your field is important to highlight. Did you do any freelance work, consulting, work at a hostel, or ESL instruction? If so, this can go into your work history.
She highlighted her various work experiences as international work experience:
ESL Instructor: ILA Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City
- Teaching adults English as a Second Language (ESL)
- Delivered a usability analysis of the e-commerce site and led subsequent redesign
- Conducted tests and created a regression test plan
- Consulted with owners on their business vision and ensured that it can be supported on the site. Offered guidance on short- and long-term business plans and their technical implementation.
3. Blogging
Did you blog, write for publications, or do photography? All of these things illustrate transferable skills — writing, digital marketing, content strategy, visual storytelling, SEO, and audience engagement — and can strengthen your candidacy across industries.
