First Year Student Living In Halls?
Ways to boost your career prospects while you travel
Travelling itself will be massively rewarding not only on a personal level but will help you market yourself to prospective employers. However, there are a number of things you can do while you’re on your gap year that will boost your CV further and give you valuable experience for when you’re job hunting in the future.
Although volunteering abroad is much more about helping others and doing something good than it is about seeing the world or your future career prospects, it gives you the chance to see how other people live in foreign countries and can give you very valuable skills.You might be surprised how much sponsorship money you can raise for a good cause. With all kinds of interesting opportunities from around the world, volunteering is a chance to really broaden your horizons.
If you enjoy outdoor activities and you’re good at relating to children, getting involved in Camp America is bound to be a great experience and something to add to your CV. For most young people travelling in America would seem to expensive, but with Camp America and similar schemes you can work for a few months and get to do a bit of travelling at the end of summer. There are also similar opportunities across Europe, Canada and the rest of the world.
Each year lots of people get to see the world with free food and accommodation for a few hours work. Though there are mainly farming jobs out there through sites like wwoof.com and grofood.org, you can also find some non-farming opportunities such as working at a hotel for a few hours each day. This option is a great way to travel if you’re on a budget; only having to cover the costs of your travel and some other basic living costs. It offers a chance to do some basic temporary work in a number of small jobs, giving you some valuable experience whilst you get to travel.
Subscription to sites like these depends on where you’re looking and whether you’re travelling alone or with a friend or partner. However, you can expect to pay no more than £20 subscription which will give you access to a database of different hosts.
A great way to make use of a skill you probably never really thought about: as English is a language that people all over the world want to learn and to improve, there are plenty of opportunities out there for native speakers. These posts tend to be longer term, often requiring you to work a 12 month contract with longer working hours through the week. However, in return, you get an often comfortable living wage and teaching experience that looks great on your CV.
Take a look at our TEFL Guide for a basic summary of the most popular TEFL destinations across the world.