Considering traveling after college? You're not alone. Many graduates start to get an itch to travel and explore before "settling down" to work, and I should know: I was one of them. After graduation, I got a six-month work Visa for the U.K., lived and worked in London, and traveled to as many places around the world as I could. Not only did the experience not hurt my career, I truly believe it helped me in more ways than I can count. Traveling after college was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Here are six reasons you should take that leap, too.
1. It may help you get a job.
As you approach college graduation and hear endless talk of resume writing and job hunting, it’s natural to feel like, in order to keep up, you have to get started in your career as soon as the ink is dry on your diploma — and that heading abroad for any length of time may just set you back. In reality, though, living abroad (whether you’re backpacking and touring, or you’re working in one place) may likely impress potential employers once you’re back home. “Companies want to work with interesting, smart, worldly, and engaging people,” Britt Swingle, account executive at national staffing agency Creative Circle, tells Teen Vogue. “Sure, your skills and experience may play a part, but seeing something out of the ordinary at the top of your resume is an easy conversation starter.” And it’s not just about the life or work skills you gain while abroad — the experience alone may make you more memorable and interesting. “These are the things that will make a hiring manager remember you instead of the seven other recent grads they’ve spoken to,” Britt says.
Hanna Friess, sales and marketing coordinator of BUNAC, a company that coordinates volunteer and work abroad programs around the world, also noted how invaluable working abroad can be. “Working in an international setting improves your communication skills and brings to light the vast differences throughout the world,” she tells Teen Vogue. "Even if you end up working in a bar for a year, employers will be impressed to see you had the initiative and courage to travel to a new country and establish and support yourself.”
2. You won’t regret not seizing the opportunity.
If you find yourself contemplating post-graduation travel more often than not, it must be important to you. You can spend days, weeks, and even months coming up with excuses for why not to go — you want to get ahead in your career, or you’d rather save your money. But those excuses may only leave you with regret down the road. Alissa Trowbridge, a 29-year-old English as a Second Language teacher in Chicago, IL, spent a year teaching in China after college graduation. She was offered a teaching position here in the States right out of school, but decided, ultimately, that traveling would make her a better teacher and person. “You have the rest of your life to go to a ‘normal’ job — don’t rush into that,” she tells Teen Vogue. “If you’re still trying to figure out the direction to take your degree, think about it while traveling.”
3. You could discover your life’s passion.
In fact, living abroad can not only help crystalize your ideas of what you want to do, career-wise, but it can also introduce you to newfound passions or bring to light something you never realized you loved. Josh Gaston, a 31-year-old graduate student and teaching assistant at the University of Kansas is currently pursuing a Master's in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) — something he likely never would have done had he not traveled after graduation. Josh also spent a year in China, “because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after graduating. But while I was there, I found that I really enjoyed teaching,” he tells Teen Vogue. He also discovered another passion: traveling. After a year in China, he returned to the U.S. for two years before heading out to Chile…and then Korea, and then Southeast Asia and Australia. Over the course of about four-and-a-half years, Josh taught, worked, and backpacked all over the world; once he gets his Master's, he hopes to get a teaching position at a university abroad. “If I hadn’t decided to go to China and then to Chile, I’m not sure what I would be doing today,” he said.
4. You’ll gain perspective.
“It sounds cliché…but it’s such a great learning experience seeing the world through the eyes of different cultures and people,” Josh tells Teen Vogue. “I think it’s important to develop an appreciation for how large (and small) the world is to give [you] a larger perspective before entering the workforce.” While you can certainly live, succeed, and even thrive without ever having left your home country, spending time immersed in a different culture (or cultures) can affect every aspect of your life, from how you treat others, to how you view the world, and even how you treat yourself — it’s an intangible and immeasurable gift.
Soon after moving to Shijazhuang, the small town in China where she lived and taught, Alissa witnessed things that, while cultural norms there, were surprising to her, coming from the U.S. “They definitely opened my eyes to new ways of doing things,” she says. “I constantly reminded myself, ‘Just because it’s different, doesn’t make it wrong.’ I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t challenging, but I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.”
5. You’ll learn independence.
Regardless of how independent you may be now, or have been since childhood, living abroad builds on and cultivates that independence in a whole new way. When you’re separated from family, friends, and everything and everyone you know by oceans, and thousands of miles, you’re forced to fend for yourself and learn how to thrive in ways you never thought possible. “Living alone abroad, I acquired a great deal of independence,” Alissa says. “Knowing how difficult it would be to communicate a problem I had in my apartment, I handled the issues myself. After fixing my jumping washing machine and putting out a fire started by my TV wires, I felt empowered. I remember thinking, ‘I’m so good at adulting.’”
And you don’t have to live in a place where English is a foreign language to gain that independence. Mecaela Miller, the 31-year-old owner of the Napa, CA event production company, The Rooted Fork spent three months traveling through Europe after graduation, before settling in London to work for several months — and she did it alone. “When you are alone, you are pushed out of your comfort zone and forced to talk with strangers,” she tells Teen Vogue. “Sometimes this leads to meeting the most amazing people you may ever encounter in your life. I was grateful for all the kind, interesting, and eclectic people I came into contact with on this trip — many I still keep in touch with to this day!” And being a lone traveler allowed her to fully maximize her time abroad. “I was completely free to do whatever I wanted, without answering to anyone else. I had some of the most spontaneous adventures this way that I am honestly not sure I would have had if I was with others.”
6. You'll get to know yourself.
True, everyone says college is the time when you’ll really come into your own — but that self-exploration doesn’t end when you graduate. And whether you work abroad, backpack, or visit a few places as a tourist, spending some time outside the U.S. will undoubtedly further your self-discovery in ways you never knew. “It’s amazing what traveling teaches you about yourself,” Alissa says. “You’ll learn more about your strengths/weaknesses, likes/dislikes, [and] limits or lack thereof. You’ll push yourself to do things you never imagined and those things will make you a stronger, smarter, kinder, more well-rounded person.”
And that may be even truer in the face of fear, nerves, and tough situations you encounter while abroad. “I learned I could withstand a lot and that I could survive on my own,” Mecaela said of her experience. “It was definitely not as glamorous as I had anticipated, especially because I was paying my own way and funds were limited. There were many times I had to pay money I simply didn’t have to get on the right train or into a safe hotel for the night. When you are on your own, lost, hauling around your luggage in the heat, and have no cell phone to communicate, you learn very quickly that you can sit on the sidewalk and cry about it, or pick yourself up and handle it. I was proud of the lessons I learned about myself through my travels, and I carry them with me to this day.”
Bottom line: Traveling after college is one of those experiences that will likely change you for life, in the best way possible. And you won’t know just how significant the experience is until you take the leap. “Travel! Do it! Do not think twice,” Britt says. “Go meet amazing people from around the world and take in their culture while you’re young. Create a life experience for yourself that you can’t explain to anyone except those who have also done it.”
