BootsnAll Travel Community

My fellow travel companions -

Can someone who has re-entered the work force after a year of traveling tell me how that year off was represented on their CV/Resume?

Havent done it myself, but It sounds like your best bet would be to try to come up with something you learned, saw, experienced that could be relevant to your job (even if its just being understanding/sensitive to other cultures) and relate how those experiences would help you in your new job. Although obviously you are out of college, try googling "benefits of studying abroad" (even though it may not have been study abroad program) and you should find some skills that people get from travelling.

I just left it off and of course everyone asked: "what about the last year?" which opened me up to talking about it. Everyone was supportive and even interested in hearing about it; made for great interview talk.

I did the same as Dan..left the time off the resume and then when i was asked I was honest and talked about it.

I'm in a similar position now.

Leaving it off sounds like it has worked for others, but I worry that it might look either like I've been unemployed at home (rather than actively working to live/travel abroad which is no easy task or at least very different in employers' eyes from just not having a job for a long stretch) or have a gap in employment I haven't accounted for, or that I made a mistake in the dates or something. At the beginning I filled out a few online applications for seasonal stuff that I think were disqualified immediately because my last real job was so far back.

Sometimes I've included, in the "other skills" category, something like "Independent travel in to Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, etc. in 2002" or whatever. More recently I added something like "While I was not formally employed between xx - xx, I was active volunteering, traveling, and doing freelance work proofreading and teaching in India and Slovenia." Again, I'm sure it depends on the position you're applying for, but I think there are ways to include it - or maybe in the cover letter.

They can always ask, but if there's a stack of resumes and they're not sure what the deal is, I'd rather have it on my resume than let them use their imagination or just skip over it.

Good luck and please do post what you end up doing or if you have any more ideas.

quote:

"While I was not formally employed between xx - xx, I was active volunteering, traveling, and doing freelance work proofreading and teaching in India and Slovenia."

Sounds pretty damn good to me...

Nic