Your exchange experience is completed. You are now more mature and smarter. You’ve grown personally and professionally. Here’s how you can evaluate your self-improvement and share your gained skills with the world.
- Reflect on your experiences: Take some time to reflect on your exchange experience and think about what you learned and how you grew during your time abroad. Consider how you tackled challenges, worked with others and adapted to new situations.
- Identify your skills: Make a list of the skills you developed or improved upon during your exchange experience. These might include communication skills, language skills, problem-solving skills, adaptability, and intercultural competency. If you find it difficult, ask your friends – they are often the first to notice a change in you. Or, you can use tools designed specifically for enhancing and acknowledging the soft skills and competencies, e.g., project “Erasmus Skills”.
- Share your skills: When applying for jobs or internships, be sure to highlight the skills you gained during your exchange program. Include specific examples of how you used these skills and the impact they had on your personal and professional development. Update your CV, create a LinkedIn account – be visible.
- Network: Use your exchange experience as an opportunity to build your professional network. Connect with people you met during your studies abroad and reach out to alumni or professionals in your field of interest.
- Create an action plan: Is there anything you would change or start after your experience abroad? Perhaps you would like to start a business? Join further training? Brainstorm different ideas.
By evaluating your improvement and identifying the skills you gained during your exchange program, you can position yourself for professional opportunities and build a strong foundation for your career.
Useful resources:
- Erasmus Skills project: https://www.erasmusskills.eu/eskills/
- Article on writing a CV: Global Award Alumni Network (intaward.org)
- List of 62 competencies, competency overview with most common competencies: 123test
- Template for creating a CV: flowcv.io
