Traveling abroad provides recent grads lesson in adaptability

If you're a recent graduate who didn't study abroad in college, you may not have missed your chance.

In fact, more and more people are choosing to delay the abroad experience until after they finish college, or are even a few years out of school, says Tom Pastorius, vice president of Projects Abroad, an organization that hosts volunteer projects in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

"People are saying, 'If I don't do it now, I may never get the opportunity,'" Pastorius says.

Whether travelers are doing a specific project or just finding work when they arrive to earn income, Pastorius says that no matter what their career path, there's always something the abroad experience can add to a resume.

"Whatever job you're doing, you are building fairly universal skills," he says. "The ability to navigate cross-cultural team dynamics is something that's really important now as everyone's talking about globalization."

Abroad travel has always been popular among young people, but Pastorius believes today's economic climate is encouraging more people to actually take the leap.

"In late 2008 and 2009, we started to notice that people were starting (with Projects Abroad) at times where we didn't usually have a lot of people starting, so that was laid-off people," he says. "There are also people who haven't been able to get a job when they graduated, and are either considering further education or trying to build their resume."

Kate Schriner, a recent graduate who's returned to the states and settled in Chicago after about a year and a half in Korea, says a tough job market was the catalyst that set her dream of traveling into motion.

"The company I was working for as a long-time temp shut its Chicago doors in April 2009," she says. "I was unemployed, seemingly only qualified for entry-level jobs and since I had always wanted to travel, I thought 'It's now or never.' "

Schriner gravitated toward Korea because she knew Asian economies were struggling less, and jobs like teaching were fairly lucrative and easy to find.

"I think this is definitely a stage of time that will be looked back on as the rise of the zig-zagging global worker," she says.

Some abroad travelers just pack up and go, hoping to figure out their living situation and a source of income when they arrive. Others, like Brian Doran, choose to enroll in a specific project or program. Doran worked for two years with Teach for America before starting the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program. After his program ends, he plans to either start graduate studies in public policy with a focus on education or look for a job at an education nonprofit.

Doran points out that being abroad is the ultimate test of flexibility and adaptability, which are key to being successful in a work environment.

"There have absolutely been times when acclimating has been difficult," he says. "The Kei truck driving in front of you going half the speed of the speed limit, for example. Or the constant feeling of being oversized wherever I am."

"While my potential career path is somewhat in line with what I am doing in Japan, even if it weren't, the adaptation abilities I have developed are something that I will be able to leverage in any future career paths or job searches," he added.

Maddie DeWitt, a 2008 graduate, falls into the opposite category -- she chose the destination, then figured out the rest.

"For me, it wasn't so much deciding to move abroad and then choosing Rome as knowing that I wanted to live in Rome and figuring out a way to do that," DeWitt says. "From a more practical standpoint, I did study Italian in college and wanted to live somewhere that I could both practice and perfect my knowledge of the language."

The apartment hunting process is similar in Italy and the United States, she says, and being American was helpful because many young Italians were excited about a roommate with whom they could practice English.

DeWitt initially found work as an English teacher, which she says is the most readily available type of work. She's now working as an assistant producer for a production company in Rome.

"I think it's incredibly valuable living somewhere and actually learning the culture on your own ... as opposed to traveling through as a tourist or spending a few months somewhere as a student," she says. "It is interesting to see the range of reasons that compelled other young expats to move here, aside from the fact that we all love Italian food and old stuff, but the prevailing attitude is simply for the experience."