If your student isn’t quite ready to commit to a full four-year degree overseas — or if they are already at a U.S. university but want a taste of the global lifestyle — then they should consider working abroad for a summer or a semester.
Organizations like BUNAC (and their working holiday partner, JENZA) make the logistical nightmare of international work visas surprisingly simple. These groups provide the official visa sponsorship, legal framework, and job resources needed for students to secure short-term, paid employment in places like the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
It is an accessible, budget-friendly alternative to traditional study abroad because students actually earn money to fund their adventures without school work getting in the way of a full immersion in the experience. But beyond the paycheck, working abroad can completely transform a young person’s trajectory. It certainly did for me.
From Pulling Pints to the Backpacking Trails
To give you an idea of just how life-changing this can be, let me share a personal chapter from my own story. I used BUNAC to spend three months working in a bustling local pub in London, England.
It wasn’t just a summer job; it was a crash course in global perspective. My coworkers weren’t just locals—they were vibrant young travelers from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and all over the map. We worked hard, shared laughs, and swapped cultural quirks.
When my three months at the pub wrapped up, a group of us took our hard-earned pounds, threw on backpacks, and spent the next three months traveling all over Europe. We navigated train grids, squeezed into hostels, slept on overnight train rides, and saw the world together. The independence I gained during those six months eclipses anything I learned in a lecture hall.
The Unfair Advantage: The Resume “Cheat Code”
Here is the secret weapon of international work experience that most students don’t realize until much later: it is absolute gold on a resume.
In every single job interview I have ever had since college, the interviewer has looked at my resume, skipped right past the standard domestic internships, and gone straight to the part that says: “London, England.” Why does a summer in a pub grab an executive’s attention faster than a corporate internship? Because employers aren’t just looking for technical skills; they are desperate for human skills that cannot be taught in a classroom. Seeing international work experience tells a hiring manager three major things about your student:
- High Adaptability: You can drop this person into a brand-new, high-pressure environment, and they will figure out how to thrive.
- Cross-Cultural Competency: They know how to connect, communicate, and collaborate with coworkers and clients from completely different backgrounds.
- Resourcefulness and Grit: Anyone who can navigate foreign visa laws, move across an ocean, manage their own cost of living, and hold down a job has a level of maturity that sets them miles ahead of the competition.
Whether it’s pouring coffee in Melbourne, working a ski lift in Canada, or pulling pints in London, encouraging your student to take a working holiday is one of the greatest investments they can make in their future career. It turns a standard resume into a conversation starter — and turns a college student into a worldly professional.
