<p>I am an owner and on the management committee of a 100 employee, $20+ million business, and I am involved in hiring. Yes, it absolutely can make a difference–if the study abroad is a serious one (e.g., the SIT programs), as opposed to one of the 3 week versions, which my impression is are little more than a fun tourist type thing. A student who has the imagination and courage to do something that is going to take them out of their comfort zone–with language, culture, living conditions, etc.–will stand out from the great mass of students who play it safe by staying close to home.</p>
<p>Not everybody has resources to study abroad. I have had 9 jobs, went to probably 30 - 40+ job interviews in my life, do not remember about single study abroad question. Everybody were impressed with high GPA (even afer 30 year of experience) and MBA degree that I was not required for my positions. Knowing another language fluently has been a plus at couple places, although I did not need to use it. After first job, the most important factor is your job experience. </p>
<p>D. is applying to Grad. school. She has had several interviews and has few acceptances. The most common discussion during interviews is her Minor (completely unrelated to her Major). I do not remember her mentionning single discussion about her very challenging trip to NZ (6 credit hours) that was completely out of her comfort zone and frankly if I knew about all her hikes, ice climbing, being pushed physically to the limits…etc., I am not sure if I would let her go. Well, apparently she survived, but nobody paid attention to this heroics during interviews. She did learned a lot, the most valuable of lessons being that everybody has physical and mental limitations. We had resources for this trip because D. is on full tuition Merit scholarship and while we paid for her trip, we did not need to pay for 6 credit hours. </p>
<p>Study abroad is something that fullfils one’s dream. Going abroad to increase your chances at job search should not be a reason to do so.</p>
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<p>Although I rarely get involved in interviews of entry level employees, I often approve hiring decisions for them. For all career level potential employees I assess their ability to function internationally.</p>
<p>Things that have stood out:</p>
<p>My Mom was career Navy, we moved 17 times and I attended 12 different schools prior to graduation from high school.</p>
<p>My family is from the mountains of West Virginia, I’m the first to attend college and graduated top of my class in engineering.</p>
<p>My family is from Shanghai. My parents were university professors. My Father participated in the Tianamen protests. I emigrated to Canada. My parents are in China.</p>
<p>Anything your child can do to expand their cultural perspective is valuable.</p>
<p>While “not” studying abroad won’t keep you from getting a job, I do think it adds to the possibility of getting hired - particularly if you are looking to hire on with a company that has worldwide offices. It certainly would let the company know that you might be more willing to accept (and more capable of handling) an overseas assignment than someone who had not had such an opportunity.</p>
<p>Of course, not everyone can afford (time or money) to take a summer or a semester to study abroad. But it’s an experience that I think - if available - should be considered very seriously.</p>
<p>Agree with MiamiDAP–after first job, it’s job experience that counts. Also, not surprised that grad schools would not look at your D’s type of experience, I think they would look pretty much at grades, test scores, etc. Also agree that a kid should not study abroad to increase chances in job search, it should be for the education/experience. But . . . I agree with Redwing, anything a kid can do to make themselves stand out can matter. Study abroad may be one such thing, there certainly are others. My larger point is as follows–particularly at the entry level, it is a buyer’s market right now in almost every field. My business gets a large number of resumes that are hard to differentiate–people that don’t have good grades from good schools don’t even get to the interview stage. Of the many with good grades from good schools, it absolutely makes a difference if there is something out of the ordinary. We had a guy who got his undergraduate degree online while working on a cargo plane flying in and out of Iraq at the height of the war, that absolutely made him jump out of the stack. A really challenging study abroad experience, such as those run by SIT (I’m not a shill for SIT, just very familiar with their programs, I think they are the best), which includes, for example, a cultural immersion component, a service component, language study, some meaningful independent study type work, definitely would be something that would make a difference for me. I’m not saying it would be a controlling factor in a decision, but it would make a difference.</p>
<p>My son’s college offers many study abroad options, and his scholarship gives him 2K towards such an experience. He has always wanted to go to England, and he is hoping to do an internship in engineering in either England or Ireland. I’m sure it will cost much more than his scholarship, and may not even fulfill an academic requirement, but I’m sure it will be something that will be a bonus on his resume.</p>
<p>It might depend on the type of job. My d studied international relations in college & wanted a related career – I’m very sure that her broad international living experience was a significant reason she landed the job she now holds. Certainly her job interview focused on those experiences – though in her case, a summer internship abroad was probably more important than the semester spent studying abroad. (she had both, as well as extensive personal travel)</p>