With more than 50 semester and academic year programs to choose from, Marist Abroad offers a vast array of study abroad options. The experience of living in a foreign country, speaking a language that isn’t your primary one, and being exposed to unfamiliar customs will expand your horizons and make you a well-rounded student. No matter where you choose to go or how much time you spend out of your home country, studying abroad makes you a highly desirable asset to prospective employers. As a student living in a foreign country, you will be put in situations that you have never experienced before and will have to learn how to adapt to new challenges daily. Traveling around the world requires a lot of self-sufficiency and forces you to make decisions quickly. By choosing paths that minimize risks and optimize benefits, you will naturally become a better decision maker. If you’re traveling with other people, your daily decisions will also have to benefit the group as a whole. Having to compromise on group decisions means making sacrifices that lead to mutually accepted solutions, which will teach you how to collaborate successfully with others. All of these traits are transferable to the workplace. Managers want to hire candidates who have proven problem solving skills and know how to work well individually as well as a member of a team. Studying abroad will also help you develop a global mindset. Working with a variety of people from different cultural backgrounds comes with working or interning abroad. As geographical barriers are being broken down through the use of technology, hiring managers are more often looking for candidates that have developed their cross-cultural intelligence and can work well in a diverse environment. Cross-cultural intelligence refers to your ability to be a culturally sensitive person who is able to understand and empathize well with others. Furthermore, by meeting and working with people around the world, you will develop a global professional network. If you’re studying in a country that speaks a language unknown to you, you’ll also hone your non-verbal communication skills by learning to decipher what someone is saying through their body language and gestures. Cross-cultural intelligence refers to your ability to be a culturally sensitive person who is able to understand and empathize well with others. In addition to taking classes, some students also choose to work or intern while abroad. Mary Vange ‘19, a Marist College student majoring in Finance with a Computer Science minor, completed a full-time internship while she was studying abroad in London during the Fall 2017 semester. Mary worked at the Omerta Group, an executive search firm in the finance industry. The company was in charge of niche head hunting, a form of recruitment that involves searching for candidates that meet specific qualifications for big banks when they had to fill positions with a specific salary requirement.
A typical day for Mary involved performing LinkedIn searches for all of the Private Bankers in Luxembourg who had 10-15 years experience, for example. Throughout her internship, she also worked on research projects such as a presentations about Blockchain and Bitcoin. “My colleagues wanted me to aggregate information and create a presentation so that I could explain some of the industry jargon to them,” Mary said. Mary said she learned a lot about the finance industry through her internship. Her co-workers gave her inside knowledge on the industry, including which companies had the best culture, leadership, salaries, and benefits. They also provided unique insight on the roles within banks and how employees performed tasks beyond their titles. Mary has received a full-time offer from JP Morgan after she graduates this May, and she said her internship abroad was one of the reasons she was able to earn the position back in the States. “The experience really brands you as a well-rounded individual who is adaptable,” she said. “Even little things like commuting to work in a foreign city really shows you more about a country than just vacationing would. Overall, working with (my co-workers) opened my eyes to cultural differences. There were people from about six different countries in our office and it was interesting to see how their cultures and job roles shaped who they were and how they worked. I definitely would recommend interning abroad to anyone.”
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