Before you head out to find your dream career, it’s important to consider how to improve your communication skills. As a young professional, they are the most important skills in your toolkit and are an asset to employers.
Whether you’re looking to make a good impression in an interview or land a promotion, your communication is the key factor to any decision.
Young professionals and interns likely learn and practice basic communication every day, but successful experience abroad shows employers that you have top-notch adaptable communication skills. This proves you thrive in any environment - a must-have for busy businesses both in your home country and abroad.
As an international intern, you’ll have endless opportunities to improve and showcase your communication abilities. Here are the top ways an international internship will better your communication skills:
1. You’ll Gain Confidence
When it comes to your career, confidence is vital. However, this is an element of solid communication that many young professionals lack for various reasons. An internship abroad will help you develop confidence in your public speaking and presentation skills, as you're pushed from your comfort zone and exposed to new environments and ideas. Confident communication is also important when working with other colleagues. The ability to share your ideas will make you an important and valuable team member and a team player.
2. You’ll Become a Critical Listener
As an intern in a new country, new office, and maybe even a new industry or language, you will do a lot of listening while you're finding your feet and learning the ropes. Part of critical listening involves asking questions to ensure you understand your instructions with the utmost clarity before embarking on a task or project. There’s no harm in asking questions, especially if it ensures that you’ll avoid doing something incorrectly that you or someone else will have to fix later, saving you all time and additional effort in the long run!
3. You’ll Be More Open-Minded
In any international setting, the ability to keep an open mind about people, cultures, and experiences is essential. In an international workplace, open-mindedness is even more important. Recognizing and embracing the differences between your own business culture and that of your host country will help you to grow professionally and personally. Miscommunication is common in this kind of setting. As an intern, you can help to avoid it by being open to trying new things and willing to adopt different cultures and habits to fit into an unfamiliar environment. Even if you're not perfect at it, locals appreciate it when you make the effort with their customs and language.
4. You’ll Gain a Global Mindset
An international internship shows potential employers that you have a global mindset and are knowledgeable about business opportunities and practices overseas. Furthermore, it shows that you are curious and open to other cultures. As many industries and companies become more international, a global perspective is an asset for an employee. If you hope to pursue an international career, it is essential to have experience in a professional setting abroad, which is why doing an international internship is so valuable. You'll gain experience and first-hand knowledge you can't get from internet research.
5. You’ll Master New Foreign Languages
If you’re thinking about how to improve your communication skills abroad, perhaps the best way is through language. Regardless of your industry, being bilingual is extremely useful if you plan on having an international career. Companies and organizations that operate across multiple countries place a high value on employees who speak another language. Take advantage of your time abroad to brush up, or to pick up some new conversational skills that can be an asset to you in your professional career and when networking and making new connections abroad.