Leaving your job to travel the world isn’t nearly as scary as it might sound. For those craving an adventurous change of pace, it can be the best experience of their lives and lead to lasting life-long benefits. All it takes is the right frame of mind and preparation, and then you’ll be on your way.
Advantages
Gaining experience
Working and travelling abroad implicitly demonstrates several character traits, including cultural openness, grit, teachability, the willingness to learn, determination, and being able to devise a plan and follow through with it. There are many intangible benefits to this experience that can serve you well in the following steps of your career afterwards, such as having interesting stories to tell during your next job interview.
You may be able to pick up a new language.
Being bilingual is a huge benefit in your personal and professional life and will open up unique doors for you. Immersing yourself in a language is the single most effective way to pick it up in short order, as learning it becomes a necessity for daily life.
Expanding your network.
Being in a completely new location also means a complete refresh of your social network. Since you’ll be around a host of new people, you have nearly limitless possibilities to forge both new personal and professional connections.
Your existing money may go further.
Depending on the exchange rate of your currency to the host country, you may be able to enjoy a drastically increased standard of living as you get settled in.
Disadvantages
Your income may be less steady.
This may or may not be a problem with your current financial situation, but regardless, you can largely counteract this by building a significant cushion of funds before deciding to take the plunge. You also may have to go through the job interview and recruitment process once again, perhaps now in a country that you are not familiar with. If you do not plan to work while travelling, you will want to ensure that you have enough cash on hand to last until the end of your travels.
If you do decide to work locally, you will need to be properly documented.
Do your research and ensure that you are able to obtain a work visa for the country you are travelling to. Depending on the country and their age, younger individuals may be able to obtain a working holiday visa that may be easier to obtain or offers special benefits. Depending on your skill set, you may be able to work online, but will still need to adhere to other documentation requirements of the country you’re visiting.
You will need to adapt.
Being in a country brings with it excitement, but also additional duties and responsibilities. You may need to learn a new language and get acquainted with the local culture. Proper cultural research and language training before you leave will be a great benefit. You may not easily be able to access your support system at home, and you will be on your own for some of these challenges.
Many of the disadvantages of working abroad can be mitigated beforehand with prior research and preparation. Leaving your job is never something to do on a whim, especially if you’re not prepared for what comes after — but with the proper guidance, it can be an extremely beneficial and positive experience.
Interested in learning more? Visit www.people2people.com.au for more information.