So, you’ve just gotten back from a 2 year budget travel escapade around the world. It was the most memorable experience of your life, but now it’s over and time for the difficult transition back into “real life”. You find yourself with a million things to do. You have to find somewhere to live, buy a car, and most importantly GET A JOB!

In my experience, most employers look favorably on an applicant who has taken time out of their life to travel the world, learn new languages, and adapt to new cultures. However, not all employers are as progressive and worldly as the ones I have had experience with, and regardless of their outlook on world budget travel, you WILL have to explain and even defend what you have been up to for the past 2 years. Most long term travelers learn more in their years of travel than they do in any job or in any school, but you need to prove this to prospective employers so that they don’t think you’ve simply been partying for the last 2 years of your life (even if you have)!

Your resume will be a prospective employer’s first glance into your work and life history. The point of a resume is to make you stand out enough to get to the interview stage. A period of long-term travel should make you stand out in one way or another, so you just need to assure that your travel experience makes you stand out in a positive way.

In general employers are looking for tangible experience that you have had in the past, that would make you well suited for a position in their organization. Therefore you must look at your travel experience, and write about it as if it were a job. What specific things did you do that made you a successful traveler? Like any other past work experience, your description of travel section should not take up more than 4-5 lines, and should highlight points relative to the job you are applying for.

Below I have compiled a list of good, action verb descriptions that can be used to describe most long-term traveling ventures, and highlight commonly valued skills such as leadership, teamwork, dependability, creativity, and adaptability.

20 Blurbs to Describe Travel on your Resume:

These blurbs are meant to inspire thought on the many different aspects of travel you can highlight on your resume. They should NOT be simply copied and pasted into your resume, but rather combined with specific and honest travel experiences to emphasize all that you learned and accomplished.

1. Adapted to foreign cultures and ways of life
2. Mastered local languages
3. Recognized key resources to aid in my travel goals
4. Collaborated with local institutions to investigate travel options
5. Incorporated local customs into my daily routine
6. Encouraged open communication between foreigners and locals
7. Budgeted ____ months of world travel on just $____
8. Promoted intercultural exchange
9. Forged lasting friendships and relationships with people of all backgrounds
10. Inspired impoverished communities to take control of their lives
11. Overcame societal differences to promote cultural understanding
12. Motivated fellow travelers to share in local ways of life
13. Equipped impoverished locals with western methodologies to achieve their goals
14. Developed creative solutions to maximize travel experience on a limited budget
15. Led fellow travelers through unknown regions of the world
16. Modified my way of life to maximize exposure and opportunities for learning among foreign cultures
17. Developed a deeper understanding for what is really important in life
18. Organized fellow travelers to pursue travel goals that were of interest all involved
19. Meticulously observed everything around me to ensure safe travel at all times
20. Overcame ethnocentric tendencies to better understand foreign cultures within their own unique contexts

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