How a Gap Year Can Align With Your Career Goals

by Adam Salzman, Adventure EXP

It’s incredibly exciting to have the opportunity to take on a gap year, but even more thrilling is knowing it aligns with your personal and professional goals. Choosing an alternative path from the normal status quo of high school, college, and internships is a wonderful opportunity to challenge yourself in a way that others won’t experience, but it can be daunting.

It goes deeper than just having an amazing experience. It’s a great first step in your career, but also for future opportunities, whether travel related or not. Start by finding a program that is going to match your needs, considering all the options, and how to fit it into your personal timeline. That first experience then becomes the foundation for a person to build off of, potentially going from a domestic location to an international one.

Qualities like confidence, independence, self-advocacy, and effective communication are something to propel you to future opportunities, not to mention the technical skills you’ll develop. Knowing all these benefits really makes a gap year all the more appealing as an intelligent career move.

Find a Program That Makes Sense for You

With so many opportunities out there, it’s all the more important to do your research, consider the details, and select a program that aligns with your goals. There are paths for volunteering, working, or simply experiencing new places as a traveler. Regardless of which program you decide to go with, know that you’ll be building skills, boosting your confidence, and reaching your goals all at the same time.

Take Things One Step at a Time

Your level of confidence is an important aspect of how to go about choosing a program. If you’re embarking on a journey for the first time, it can be more beneficial to go with a structured program that offers community, activities, and a schedule.

Volunteering or summer programs through a local organization, for example, can allow you the chance to explore the idea of spending time away from home without going completely out on your own. The programs will offer a mixed level of support and independence, depending on how they’re structured.

Destination Work is a Perfect Starting Point

Destination work programs, like those offered by AdventureEXP, are designed for students to travel and work to offset the cost of their travel. This type of program can foster independence in a better way, making it a perfect addition to your gap year. They offer the travel, work, and volunteering elements of a gap year, for those seeking it, and allow you to build on your own experience.

You’re still fully supported by a team, but you can rely less on that support and more on yourself as you progress through the year. Support elements include career coaching, personal finance training, outdoor activities, and communication with your employer.

It’s also an excellent way to become more intertwined in a local community where you can seek out unique options that a backpacking trip, for example, may not offer. This could be as much as volunteering at the local historical society or as little as attending the weekly farmers market hosted in the town where you reside.

Start Local, Then Go Beyond

Building on this idea of starting small and working your way up, beginning in a domestic location and then going international is another successful strategy for a gap year. Taking it step by step allows you the chance to grow into the experience at your own pace, harnessing the many needed skills for an experience, and understanding the ups and downs of a long-term trip.

Domestic trips simplify logistics greatly. Elements of a trip like speaking the same language, using the same money, and finding accommodations are less complex than when you’re jumping into new countries consecutively.

Destination Work Programs

Imagine living in a place where others go for their vacation – with destination work programs that dream becomes your reality. Destination work programs create an opportunity for participants to grow in an autonomous environment while still having the critical support needs in areas like employment, budgeting, and on-the-ground communications.

Experience nearby travel destinations, participate in local activities, and enjoy a social life at a pace that fits your speed and interests rather than following a timeline created by someone else.

Community-Based Learning

Community-based learning is an excellent option for those who are not only looking to give back but also have a strong sense of purpose in their gap year. Community-based organizations (e.g. local NGOs) often foster a more structured experience where your community becomes those who volunteer with you along with locals involved in the projects. It’s a great stepping stone into the gap year world.

There are varying levels of commitment, both domestic and international options, and brief or long-term opportunities. What can be nice about community-based learning is the flexibility. Some people can volunteer in different locations with multiple organizations for a given amount of time.

One thing to consider about community-based learning is that it doesn’t always allow for time to travel. Typically volunteers are there for the sole purpose of supporting the mission of the organization, not touring around. Community-based learning comes with questions that must be asked around ethics and equitable community-engagement, especially to avoid ‘voluntourism’ or unintentionally perpetuating imbalanced power dynamics.

The Gap Year Association offers resources for people engaging in community-based learning to intentionally minimize the gaps between intention and impact. Check out GYA’s Fair Trade Learning resources.

Traveling

Some people are ready to take the leap of total independence, making full-on travel a great way to enjoy a gap year. Travel is an open opportunity to get creative because it can be done on foot, by train, in a car, a boat, or plane. It is more fluid too and can be molded to fit your needs.

Some people choose to take a long backpacking trip through South America, Europe, or Southeast Asia. Domestic options include routes like the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail, road-tripping to the beautiful national parks we have, or even living in a van.

An experience that involves full travel can be exciting but comes with unique challenges. Careful planning and budgeting are elemental to someone’s success in a year-long excursion. There can be a lot of ups and downs during a long-term trip, but that is also the beauty of the journey. It’s wise to do your research beforehand and read about other people’s experiences so you can be privy to the hurdles that come with a long-term, travel-forward gap year.

Benefits That Go Beyond Surface Level

It’s easy to look at a gap year and think, “yes, that would be an amazing experience.” However, the research behind the benefits of taking a gap year shows that it is also an overwhelmingly positive addition to someone’s success as well. Participants not only build on their life experiences but their career goals are supported too.

Stand Out to Employers

If you’re considering a gap year, then you’re already one step ahead of many others. The beauty of being a part of a unique group of individuals isn’t just for the intrinsic value that it adds to your confidence. It makes you stand out among a pool of candidates for your next job.

Having a gap year on your resume alone will grab the attention of recruiters and other viewers. Once you’ve got the opportunity to speak with someone, you’ll also have great talking points that make you more memorable than someone who took the standard path of internships locally.

Tackle Interviews Like a Pro

Interviews are scary for a lot of people, and rightfully so. The expression “know the company and know yourself” is much easier said than done. Then come those daunting behavioral interview questions, “tell me about a time you did x, y, and z.” Early on in your career, it’s hard to have the experience to pull from when answering questions like that.

After a year of experience in a gap year, you’ll walk away with a plethora of examples to pull from for any interview. Coupled with the career coaching that AdventureEXP provides, you’ll be ready to take on interviews with confidence. With practice, it becomes much easier to articulate your experiences, knowing yourself, and then, of course, knowing the company. Whether it’s casual conversation (like an elevator pitch), interviewing, or on your resume, boost your self-assurance.

Transferable Skills

A transferable skill is one that can be applied to more than one position. For example, working at the front desk of a resort will help you build skills that you can then use at another office in an entirely different position. It’s easy to underestimate the skills you’re building in any job – even when you’re on a paper delivery route (that’s still a thing, right?).

Gap years are no exception but don’t devalue the skills gained during a transformative year in a new location. Whether you’re traveling, volunteering, or taking on a destination work experience, you’re going to develop yourself in various ways. While traveling offers learning that can’t be found in a classroom, volunteering and a destination work experience will provide the most structured growth that directly benefits your future career plans.

Effective Communication and Teamwork

Living with others, working towards common goals, and being a part of a team are all perfect ways to step outside of your usual social circle. Some people are blessed with brothers and sisters and might have the foundation for compromise, clear communication, and teamwork, but others don’t have this opportunity at such a young age.

Taking it one step further, during a work or volunteer experience, you will also be working with customers or those supported by your organization. Whether there is an exchange of money involved or not, customer service skills are another area of development.

Independence and Self-Advocacy

Living on your own, budgeting for yourself, and managing your time wisely are all areas that strengthen your independence and self-advocacy. As mentioned earlier, with a destination work program, you’re able to build on your experiences and foster confidence at your own pace. That confidence will allow for more independence in your life.

Autonomy and Leadership

Given that most jobs require a person to grow into a role, you as a worker will develop technical skills as you learn the job while also becoming more autonomous. With time, training in skills like managing inventory, customer service, business-to-business (B2B) communications, and customer relationship management (CRM) software are just a few of the skill sets to build upon. It may sound simple, but autonomy goes hand in hand with decision making skills and even helping guide other coworkers along the way.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam Salzman is the founder of AdventureEXP and Adventure Guide. He believes in the power of meaningful travel after spending time living in China during college and personal & professional international travel to more than 20 countries.

Adam has worked in study abroad, international student university recruiting, sponsoring international students on internships worldwide, and now, supporting gap year students on domestic and international work exchange programs. He brings a wealth of knowledge around the core value that experiential learning is not only valuable but also accessible if you are willing to make meaningful sacrifices in pursuit of your goals.

Adam currently lives in the tiny mountain town Leadville, Colorado, where he enjoys the outdoors in every way possible with his partner Jordan and their dog, Athens.

Images in this piece are courtesy of Adventure EXP unless otherwise credited below the image.