Many employers seek candidates who have international experience, but what exactly does that mean? And how can you get that experience early in your career? We spoke with Gillian Kenney about how she gained international exposure by doing her MBA at the Webster Leiden Campus.
The professional and service industries are growing rapidly in developed economies. Their employees must have the soft skills needed to work comfortably with people in addition to technical know-how. International experience can develop many of the skills employers are looking for in their 21st-century workforce. Skills like adaptability, curiosity, and intercultural understanding are easy to practice when in a radically new environment.
America is an international melting pot, but it is rare for Americans to directly experience a foreign country. Despite the benefits of an international perspective, only 37% of Americans have a valid passport which is on par with the 38% that have never had one.
International experience doesn’t necessarily mean “international work experience.” Studying abroad can be a fun way to develop many of those same skills.
Gillian Kenney is among the few Americans to have studied and worked abroad. We spoke with her about her journey from Massachusetts, USA, to doing an MBA at Webster University’s Leiden Campus and finding a job in Amsterdam.
Gillian’s journey started with the relatively small step of attending university in the neighboring state of Connecticut. There, she was lucky enough to experience a semester abroad during her undergraduate degree. “I decided to go to Webster in Leiden and I fell in love with everything that Webster had to offer,” she tells us. (01:13)
Not every university offers study abroad programs, or it’s an extracurricular activity that doesn’t count towards the degree back home. The difficulty for universities is that courses are made to adhere to national standards.
Prior to the pandemic, American students’ interest in studying abroad was the highest it had ever been, with 162,633 Americans at an international institution. That number dropped 91% for the 2020-21 school year, including Gillian who returned to Webster – this time to pursue her MBA with a major in Project Management.
Leiden is a university town in the Netherlands that hosts thousands of international students. By bringing together their global perspectives in the classroom, students are developing their soft workforce skills.
“One thing I really enjoyed about Webster was the international environment,” Gillian shares. “Every time there was a discussion during in class, everybody had a different opinion and it caused a great conversation.” (02:14)
Of course, as part of the MBA program, Gillian was given technical skills as well: “I got to take a supply chain and logistics class, which is very interesting because we had the opportunity to do a project where we got to add to a certain point of a supply chain process within a company.” (01:29)
In conjunction with Webster’s career center, Gillian transitioned from understanding the theory of supply chains to working as a logistics representative in Amsterdam.
Gillian is still early in her globetrotting journey, but with experience in learning and working internationally, she is well prepared. She says, “I’m really looking forward to [seeing] what my future holds for me, whether it will be in the Netherlands for a long period of time, or in another country, or back in the States.” (02:34)
