How to Write a CV/Resume

For internships, volunteering and Working Holidays, we often need your Curriculum Vitae in the language of the destination country. For the unpaid projects, it is mainly for the purpose of giving the internship/volunteer organization an understanding of your capabilities and interests. For the remunerated jobs, it is to convince your potential employer to choose you.

On this page, we give you 10 tips for a better resume.

Since there are no global standards of exactly how to write a resume, we cannot suggest golden rules as to how it should look. What is important is that it consists of short and concise explanations of who you are and include relevant content pointing to the project that you wish to do. The experience/educational qualifications are arranged chronologically, as is common in English speaking countries; a short motivation section is included as a covering letter.

10 Tips for creating a resume for internships and volunteering abroad:

1. Tabular Form

Nowadays, everyone worldwide expects a CV; however, no one has the time to read extensive text. Concise points are preferred, that one can see at a glance.

2. Ensure correct translations

The CV should be in a language that is common in the country at which you are applying and used by the people you will work with. Take time for a good translation. If you have not mastered the language, get someone who speaks the language to look at the resume. If you send us your CV in Word format, we can make corrections before we pass it to your desired country. You should at least write the name of the place you are going to correctly. Be realistic about specifying your language skills. When you write "perfect Spanish, spoken and written", and your resume is full of errors, your information is not considered very credible. By no means should you send an automatic translation from Google Translate.

3. Please translate names of schools, institutions, etc.!

While usually it is said that names of schools, institutions or companies are not translated, no one in India, China or South America will understand names of schools, institutions or companies such as "Gymnasieskole", "Uitgeversconcern", "Jugendhilfe Essen", "Wirtschaftsblatt Verlagsgesellschaft gmbH", etc. or country-specific abbreviations such as "ESO" or "LEP". Please translate such terms to the language in which you write the CV. You can then provide the original name of the institution in brackets.

4. Make a meaningful CV

It is difficult to attain projects for candidates whose CV is "empty", where, save a few personal details and schooling, no further information is included. Even if you are only 16 or 18 and still have no work experience, try to add things that are related to the activity that you want to participate in. E.g., if you want to work in an orphanage, you can mention that you have been taking care of younger siblings..

5. Age and Photograph should be included

In the Western world, it is often said that you do not need to provide information such as gender and date of birth or add a picture, so that there is no discrimination. However, for internships in countries of Africa or Asia, such rules do not apply. There are internships specified for certain ages (you only get visas for certain age groups in some cases) and sex. The absence of such information in the resume, might result in the rejection of the same. A photo should be provided.

6. Be careful with culturally controversial job experiences

Many common student jobs in the Western world are seen at other parts of the world as jobs taken up by members of lower social strata and do not correspond to the "status" of people who study at a university. The mention of such jobs can confuse people who look at your CV. Particularly in the Arab countries, India and Africa, women "working in a bar" is equated with "prostitution" by many people. So you should avoid mentioning such "bar" jobs (especially if you are applying for a "role model" job, like a teacher in a school). If you apply for a hotel internship, experience working at a bar however might be useful to mention. If you are unsure, please feel free to ask us.

7. Hobbies and interests only if they are thematically relevant

Please do not add hobbies and interests unless they are thematically relevant to the project that you would like to take part in. If you, for example, have been playing amateur theatre as a hobby for several years and are applying for a job at a youth center or a school, it is relevant, since you could engage with children and young people in theater. Hobbies like "watching TV", "listening to music", "making friends" are best avoided, not only because they are irrelevant, but unprofessional.

8. Use a reputable email address

By the time you are looking to enter an internship or volunteering project and "into professional life", you may want to consider whether email addresses like "Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein!", "Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein!", "Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein!" or "Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein!" are still appropriate.

9. Proper Formatting

Today, basic knowledge of computer applications is required for almost all jobs. You should be able to apply reasonable formatting (headings, paragraphs, list items, etc.) in your resume. Similarly, you should, if you include a picture, insert it compressed to a reasonable size and in jpg, so that the CV is not 30 MB in size. In many countries, Internet connections are slow and you pay for the download volume per megabyte; therefore one cannot expect people to to download large attachments. The file format for your resume should only be PDF, Word (.doc or .docx); or .rtf (Rich Text Format). Ohese are formats that anyone can open and read worldwide. Do not send your CV in formats that are not standard, like .pages (Apple). Open Office Formats should also be avoided.

10. Familiarise yourself with the country you are applying to, before drafting a motivation letter

If you are prefixing your resume with a motivation letter, avoid blunders in it like "I've always wanted to go to South Africa" (if you are applying for an internship in Tanzania) or "Africa is a country that has interested me for a long time" (Africa is not a country but a continent). Such errors show that you have spent little time to think about your plan to travel abroad.

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These 10 points are only an indication, based on our observations. You do not have to worry a great deal or think that creating your resume is an insurmountable obstacle that you cannot overcome. We usually have a good relationship with the organizations, so errors may be "forgiven". But of course, if you can make the effort to do better, why not?

Which insurance should you take out for your time abroad?

You should definitely take out travel health insurance. Also worth consideration are travel cancellation insurance and liability insurance.

For those joining our Au Pair programs, there is also a special "Au Pair insurance".

In this article we will explain to you what you should know when taking out insurance for your time abroad and how you can easily do so online.

1) Travel health insurance

This is an absolute must and is even required by law for some visas (e.g. Working Holiday Visa Japan). Travel health insurance covers costs should you need medical care during your stay abroad. We expect all of our participants to take out a travel health insurance that is appropriate for their stay abroad.

There are two points to pay particular attention to:

That the insurance applies to the type of stay (e.g. internship, volunteering ...)
Should it be medically necessary that repatriation to your home country is covered

If during your stay abroad you need an outpatient medical examination, treatment or medication, you will have to pay the costs directly on site, but you will get the expenses reimbursed when you submit the receipts and diagnosis to the insurance company. Depending on the tariff/policy you chose, you might carry a part of the costs.

If you need to be admitted to a hospital, the insurance company will usually communicate directly with the hospital and then decide whether the treatment should be continued on site or whether it is better to repatriate you. In the case of hospitalization, the insurance will usually deal with all payments directly with the hospital. In such serious cases, our coordinators in the host countries will of course assist you and also communicate with your insurance company.

We recommend the CareMed travel health insurance, which is specifically designed for individuals doing an internship, volunteering, Working Holiday, language program etc. abroad. It is available to travelers of all nationalities and can be taken out for stay in all countries except your home country.

Caremed's travel health insurance also covers costs resulting from a Covid-19 infection, with the exception of when you engage yourself in situations that contradict official instructions or health recommendations.

If you follow this link you can take out the insurance online in just a few steps and you will then receive confirmation by email. This is possible latest one day before departure.

Take out Caremed travel health insurance

In addition to travel health insurance, during the booking process, you will also be suggested to take out travel liability insurance and, if your arrival date is more than 30 days into the future, travel cancellation insurance as an extra.

2) Travel cancellation insurance

A travel cancellation insurance covers cancellation costs, e.g. for your flight costs and for the World Unite! program costs if you cannot start your trip due to an unforeseeable event.

An unforeseeable event includes, for example, a serious illness, death, pregnancy, unexpected dismissal from employment, major financial loss to your property caused by fire, crime or the natural disaster, but also, for example, postponed exam dates of your college/university or school.

The unforeseeable event might not only affect you, but also your travel partner or close relatives such as life partners, children, parents, siblings or, in the event of death, aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces.

Take out Caremed travel cancellation insurance

3) Travel liability insurance for internships, volunteering, work & travel, job abroad, Au Pair

This insurance is not so well known, but it can be very useful. Some companies offering internships even require their interns to take out such liability insurance and many universities write in their internship contracts that the company providing the internship must have a liability insurance for their interns, which however is not the case in many overseas countries, so you would then need to take out liability insurance on your own.

The travel liability insurance offered by Caremed covers damage that you accidentally inflict on your employer or organisation you do your internship/volunteering with while doing a job abroad, Working Holiday job, internship or volunteering. The actual tasks assigned to you by your employer or organisation you do your internship/volunteering with, during which the damage was caused, may only correspond to your level of knowledge. For instance, as a medical student you are not allowed to treat patients on your own (and therefore you cannot be held liable in case of any treatment errors). Should your employer or internship/volunteer organization nevertheless demand from you to pay for such costs, the travel liability insurance would cover any legal and litigation costs.

The travel liability insurance also covers costs that you accidentally cause to your rental accommodation or host family and also covers the costs of replacing locks when you lose keys.

The travel liability insurance of Caremed can only be taken out in combination with the travel health insurance and will be suggested as an extra during the online booking process.

4) Au Pair insurance

The Au Pair insurance is a combination of various insurances that are required by most countries for the Au Pair visa application and by host families. It include health insurance, accident insurance, liability insurance and costs for the repatriation of an Au Pair to his/her home country, should the immigration authorities order so.

Take out Au Pair insurance from Caremed

Culture Shock

What is Culture Shock?

To go through a "culture shock“ during your stay in a foreign country is nothing weird or uncommon. It is a necessary process of adaptation we unavoidably have to go through when immersing ourselves into another culture and a mental reaction towards the unknown - the overcoming of and adaptation to different behaviours and customs. "Culture shock“ is actually a misleading term, as we do not experience the emotions associated with it, such as uncertainty, discomfort and the feeling of being foreign, but also the positive stages of "understanding“ and "feeling-at-home“, as a sudden incident, but rather as different phases that can totally vary in terms of duration. Thus, it is often difficult to diagnose a culture shock as such.

Not everybody goes through a culture shock or through all of its phases. Also, the length of each phase is not predictable. It highly depends on former experiences, attitudes, self-confidence, knowledge, etc. It is possible that there is not any conflict at all, as well as there may be phases which are being experienced stronger or weaker than others. To know about the phenomenon of culture shock doesn't mean trying to avoid it: as mentioned above, it is a regular and important part of the inevitable process of adaptation.

Culture shock can happen at the place you are staying (but please be aware that most of our host families are well-experienced with foreign travellers and adjust to their needs) or – which is more typically the case – at the place where you are volunteering/doing an intership due to differences in the understanding of work practice.

To understand the phenomenon of culture shock entirely, it is important to understand the meaning of "culture“: Culture is a kind of orientation system which is defined and shared by a certain nation, society or group of people. It influences or controls the perception, way of thinking and values of the nation's/society's/group's members and therefore directs their behaviour, helping them to cope with their surroundings. The orientation system provides affiliation to a certain group or nation. This orientation system however differs from nation, society and group to another.

When we get in contact with a foreign culture, we notice that our own orientation system, our familiar behavioural patterns, values and strategies for coping with our daily life don't completely work any more. We are suddenly faced with a different system of values where our own criteria cannot be applied and we have to understand and apply unfamiliar customs, conventions and behaviours.

The Phases of Culture Shock

Scientists have identified various typical and mostly inevitable stages of a culture shock that most people need to go through when staying with another culture for a longer time:

1. At the beginning we feel euphoric; everything seems to be exciting and interesting; we are looking forward to upcoming experiences, we are eager to learn and curious and overwhelmed by new impressions.

2. This is often followed by the phase of alienation or disillusionment: contact problems can occur (e.g. due to language barriers or knowledge gaps about the new culture). Suddenly we notice things we don't like about the new culture compared to our own culture and we notice certain behaviour and characterstics of local people that confuse us. Our satisfaction and comfort worsens and our general mood deteriorates.

3. Escalation/culture shock. This is the peak of the culture shock. It is a stress situation. We notice that our home culture cannot be used as a valuation standard for the new culture and we feel disorientated. Possible consequences and symptoms can be: 1. feeling helpless and homesick, 2. physical stress reactions such as headache, tiredness, rapid exhaustion, 3. frustration, anxiety, overreaction, seclusion, 4. a feeling of loss of friends from home, status, job, belongings, 5. the feeling to be rejected by members of the new culture, 6. hostility towards the other culture, 7. confusion about the own emotions, identity, role expectations from others, 8. feeling powerless, the feeling not to be able to cope with the new environment, 9. increased need of sleep or hygiene

It is important to keep in mind that intensity, symptoms, appearance and duration of culture shock can vary immensely from individual to individual. The knowledge and realization of culture shock as a "normal“ part of the adaption process to a new environment might help to better deal with negative and troubling emotions. It is essential to understand that it is not a personal problem but a regular process.

4. The "recession“ phase is usually followed by an "upswing“: the phase of understanding and adaption: we develop an understanding and appreciation and even start to make use ourselves of the different behaviours and ways of thinking of the locals.

5. Some things in our new surroundings we might find more enjoyable than at home, others we still won't like. We will recognize realistic advantages and disadvantages of the new and our own culture and will feel satisfied and in balance.

Tips To Avoid Culture Shock

Be patient, try to get to know other people
Often try new and typical things of the other culture to overcome inhibitons (e.g. local food, clothes, etc.)
Write a diary and note down positive and negative emotions, experiences and thoughts
Learn and use the foreign language (even if you only speak a few words, it will be appreciated by locals and will give you a good feeling)
Take regular breaks and time for reflection. To think thoroughly about your experiences and feelings, both negative and positive, might help to understand conflicts and avoid frustration.
Pay close attention to the body language and behaviour of locals: a typical reason for disappointment is the lack of understanding of other people's behaviour or feeling of not being understood by locals
Think positively (for instance: try to realise continually that the process of adaptation to the new culture is a common phenomenon everyone has to go through)
Deliberately name and affirm your personal strengths; set realistic goals for your stay, also allow bad moods and frustrations
Consciously appreciate the chances of your stay abroad: clearly point out the advantages for your career, your personal development, and how much it broadens your horizon
Respect foreign traditions, even if you are not able to understand them entirely due to your different system of values (for instance related to the role of women in other cultures, the understanding and handling of sexuality, religion, etc.)
During longer stays, it might help to keep intensive and regular contact to your friends, family and colleagues at home (by letters, emails, telephone calls, etc.). Sharing emotions and experiences with family and friends might certainly help to avoid overreactions, might strengthen your self-confidence and help reducing stress.
Participate at local activities: you will meet new people, understand local traditions, immerse yourself with the local culture more quickly. If you have hobbies at home, also practise them at your new location with locals (e.g. play football with the locals)

Reverse Culture Shock

It is interesting that on your return home, a little "reverse culture shock" often occurs. The reason is that you have adapted your cultural orientation system during your stay abroad and the local cultural learning process, while this is not the case with the people with whom you interact at home. You cannot fully understand some of their thinking and behavior, for example, when it comes to evaluating your experience in another culture. This "little culture shock" at home, however, is most easily overcome.

Our intercultural preparation will help you quickly understand the culture of your host country and to minimize the effects of culture shock.

Interesting Links

About Volunteering

http://www.ethicalvolunteering.org

Ethical Volunteering is the website of Dr. Kate Simpson. Since 1998 Kate has researched programs and companies who send vounteers and interns to developing countries. She has published "The Guide to being an Ethical Volunteer“, which in three steps, provides help in finding a good organisation and which reviews the right attitude of participants concerning their stay abroad.

http://www.volunteeringoptions.org

The website Volunteeringoptions.org, operated by Comhlamh (Gaelic for "Solidarity“), the Irish Association of Development Workers, provides interesting articles for volunteers and interns in developing countries. The articles have the aim to improve the understanding and perception of several issues and structures that volunteers and intern will most probably encounter during their stay abroad. Part of this are today's still prevailing manifestation of power relationship between the northern and southern hemisphere and topics about post-colonialism, racism and gender issues in developing countries.

Responsible travel:

http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk

Tourism Concern does reasearch and campaigns about socially and environmentally responsible travel. One recent area of studies were internships in developing countries.

http://www.propoortourism.org.uk

Pro Poor Tourism is an initiative which has the goal to fight powerty by means of responsible tourism.

http://www.sustainabletravelinternational.org

Sustainable Travel International is an organisation which campaigns for responsible travel and which supports travel companies, hotels and individual travellers in their implementation of responsible travel policies.

Society

How to write about Africa

Satirical essay about which stereotypes you have to use in order to write a successful book about Africa.

Country Information

The RAA Brandenburg has a fine collection of materials on Tanzania and Zanzibar. There are even books such as "Paukwa - tales from Zanzibar" (in German and Swahili) and "With fire and spice - a journey through the culinary culture of Zanzibar", the complete PDF download. The books can be ordered in print form and the proceeds go to the funding of libraries in Zanzibar.

RAA Brandenburg Global Learning

Zanzibar Travel Guide

https://www.kayak.co.uk/Zanzibar.1557.guide

Funding/Scholarships

UK

In the UK, there are different ways of funding your volunteer trip. First of all there are thousands of grant-making trusts in the UK; the best way to find out the different kinds of trusts nationally as well as regionally is to visit your library and find the following registers:

Nationally, there are the "Directory of Grant Making Trusts", "The Grants Register" (published by Palgrave Macmillan) and "Sponsorship Funding Directory" (published by Plymbridge Distributors Ltd) with updated registers and descriptions of foundations and trusts.

Regionally, you may look for "A Guide to Local Trusts in Greater London" (London), "A Guide to Local Trusts in the Midlands" (Midlands), "A Guide to Local Trusts in the North of England" (North of England), "A Guide to Local Trusts in the South of England" (for the South of England). Those guides should normally be available in your local library.

One general foundation that funds young individuals and their volunteering trip is "The Jack Petchey Foundation" which holds grants for young people between 11-25. A grant is about £300. The Association of Charitable Foundations provides links to different trusts and foundation websites; the Directory of Social Change provides various databases such as "Grants for Individuals" where you probably find suitable trusts.

Fundfinder provides a guide for writing letters of application, which might be helping you with writing a professional application to foundations. Further, the website provides details of trusts for individuals and groups.

Worth a try may be Scholarship Search that not only provides a huge database but many useful links to websites dealing with scholarship browsing. Scottish residents should visit the website of SCVO which includes details of charitable trusts that may fund individuals.
Besides trusts and grants, there are other rewarding ways to fund your trip. Find individual sponsors: Ask family, friends, relatives, companies and everybody who might be able to support you. Inform about your project and your goals: create posters, contact your local newspaper or radio, use social networks and the newsletter of your school. Write presentation letters about yourself, your project and your goals to local businesses that might be interested in sponsoring a volunteer trip, and offer them reports, presentations, talks, etc. as compensation. Organizing Fundraising events is another useful and rewarding way: organize a marathon, a concert, whatever you have in mind. Spread the word in your local newspaper (your local community might be helpful in terms of organising such events, you just need to ask), get friends to participate, spread your event in your social network to get people to participate. It needs a lot of planning but it may be very effective in the end! Your school or university can be a very effective source, too: ask about possible financial assistance from your school or university; they might have scholarship opportunities or grants for a stay abroad or specific projects or they may have further ideas and contacts. Most universities already provide information about grants and funds for a stay abroad on their website.

USA and Canada

The best way to fund your volunteer trip or internship abroad is not necessarily a formal scholarship. One of the most effective ways is individual fundraising which means going to people and organizations and ask for support, organizing fundraising events, promoting your specific project in social networks, providing services for contributions of companies. Even bake sales are effective ways to gather your funds. For people / organizations, you can e.g. provide reports from or presentations about your volunteer stay. Rotary clubs, Kiwanis and religious organizations for instance are well-known to provide informal support in exchange of reports and a presentation of your accomplishments when you return. Relatives, friends, family may be sources of funding. You may write letters to companies with a presentation of your project and your goals and probably can provide sth. in exchange: a gift from the host country, reports, etc.

Most importantly: spread the word about your planned stay and project abroad. Ask everyone you might think of for support. Those people probably have other contacts or ideas about sponsors, companies involved in fundraising etc.

Your school / college / university can be very effective resources, too: use school newsletters to promote your project, aks your guidance counselor / students supervisor about possible financial assistance from your school / college / university (they might have scholarship opportunities or grants for a stay abroad). Many academic departments may have some budget to fund your project, in case it can be integrated into an academic course for example. Colleges may have funds for alumni service projects and may require a report about your stay for the alumni journal. You may also set up educational talks about the country, about your volunteer project, about your experiences, etc. in exchange for some small contribution. Be creative and most of all: ask for advice and opportunities! Universities mostly provide useful information about funding programes for their students already on their website.

IEFA is a useful resource to find any kind of grant information for students who wish to go abroad. Lots of scholarship opportunities as well as grant listings are given. Foundation grants to individuals online is a bit easier to use: you will not only have a list of foundations and scholarship opportunities but can search with lots of individual details matching your needs. The website further provides regularly updates on new and existing programes, search tips and strategies for finding the right grant and lots more. Due to its extended service, you will need to register and pay a little fee to use the whole range of service.

For canadian volunteers, there is a useful database of Yahoo! Canada with some foundations and trusts listed, which refer to grants, funding and scholarship.

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For funding / scholarships in Germany, Austria and Switzerland please refer to the German language version of this article.