How to Promote Cross-Cultural Experiences in Your Resume

Since Canada is a multicultural country, many corporations and companies are looking for people who have cross-cultural experience and are able to contribute to a multicultural working environment. Thus, it would be a great idea for you to add some cross-cultural experiences to your resume!

First off, volunteering at international organizations like the Red Cross are great for cross-cultural experiences.  Since Red Cross is an international organization, volunteers come from different countries. When I volunteer there, I meet lots of new people from other countries such as Italy, Vietnam and China. I do not only gain the necessary job skills, but I continue to learn more about other cultures. That is very important for me to prepare myself in a multicultural working environment.

Second, you can engage yourself by volunteering in some cross-cultural activities such as being an interpreter or translator for some organizations. I think these kinds of volunteer positions are great to put on a resume for international students. International students know more than one language and have experience living in different countries. In this sense, international students definitely have an advantage volunteering for these organizations. If it can be showed on your resume, it will reinforce your edge over others and impress the employers greatly.

Lastly, I think promoting your own traditional culture in Canada will be another way to gain cross–cultural experiences as well. The Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society wants to form a Media and Communications team in order to develop stories and update its media list for the Dragon Boat Festival. I think this would be a good chance for Chinese international student to gain cross cultural experience in media. Dragon Boat Festival is a Chinese traditional festival and China nowadays has a great desire to promote its culture around the world .If you can show how to promote your own traditional culture and sports in North America, that would definitely be a highlight on your resume when you apply for media jobs in China.

Also check out the OLC's Resume section or visit Career Services in MBC 0300 at SFU Burnaby.