Whether you’re a job seeker, an employee trying to advance your career, or a budding entrepreneur, the same concepts of risk and reward apply. Failing can be a fantastic motivation. And it’s also a wonderful teacher. Take it from me: It pays off big time to take career risks early and often. “Fast failure” is a sure way to get your career moving.

Here are some ways to use failure to get smarter and advance your career:

Ignore the sting. If you try something difficult — like applying for a “reach job” — and then you fall short or get rejected, don’t think of it as failure. I always remember what my mother used to say, “Failure is just a perception.” Pat yourself on the back for taking the risk, and move on.

Solve a problem. If your job is unfulfilling, find a problem at work that needs solving. Then devote yourself to finding the solution. This is the same recipe entrepreneurs use to identify great new business ideas. If you don’t succeed, figure out why and then try again.

Just fix it. If you hate your job, fix it. Volunteer for a new task at work, for example, or get training in a new skill. What’s the worst thing that can happen? You’ll fail. But along the way, you’ll probably figure you why you hate your job and feel stuck.

Get off balance. Surprise yourself by doing something completely out of character. Apply for a position in a foreign country. Ask to sit in on a meeting in a different department. Open your mind to new career possibilities by taking a chance at something unfamiliar.

Try less. Many people get worried and anxious trying to come up with ways to forward their careers. Great ideas often come when you stop trying so hard. Be aware of your daydreams and pay attention to the things you love to read or see on TV. Those ideas and interests might spark a future career path or business idea.

The fastest way to accelerate your career is to allow yourself to fail — early and often. The more new risks you take and the more often you take them, the more you’ll learn about your passions, talents, and ambitions.

Dal LaMagna is the founder of Tweezerman, the socially responsible global beauty tools company, and a major funder and active trustee of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, which awards MBAs in sustainable business. A partner and blogger at HuffingtonPost.com, he is also author of the book, Raising Eyebrows: A Failed Entrepreneur Finally Gets It Right (John Wiley & Sons, www.raisingeyebrows.com).

Women, in particular, need as many negotiation tools as possible, given that we’re still paid less than men for equal work, and don’t have a critical mass―and therefore equal decision-making authority―at the top of companies.  Consider the following strategies the next time you enter a negotiation at work, and remember, real-life practice is the very best preparation for negotiating!

Do Your Homework

Before a negotiation, take the time to organize yourself from an informational standpoint.  Write out why you are negotiating for whatever it is, and the reasons for it. Then begin to assemble any supporting research. The more relevant research you have, the better you will feel about your argument and the more compelling your case will be.

So, if you were going to ask for an assistant, for example, you might do research within your company to see what the standard criteria is for hiring an assistant. How many people does an assistant typically support? How senior does one have to be to have an assistant? What kind of revenue does a department have to produce in order to justify having an assistant?

You can also do benchmarking outside of your company to see how your competitors configure their work units and the employment of assistants. Outside of supporting research, you could think about how an assistant could help your team add or create new value for your organization. Many employers think of value in terms of numbers, so is there a way for you to quantify the value and contributions of what you are negotiating for? Get familiar and well acquainted with this research, as mastering your data will help you be more creative and improvisational on the spot.

Keep Your Cool

It is worth noting that walking into a negotiation without having done preparation or review of the issue at hand can be disastrous, as can spontaneous or emotion-driven negotiations. The better prepared you are in terms of the facts and your demeanor, the more successful you are likely to be. One strategy for keeping your emotions in check is to be prepared, perhaps even over-prepared, for a negotiation from an informational standpoint.

I recommend striving for a composed balance between energized and relaxed. Negotiations can feel confrontational to many women, so filling yourself with positive, empowering messages in advance of the negotiation can do you a major service.  Above all else, decide that you have a place at the negotiation table and a right to ask for what you want. If you become fearful, remind yourself of what prompted you to ask for the negotiation in the first place.

Separate for yourself the person you will be speaking with and the problem you are trying to solve—they are not the same. You can boost yourself up emotionally by dwelling on your strengths and abilities; concentrate on several of your past successes to increase your confidence and optimism. I also encourage you to invite a trusted friend, partner, classmate, mentor, or colleague to role-play the negotiation with you in advance.

Use Strategic Questioning

While you are negotiating, use the technique of asking questions, preferably open-ended questions, which can be very powerful. These questions open up dialogue and can even buy you more time if you need to gather your thoughts. These questions, some examples of which are shown below, help guide and move the conversation along.

• Can you explain how you arrived at that solution?
• How are decisions like these determined?
  Are you willing to negotiate that point?
• What is keeping us from coming to an agreement?
• How could I help you feel more comfortable with this request?
• What is most important to you? Can you explain why?
• How can we move forward?
• How can we best . . . ?
• How can we make this work for both of us?
• Is that the best you can do?
• What is the cost of us not coming to an agreement?

Silence is Your Friend

Silence, though not something we are well accustomed to in American culture, can be one of the greatest negotiation strategies at your disposal. When we are silent, we are not over-promising or under-selling in ways we will later regret, instead we are giving ourselves the precious gift of time and space. Silence affords us the luxury to contemplate our next move during a tricky or emotionally draining negotiation. While it can be tempting to fill in gaps in conversation, it is important to find ways to practice and get comfortable using silence.

Silence can have an effect on others as well; for one, it tends to make people uncomfortable. It can make your counterpart share information, restate their position, or try to guess what your position is. Each of these attempts to break the silence put you in a more favorable position. The strategy of silence is especially important for women to use since they may be tempted to accommodate their counterpart, fill a conversation void, or not want to seem “difficult” or withholding. The next time you are in a negotiation situation, experiment with being quiet rather than speaking up right away or thanking your counterpart. Silence can give you power, as well as valuable time to process the bargaining conversation. Using silence can feel awkward at first, so I urge you to practice this technique before a negotiation!

Take a Win-Win Approach

Outside of asking powerful questions and using silence well, I recommend that you look for a way for both parties to win. One of the women executives I interviewed on this subject, Roxanne Spillett, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boys and Girls Clubs of America, advised, “…Look for a ‘win-win’ in relationships and negotiations. Every time you think there’s a ‘win-loss’ situation, look for ways to make it mutually beneficial. It is always better to leave something on the table in a negotiation than to walk away with everything. This is a pretty important practice as a leader.” Coming up with creative solutions and concessions can certainly show your willingness to get to common ground in a negotiation.

Use questions to understand your counterpart’s needs, and then reiterate those needs and look for a way they can be met, preferably without your conceding something. If you must concede something, negotiate to get something else back. Since women are adept at reading body language and nonverbal communication, I recommend leveraging that skill to interpret cues such as discomfort or concern.

This is an excerpt from “The Next Generation of Women Leaders: What You Need to Lead but Won’t Learn in Business School,” a new book by Selena Rezvani.  Selena serves as the president of NextGenWomen, LLC, where she works to propel more women into top leadership through one on one coaching, corporate consulting, and training.

Here are five ways to prepare yourself for professional situations and become a more confident job seeker:

• Read the (industry) news. Many recent graduates struggle in professional situations because they feel so different from the people they are meeting with. Well, one of the easiest ways to find common knowledge is to talk about current events taking place in the news.  Not only will you portray yourself as an informed individual who is in tune with the goings-on of the world, but you will also notice yourself forming opinions on current events and topics and gain personal confidence through your knowledge.Even better?  Read news directly related to the industry you’re entering so that you can speak on even more relevant topics.  Even if your knowledge isn’t impressive, you can show an initiative and desire to learn that other candidates may not display.
  

• Do background research. You should always enter a professional situation with some research under your belt because if you know what you’re dealing with, you will be much more comfortable and confident.  Spend some time on the company Web site learning as much as you can about the company.  Formulate some questions that show you did some preparation.  Look at it like studying for a test: If you put a lot of effort into preparing and you are comfortable with the information, are you going to be nervous? No.

• Practice with strangers. This is a fairly easy way to become more comfortable meeting and talking with people whom you just met.  Make small talk with the bank teller, start a conversation with the woman next to you at the bus stop, or introduce yourself to your neighbors in the apartment down the hall.  Get used to introducing yourself and talking to people you don’t know because you will get a good feel for the easiest ways to enter, continue and exit conversations.  Pretty soon it will come naturally.

• Get a tailored suit (or the female equivalent). I’m not saying that you have to go out and spend a lot of money on professional attire (you can get suits for under $100), but you should wear something that at least fits you properly.  Although true self-confidence must come from within, you don’t want to be worrying about your appearance when you go in for the interview.  If you are happy with the way you look, you will radiate self-confidence.

• Take every interview. This is just about getting practice in an interview setting.  You will notice that many of the questions you are asked in interviews are the same—or at least similar—and getting practice.  Nothing works as well as the real thing, so treat every interview as a learning experience and get as much exposure to the job search process as you can.

It is natural to be nervous in unfamiliar situations, but the more exposure and practice you have with the job search process, the better you will become and, more importantly, the more confident you will feel.  So get out there, get some practice and soon you will be wondering why you were so nervous in the first place.

Mario Schulzke is the creator of CareerSparx, an online course that helps recent college graduates begin their careers. For more information, download a free 61-page guide on how to start your career.

When you are choosing a career or considering a career change, keep all of these aspects in mind. First, though, learn a few lessons from the successful professionals who waded through this stream before you.

The first lesson in building a career is that you don’t have to find something perfect, despite what Hollywood may say. Just because you wanted to be a firefighter as a child, you don’t need to jump into a life of fighting flames to be happy. However, you can think about why you wanted to be a firefighter and decide whether other options, such as fire investigation or fire insurance, will be more lucrative or fulfilling for you. On the other hand, perhaps you have been sitting in front of a piano since before you were able to read, but your big break never arrived.

You also know you have a talent for analysis and explanation. Jobs are much more plentiful in this field, so you decide to pursue and education in science or business. Because of your love for meaningful sound, you can build your passion into your life while meanwhile contributing as an analyst. Sometimes it’s best not to mix work and love, because no matter what your job is, you will always enjoy time off. It would be a shame to stop appreciating musical expression just because you get paid to do it.

Another important lesson concerns education. When you start a career with higher education credentials in hand, you will make more money and be given more responsibility than your less-educated counterparts. This is true for everything from the culinary arts to yoga instruction. Additional training and experience will make your job even better for your personal growth, even though it may seem expensive and difficult at first blush.

For a list of careers and information about the qualifications and education needed to break into them, visit www.northorion.com, a new site from technology power house TechMediaNetwork. Information about the premier local, national and online schools is also available there.

Ultimately, what you do to meet basic necessities makes up your life – your livelihood. Find something you are naturally talented in and from there, make decisions based on compensation, fulfillment and personal inspiration. That way, you can get much more from a job than a place away from the rain or food on the table. You can find a reason for your very existence, a reason to awake each morning and live all your days to the fullest.

Those who have regular nine to five jobs are naturally envious of me, but what they don’t see beneath the rosy exterior are the errors that you tend to make when you work from home. For those of you who think things are hunky dory when you’re able to work from the comfort of your residence, go ahead, but before you do so, ensure that you don’t make these mistakes and land yourself in professional hot water:

• Get on the wrong side of colleagues and your boss: It’s easy to offend or hurt someone because you don’t see them on a regular basis and because you don’t know them well enough. You don’t have to bend over backwards to please people, but make sure you stay in their good books so that working together (in case of joint projects that need teamwork) is not too much of a strain.

• Send out emails before you think them through: When you work from home, and especially if you live far away from the rest of your team and distance makes phone calls an expensive proposition, you’re most likely going to use email for all your correspondence. Make sure you follow protocol, if there is any, for official emails, and that you read your letters through a few times before you hit the send button. It’s easy to be misunderstood when you don’t express yourself as well as you should. Emails that are likely to generate controversy must be thought through very carefully before they’re sent out.

• Assume you have all the time in the world: One thing that can be used in the argument against working from home is that this option tends to make you lazy. You don’t have the initiative to get up early in the morning because you don’t have to get dressed and battle the rush hour traffic in an effort to get to the office on time. You know you can work anytime you choose, and this gives you a false sense of complacency that usually leaves you scrambling to meet deadlines at the last minute and compromising on your work as a result.

• Let yourself go personally: Working from home means you don’t get to meet people and socialize on a regular basis. And this means that you tend to ignore your external appearance. While it’s true that real beauty comes from within, it’s important to pay attention to your personal grooming and keep yourself in the best possible shape so that you don’t feel like a frump when you do have to go out and get a regular job.

It’s a great way to earn a living – there is no office tension and the fear of your supervisor peering over your shoulders. But it’s up to you to make working from home really work for you by avoiding these common mistakes.

This post was contributed by Holly McCarthy who writes on the subject of job websites. She invites your feedback at HollyMcCarthy12 at gmail dot com.

Most of you are connected 24/7. You work in environments that provide instant information and immediate feedback on your performance. Decisions about staffing and human resource matters are made with speed, efficiency, and not surprisingly, a lack of kindness. They’re also generally made without a commitment to longer-term strategy. Corporate managers view results in data, profitability, and analytics — and no longer strongly associate people and relationships with those results. There is zero loyalty and even less gratitude.

Market melt-downs have become standard operating procedure, and the time between them has been compressed. As a result, you may also find yourself in a job search. That means you always need to have an updated and targeted resume. It’s what I refer to as a Bear Market resume principally because that’s the market you’re in. Of course, you’ll need one in a Bull Market, too. It just doesn’t have to be as good.

The art of the Bear Market resume lies in addressing three points clearly and precisely: what you want and why, what qualifies you to pursue this goal, and how the person reading the resume will benefit:
•    What do you want and why? What’s your goal? What do you want to be right now at this very moment in time? This is the central theme that should be conveyed loudly and forcefully from the top of your resume through the very last word.

It’s fine to have multiple goals. In fact, I encourage you to explore a range of options. However, your resume must be tightly focused around one major goal. Don’t attempt to write a resume that positions you for a number of options. It’s not a one-size-fits-all document. It can’t be. In a competitive market—in any market for that matter—your resume is one more tool you use to establish your brand and your professional identity. A fuzzy message is the equivalent of resume suicide.

How you distinguish yourself and present your experience and qualifications matters. If you don’t figure out how to get your message across clearly, precisely, and with a bit of flair, someone else will. That doesn’t mean every job requires a customized resume. That would be logistically challenging and unproductive. Part of being in job search mode is seeing some byproduct of the time you’ve invested in your search. How do you measure the success of your resume? When you send it out, you get calls. You should expect your resume to generate interest.

The resume can encompass one or more related job categories. These are jobs that are similar in function, and they value, to a lesser or greater degree, the same qualifications, experience, and skills. If your goals are aligned with those of your target audience, then you’ve got a lovefest. Even in a tough market, your resume will generate real measurable interest. Remember that it’s a marketing tool above and beyond all else. The broader the audience and the resume, the more likely your message will be diluted.

•    What qualifies you? Why do you deserve to present yourself as a candidate for this position? That’s a question you better have a good answer to. Of course, you have to be convincing that you want it—passion is good—and that you have the brain-power to do the job. But it’s not enough to show that you’re smart. Smart people are not
necessarily successful in a job search. Your resume needs to take
 this insight to the next level and think for the reader.
 It’s your job to show your audience that who you say you are—
your work experience, skills, qualifications, and interests — directly support what they, the audience, need and want. It should also imply that you, as presented via your resume, have the potential to offer something more: the answer. The people who interview you are working in increasingly complicated environments. They have the right to know that you will hit the ground running – immediately. You need to demonstrate that you will find solutions to problems that have not yet even been identified.

•    Benefits? What’s in it for your reader? If you want to be taken seriously, the resume must always show that you have a history of adding value both immediately and over the longer term.  Before you sign off on the resume, however, there’s one addi
tional step to consider: how to measure your past performance. If your history is an indicator of your potential to be successful in the future, you have no choice but to provide metrics that quantify your value. For those of you in roles that are transaction-driven, it’s easy to monetize your success.

Here are some questions to help you capture the results and outcomes of your work, whether it was administrative, project-based, or operational. When you describe the various projects you’ve worked on or the processes you’ve managed, consider the following:

•    What did you do to manage this project or process in a new or better way?
•    What lessons did you learn that have the potential to be replicated elsewhere?
•    What were the results? Has your work contributed to the bottom-line? For example, even in roles that are administrative or operational, you can still achieve percentage increases in efficiency or productivity or reductions in overhead.

Roy Cohen (www.careercoachny.com) spent 14 years as the sole “in-house” career and outplacement counselor to Goldman Sachs. He now maintains an active private practice in career management, executive coaching and leadership development.  Cohen is the author of The Wall Street Professional’s Survival Guide: Success Secrets of a Career Coach (FT Press).

Now what? What does that mean?

You have to define your own roadmap for career development. Take control of your career success by putting together your own career development plan through these five building blocks:

Define Career Success
Career success means different things to different people at different times. It could be traditional goals from climbing the corporate ladder, whether CEO, VP, or other top positions. For others, it could mean finding a career that is fun and rewarding. Definitions of career success change with stage of life and if family takes a priority, success may mean a job with flexibility. Whether steady employment, career advancement, career resilience, ego gratification, compensation, benefits, flexibility, or a job you love and do well, what does career success mean to you?

Set a Career Strategy
Reaching your definition of career success starts with understanding your career goal. Most people know their immediate destination, their next job, but what is your long-term objective? Some people have a clear long-term strategy in mind: “I want to be a chief executive officer,” “I would like to run a business line,” or “I would like a job right now that gives me flexibility.” With a stated objective you are much more likely to achieve your goal. Just think about the couch potato who says, “I want to run a marathon” and the next time you see them they are healthy and fit. What is your long-term career goal?

Understand Career Paths to Get There
What career paths will get you to your goal? Career coaches will direct you to do ‘informational interviews’ and talk to people in your desired role to understand the different career paths, experiences, and skills needed. Through understanding the career paths of others, you can get a better idea of directions that are available for yourself and how you can position yourself for your ultimate goal.

From informational interviews during five years of Getting to the Top^® career programs, I looked at executive career paths to categorize backgrounds of individuals rising to vice president and c-levels in various marketing and sales functions. I then did ground-breaking analysis in my database from 12 years of executive recruiting in Silicon Valley to better understand these common categories. The detailed results, with executive career paths, are presented in Getting to the Top.

Who are people that you can talk to learn potential career paths and experiences that will help in reaching your career objective?

Understand Leadership Skills Needed
You also need to understand the skills required in the role you desire. What are the skills that you need to develop to show that you can do the job?

As an executive recruiter, I have noted what I consider Career Catch-22s. If you haven’t managed people or a P&L, how do you get the experience if companies only want to hire people who have ‘been there, done that’? You need to start by understanding what skills are required for your desired job.

I summarize leadership skills as shared by executives in Getting to the Top^® career programs in a career pyramid of skills needed at the top: strategic vision, customer perspective, communications, team leadership, and distinguishing skills. Understand how these skills might apply for your career goal and work on developing them. For your career goal, what are the leadership skills required? What are your current skills, those that are needed and the gap – the skills that you need to develop?

Develop a Career Action Plan
To make a change and develop your career, understand the skills or behaviors you would like to change and your motivation to make the change. Then practice, continually.

According to company websites on training and development programs, career development emphasizes three Es: Experience, Exposure, and Education – with experience being the most important by far.

• Experience – develop skills by taking on challenging, visible assignments
• Exposure – expand your network inside and outside your organization, including mentors and role models
• Education – take classes to learn skills

After defining career success, a long-term career strategy, career paths toward your goal, and leadership skills required, put together your plan for developing the experiences and skills you need. How are you going to specifically develop the skills? What resources will you need? What obstacles might get in your way and how do you handle these? What is your specific plan and timeline for developing the skills? Map out your development plan, then prioritize and work on the skills that are most important for your career goal. Put together your own Career Action Plan.

With an actionable career plan, you can take responsibility for your own career development and success!

Kathryn Ullrich is an executive recruiter specializing in the recruitment of senior level executives for high technology, Internet, and consulting companies. She also leads Alumni Career Services for UCLA Anderson School of Management. Ullrich discusses the strategies outlined in this article in detail, with many executive anecdotes, in her recently published book, Getting to the Top: Strategies for Career Success.

However, if you can stay focused, determined, upbeat and flexible these times offer opportunities for not only continuing but also advancing your career. Here is the straight scoop as I see it. While the number of jobs may be on the decline there is still work to be done. Doing more with less is a mantra I hear resonating with employers I speak to around the country.

So here are a few tips to help you get and stay employed:

• Be a “force multiplier”. Both in interviews or with your existing employer show that you will make a difference by giving 110% and being willing to wear more than one hat. Become that “go to” person in your department.
  
• Upgrade you skills immediately. Look for new opportunities in your existing role. Develop a “new and improved” skill set. Take some courses, volunteer for a new project.
• Sell your skills first and then your experience. Remember, your experience is your past; your skills are what you bring to the workplace now and in the future. Demonstrate your flexibility to tackle whatever needs to be done.
• Interview with your ears. Eighty-five percent of all job seekers talk too much in the interview. Listen closely to what the employer needs then respond as someone who can satisfy those needs. An open-ended question such as “Could you please tell me more about that?” will elicit additional information from an interviewer as well as clearly demonstrate your interest in learning more about the position.
• What your boss tells you directly about your performance is important. However, what he or she doesn’t say may be even more important. Watch for the more informal signals such as what meetings you are invited to, what emails you are copied on, or even off handed comments that come your way at a meeting. Stay focused on this informal feedback and the signals it sends to you about where you stand in our boss’s eyes.
• In an interview, ask questions that set you up to make the sale. A question such as “What results do you ant me to produce immediately?” sends a strong message that you will hit the ground running if they hire you.
• Brand and promote yourself. Your personal brand is the image you want others to have of you. Put this in writing. For example, if you want to be seen as the “consummate team player” be sure to write down the specific behaviors you will do everyday to create that brand image.
• For older job seekers, you don’t have to fake youth to get a good job, but you usually do need to present yourself as in touch with relevant current trends, in sync with current technology, generally energetic and vigorous. Look for opportunities to present age as an asset by translating “age” into “experience”, “maturity”, and “sound judgment”.

Marc Dorio is a results oriented Organizational Effectiveness and Training professional and the author of books such as The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Perfect Interview .

The benefits of being a courageous risk taker are many. If you make a mistake, you’ll become wiser. If you succeed, you’ll learn something about your capabilities and potential. Either way, being a risk taker at your job will position you as a leader and an innovator. The key is to learn how to be a smart risk taker. Here are six ways to do it.

Trust your instincts.

Don’t wait for complete certainty on an issue before making a decision; it often arrives too late if it arrives at all. Once you get a good idea, don’t incubate it–act on it and work to make it happen.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

If you’re in a job or doing a project for which you lack experience, have the courage to tough it out and ask for help. If you operate on fear instead–the fear that asking for help will diminish you in the eyes of your boss or coworkers–you’re setting yourself up for a disaster.

Unleash positive energy.

Fear, stress, and uncertainty can be friends, not enemies, as long as you use them as motivators rather than as energy or action blockers. Get used to tolerating these uncomfortable feelings. Remind yourself that progress won’t happen without taking a step forward, into the unknown.

Anticipate and act.

Not making a decision is actually making a negative decision. Think like an athlete, and learn to position yourself where the action is likely to take place.

Learn from failure.

The most important lessons we learn in life are those that result from failure. People are very forgiving as long as you’ve tried to do your best and acted with integrity.

Be realistic.

While wild dreams and outrageous ideas may look good on paper, the working world doesn’t play on paper–it plays on the field of life. When you’re ready to take a risk at work, check it for “reasonableness.” Being viewed as a maverick is good; being seen as reckless or off-the-wall isn’t.

Beth Banks Cohn PhD is a leading expert in change management and leadership development. Roz Usheroff is an internationally recognized communication expert and personal branding executive coach. They are coauthors of the new book, Taking the Leap: Managing Your Career in Turbulent Times…and Beyond (BookSurge Publishing, 2009).

For students who have studied abroad, this is good news, especially considering the contracting U.S. job market. However, many students with who have lived abroad don’t understand how to package this experience in a way that’s appealing to prospective global employers.

And what do companies value most in the study abroad experience? Based on my conversations with many large, multi-national companies, the general attraction stems from the inherent curiosity in these global-minded citizens. For some industries or companies, the benefit ends there as they need global thinkers not employees willing to go overseas.

For those global companies for which an international experience is a true hiring differentiator, however, the payoff can be huge. The vast majority of professionals I interviewed on this topic agreed that if two applicants have essentially the same resume credentials, they would choose the one who studied abroad or possessed other international experience. The following attributes were cited:

• Enhanced cross-cultural awareness critical to diverse, global teams
• Ability to bring global thinking skills to bear on problems across the board
• Multiple language skills, especially for non-American students who go abroad to English-speaking campuses
• Predisposition to and experience with global mobility

But would-be employees shouldn’t expect these companies just to tick the box of international experience and move on. Generally, this overseas experience opens up a whole line of questioning during the interview process – questions that, depending on the answers, will impact the interview. For example, companies want to know what the student did, learned and how he or she can bring that international experience to bear on the job. Was the experience a rigorous one with a full academic load on campus – or was it primarily just for fun with a light course load? Were classes in the local language; was an internship part of the term? Variations provide insight to a prospective employer.

Where a student studies increasingly matters to prospective employers. Branching out beyond the typical Western European countries into China, Brazil, Russia or India signals an enhanced awareness of growing global economies – and a direct link to the places most companies are expanding and growing within. These non-traditional destinations often offer more challenging situations intensifying the learning curve. Moreover, opportunities for employment in the U.S., UK or South Africa working for a Brazilian, Indian or Chinese company are on the rise.

Students can use not only study abroad experience, but also second or third language fluency, internships abroad and international business classes and personal interest can make a difference. I have found, however, that many such students don’t know how to package these skills, how to apply them to current global business trends, or know where to start if they simply want to take a chance and move to another country to look for a job.

Both students and their career counselors, therefore, must make a concerted effort to learn how to adequately enter today’s increasingly global job market – or bring in the experts. In the workshops I conduct on campuses, I provide practical advice that students can follow right away.  Here are a few tips to consider:

1. Make sure that an international career is right for you. Understand the skills needed, learn about the challenges of working cross-culturally, and use the appropriate tools to search for international jobs.

2. Develop a strategy after you have done extensive research by gathering intelligence, networking with as many people as you know and who know someone, and targeting relevant markets, industries and companies.

3. Package your experience as appropriate for each market, industry and company.  Learn how to incorporate international experience and interests into resumes, cover letters and interview preparation, making your points relevant to the organization. Study or brush up on foreign language skills.

4. Consider working for the U.S. Government, if you’re American, which estimates it will higher more than 200,000 graduating students in the next two years in areas such as FAA, border patrol and CIA.

5. Manage your expectations. Companies may not send you abroad as a transfer with a big package. They might offer you a position as a local hire with wages commensurate with the local economy and living conditions. Whether you choose to accept or decline, do your research and determine the pros and cons.

6. Consider moving to another country without securing a job. Only consider doing so after you’ve done extensive research on the economy, job market, taxes, work visas and more. Make sure you have at least six months of living expenses in case you do not get a job immediately.  Network like crazy before and after you land.  Appreciate the risks you are taking, the potential rewards and manage expectations accordingly.

Today’s leading organizations value international experience and, after a few years in another country, you could return to the U.S. with enhanced and differentiated business skills to catapult you further and faster.

Stacie Nevadomski Berdan is a consultant who specializes in international careers and co-author of the award-winning Get Ahead By Going Abroad: A Woman’s Guide to Fast-Track Career Success.