Away game wins a career advantage
Whether it is our colonial past or the more recent penchant for gap years, overseas work experience has long been seen as a handy way to skip a few rungs on the career ladder. Why toil through the rush hour and rain when a couple of years in sunnier climes can leave your CV glowing with exotic promise? For those who do not work for a company with offices in 140 countries, a time-honoured way of gaining work experience abroad is volunteering. Veronica Wilson, a trainee lawyer, spent a year in South Africa with VSO, an international development charity, after graduating from Birmingham University in African studies and anthropology. Now working in the legal department of EMI while studying part-time on a law conversion course, Wilson says her experiences in an HIV/Aids clinic in Durban directly affected her decision to go into law.