My trips make me a great candidate but recruiters don’t see it

 I spent the last four years + in my last job and not for a specific reason and at the same time, for many of them, I felt it was the right time to move on. I was under the impression that I was at risk of getting comfortable with the challenges that were starting becoming sometimes too familiar. I hold onto my job for a long time because I loved the team, the property, my increasing responsibilities and the job itself.

 

I have always believed that in order to become brilliant at what you do, a combination of few but relevant things should exists; going through life with few regrets, waking up excited about the day ahead, good friends, an existing personal life and excitement towards the future.

 I could feel an increasing sensation that I was starting to lack some of them at times and in a personal level, I knew that I had to make

a big chance in my life towards getting them back again,  all of them.

Personally, going through life with as few regrets as possible has always been paramount to me in order to achieve, succeed and

 move forward.

 For the people that know me well, they also know that my trips around the world have always been very important to me as with

each of them, I have grown and learnt, I have become a person  I like, a brave woman with a deep understanding of a world that

sometimes we forget is there as we become to focused in our own micro world of self importance.

My own world is important to me as much as I never forget that is not the only one and worth to live in.

 With this strong belief, I knew the time to make that positive change had arrived and I left my dear job feeling that I had personally and

professionally succeed in a role that was given to me when I lacked the experience and knowledge but had the excitement and initiative

that would  ultimately show me and the people that hired me, that I was the right choice for it, not so much because I was the

best candidate but because I was the person with the most willingness to succeed.

 

 I know it was the right decision because I have felt good about it all along.

Feeling tremendously brave and confident I left my rented room, I sent all my stuff to a safe place and packed a big backpack.

 With that done and ready to start from afresh, I boarded a plane to SE Asia where I remained for seven months.

 

 

My trip has been everything I expected and more, but one thing that is hasn’t been is easy.

I travelled alone to under developed countries where I faced many challenges that I had to

deal with, responsibly with no support from anyone other than the trust in my own decisions.

 When I felt the time was right and I was ready to take on a new challenge in my life, I again

boarded that plane back to my adopted country. I was full of self belief that my new

professional life would start quickly enough to prove that I am the best candidate I can be

in all my years of professional life up to now.

It’s about a month now that I have returned to London and I am still unemployed.

 While I can not shout at recruiters telling them that I’m a great candidate and why oh why

I’m not  been successful so far being hired, I can use this post to tell the recruiters and

everyone  else that want to read it why me and many other thousands of travellers have

become the employees that they want to have in their teams.

 I lost count of how many people have told me of their admiration for my solo trip, I have also lost count of how many of them have told

me how much they wished the could do something like that; the travelling alone to far away destinations with no route, plans or return

ticket.

 

 I normally tell them that I’m not more special that  they are because what makes me

different from  them is that where they see difficulties, I see challenges, where they could

be  afraid, I could only feel excitement.

This trip that creates that “unacceptable” gap in my employment history has also provided me with the following skills;

 Extremely adaptable; I have found myself in third-world countries where no one spoke English, surrounded by confusion, sleeping in rough places with strangers and making my way through land border after land border taking the most uncomfortable transportation while trying not to be scammed.

I have become an expert budgeter and planner; you should know what is to have a limited budget and a bigger desire to cross a whole continent. I have become an expert of calculating, researching and spending just the right amount. Never so little money has given me so much.

 I possess a cross-cultural understanding and communication skills that only some people can dream of.

 I’m an expert negotiator; you should have seen me liaising with tuk-tuk drivers, taxi drivers, and Guest Houses and bikes rentals owners. With the first scams came they knowledge. I knew better and always made sure that neither my genre nor smile confused a business person; always nice but never stupid.

 

 I’m independent and self-reliant. How else I could have crossed several countries fearlessly?

 I’m not saying that if you a recruiter and you are reading this you should call me but if in doubt; then definitely call me J