With graduation around the corner, a number of my classmates are planning summer travel plans. They’re motivated and funded by many sources. The most noble desire is to meet people from different cultures. The least is hoping for an interesting Instagram feed.
But whether you’re finishing up freshman year or a fifth-year victory lap, consider traveling this summer instead of working an entry level job. If your options are working as a barista or waitress or hopping on a plane, you may be surprised how forgoing the minimum wage income can benefit you in the long run.
In her book “The Defining Decade,” psychologist Meg Jay claims identity capital may be more useful for future employment than actual capital.
She pushes twenty-somethings to seek opportunities which will help them define who they are and move them one step forward to who they want to become. She points to unpaid internships, attending lectures and traveling as some of the best ways to improve a person’s identity capital.
She likens staying in jobs that are beneath a person’s education level as treading water, instead of moving forward. Some people don’t have the option to forgo the financial responsibility for a few months, but a few days of travel can make all the difference.
The travel she suggests doesn’t have to take up a whole summer. Earlier in the fall semester my friend and I bought a ticket to Austin, Texas, and explored the city for the long weekend. Neither of us had visited the Lone Star State before and used the weekend as an opportunity to learn about the history of Texas as well as the city’s many food trucks.
Returning from the trip, I could easily use the experience when interviewing for internships and jobs. Planning a trip is an individualized experience that shows time management, critical thinking and budgeting — all keywords in a number of job descriptions.
I also would have missed out on Torchy’s Tacos — a life changing experience in itself.
If there is an opportunity to travel for more than a few days you can also immerse yourself in the local economy by WWOOFing. WWOOF, the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, is a core of loosely organized organic farms around the world.
This organization matches you with farms which need help with a variety of projects. You could be helping with anything from mending a fence to harvest strawberries. In exchange for labor they set up workers with room and board, allowing workers a cheap place to stay and weekends off to explore.
Whether traveling domestically or internationally, these farms are a way to build identity capital by showing future employers a dedication to sustainability as well as number of interesting stories which are sure to come with the job.
By traveling for a short amount of time, or using volunteering to offset costs of a trip, summer travel becomes more feasible. No longer a pastime for the one percent, traveling during the summer months gives adventurers a better view of themselves. The identity capital from shorter trips can fill lines on a résumé and pages in a passport.
wkiepura@indiana.edu
@wkiepura
