More and more often, school or university graduates take a time-out and set off on a long journey for life experience.
Libretto
Behind the foreign term gap year (literally, “skipped year”) lies a phenomenon very popular in the West, when school or university graduates take a time-out between studies and work and set off on a long journey with several goals: to gain life experience, to cut the apron strings, or perhaps to find a job...
The emergence of this trend is owed to British youth of the 1960s. The generation born during the baby boom and captivated by the hippie freedom formed an independent travel market, which became the basis of the gap year.
In 1967, British public figure Nicholas Maclean-Bristol decided to give meaning to this global Brownian motion of youth and founded the Project Trust fund. The fund was engaged in sending young men and women to other countries for a purpose: for long-term work and exposure to a foreign culture. That same year, the first three students went to Addis Ababa, practically becoming pioneers of the movement. In the 1970s, the popularity of the gap year grew like a snowball, and the movement also developed a so-called volunteer direction. By 1977, the British organization GAP Activity Projects emerged, which offered volunteer programs to those who decided to take a year off between school and college.
“Travel for work” appeared as the third main element with the introduction of “Working Holiday” student visas in the 1980s. It was then that gap year gained popularity not only among offspring of wealthy parents but also among those from the working class. Programs began to emerge that allowed them to earn money abroad as well. In the 1990s, the Gap Year Travel and Gap Year Volunteering programs began to gain momentum. An example was set by young Australians who wanted to study and work in Britain. With the advent of the high-tech era, when planning a route via the Internet became a breeze, the gap year turned into a global movement.
Our country is slowly but surely joining it. Especially in these difficult times, there is nothing to lose, but much to gain. A farewell tour before starting a career can become a springboard for a future career or a survival school, providing invaluable experience and allowing one to understand what they really want from life. Itogi found out what gap year means in Russian.
Scenario One: Enchanted Wanderers
Tatiana, a 24-year-old graduate of one of St. Petersburg's universities, began planning her gap year while still in her hometown. The girl set a goal – to go to Australia to improve her English.
To save money for tuition and accommodation on the Green Continent, she worked a lot alongside her studies. She tried her hand as an assistant organizer of major Russian windsurfing and kitesurfing competitions, worked in the office of one of Moscow's large PR agencies, and got a taste of a major multinational company. By the time she received her diploma, she had already saved a substantial sum that allowed her to pay for six months of study.
The girl started a few weeks before classes began in Sydney – she traveled through several Asian countries, including Malaysia and Singapore. Then six months of improving her English and working part-time at a catering company. When the exams were behind her, Tanya, having organized a farewell road trip through Tasmania, headed to Moscow – right in the midst of the crisis. Alas, all attempts to find a job came to nothing, each interview ending with the phrase “we'll call you” and subsequent silence from the phone.
Then fate itself suggested the solution. Through old contacts, she managed to find a position as manager of a surf station in Montenegro, and the girl started packing her bags again. “I decided, since everything is turning out this way, I need to follow fate's lead,” Tanya recalls, “and then this offer came up. I'm only afraid that I will finally lose the ability to work nine-to-five as before: the free schedule has spoiled me.”
However, during her Montenegrin stint, the girl, in her role as manager, learned the local specifics of concluding a lease agreement, obtaining numerous permits and approvals. “So now I'm also a bit of a land specialist,” she laughs, “that's what I'll write in my resume.” True, she won't start sending it out soon – a trip to Namibia is already planned in her creative plans.
Scenario Two: In Free Navigation
Irina Morkhova is now a leading specialist at an American company that has opened an office in Russia. A job with a stable salary, a family – a model of bourgeois life. A few years ago, she was just a confused graduate of a foreign language institute who got an internship in America.
The ease with which American schoolchildren dropped everything and took off confused her even more. During her internship, Irina clearly understood for herself: the “school – university – work – family” scheme is not the only option. “I have a pedagogical education,” she says, “and after the States, I dreaded the prospect of working as a school teacher. I decided to give myself a deferment, practice my English...”
Scouring internet sites, Irina found a suitable option – a job as a waitress on the cruise liner “Queen Elizabeth II” and signed her first contract for five months. “At first it was scary,” Irina recalls, “open space, no shore in sight, seasickness during rough seas. Then I got used to it, remembered that sour foods are not recommended for the stomach before a storm, took pills.”
The work turned out to be not easy – almost without days off from morning to evening. Short breaks were during stops, when passengers were served only breakfast and dinner. Free time could be spent sightseeing and shopping. “From spring to winter we sailed the Mediterranean – Spain, Italy, Croatia, sometimes we included Turkey,” she says. “From winter to April the so-called circumnavigation began. We set off from our home port in England, crossed the Atlantic, then moved along the coast of South America towards New Zealand and Australia, and returned via India.”
The circumnavigations turned out to be a real test not only physically but also psychologically. “Imagine being in a confined space for a long time, even if you are resting,” explains Irina. “Naturally, it gets tiresome, caprices and nitpicking start. For us, in order not to damage the company's reputation, we had to constantly find compromises and solve problems. As a result, I learned to find a key to completely different people and became much more tolerant.”
Irina's gap year stretched to a year and a half, and then came the realization that she wanted solid ground under her feet. Irina returned, started sending out resumes, and almost immediately got her current job as a translator. When the employer saw in her employment history a year and a half working on a British ship, they immediately offered the girl a position in the company with a good salary.
Scenario three: hipsters
In the West, a gap year is almost a sacred right of every citizen, which even their parents dare not infringe upon. 20-year-old Igor refuses to give his last name so that his mother does not find out that her child has been overseas for months. In her naivety, she is sure that her offspring is conquering Moscow. Igor, however, works as a stylist in a beauty salon in New York and is sure that his mother would not appreciate his change of location.
One can understand her: in the capital city, the young man had everything, so to speak, going well. Even in his native Omsk, he was obsessed with the profession of a hairdresser and from an early age practiced on toys, and later on relatives and the neighbor's Yorkshire terrier. He went to Moscow to master the craft of a stylist and during his studies at college succeeded in practice. In a couple of years, the young man built up a solid client base, and he began to be called to service fashion shows. In short, he earned a reputation. However, along with success, doubts began to plague him – is it worth it?
“Sometime in February, I went with my girlfriend to the movie ‘Hipsters’,” recalls Igor. “There is a scene where the diplomat father of one of the characters urges him to drop everything and leave for the US to make a career. This idea caught me, I thought about it a lot and decided – I want to go to the States.” Igor's savings were enough to rent housing. He got a visa and set off for the New World in search of his calling. He had to cross the ocean to realize in New York that he could not live without scissors and a comb in his hands. Igor got a job in a small salon and soon became almost a local star.
“About a month after I started working in the salon,” Igor recalls a curious case from his practice, “a woman came in who had plans for the evening to celebrate ten years of marriage with her husband. She asked for a royal hairstyle, but the specialist, while bleaching the locks, kept the chemicals on too long and burned her lush hair. The client was naturally beside herself. In the US, such things end in a lawsuit, but here our manager said that a super master from Russia had arrived. I looked at her professionally and suggested a short haircut, convincing the lady that it was the latest fashion. She asked if I had cut Lyudmila Putina's hair in Moscow, to which I joked – of course. In the end, that became the deciding factor – the client left the salon with a stylish haircut and absolutely happy, and the next day brought a friend.”
With such a sweet deal, it would be a sin not to stay, but Igor does not intend to turn his gap year into emigration. The main thing is that he realized he did not make a mistake in choosing a profession, and he can return to his homeland no longer just a college graduate, but a true master of international class.
Leaving the nest
Such stories are more like fairy tales – some with a happy ending, some with an open ending. It all depends on what you are ready to fill the pause that unexpectedly arises at the junction of carefree and adult life. British Prince Harry, for example, went as a volunteer to Africa, and Alexandra Tolstaya – a descendant of the Russian classic living in the UK, visited Russia during her gap year, learning as much as possible about her roots. Moreover, during the trip, the girl met her future husband.
In a word, this is invaluable experience, which, alas, is not in high demand here. In Europe and America, the vast majority of young people start living independently early, and it is easier for them to leave their father's home. For us, to take such a step, we need to have real courage or a fair amount of indifference. A gap year is also needed to break free from parental care and bid farewell to infantilism. Another question is whether a potential employer will understand that you didn't waste the whole year but rather tempered your character?
"Many companies in Europe and America are more willing to hire young people who have traveled for a year after their studies, gaining life experience and impressions," says Yuri Virovets, director of the recruiting agency HeadHunter. "Some even give their employees a 'gap year.' In Russia, the situation is completely different. First, here everyone starts working in their specialty as early as possible. Second, employers prefer to hire employees with continuous work experience. Therefore, in Russia it is still problematic to explain in an interview that you did not lose a year of professional life by traveling in Latin America, but gained invaluable experience, improved communication skills, and learned to make vital decisions quickly."
However, the situation may now change. The recession is not endless, and after some time new vacancies will appear for the young and daring. And it is possible that an employer will choose the most enterprising candidate from a pool of applicants, who can list in their resume that they managed to cross all of Asia alone. After all, life is in motion. And when there is nothing to lose professionally, this movement can be constructive.