There are a lot of people coming out of college and grad school faced with an economic brick wall. The jobs they thought would be plentiful have all dried up in this recession.

Many have probably gotten a ton of advice from parents, college career advisers and of course, career blogs. But there’s one piece of advice few are offering.

Leave the country, now!

I’m not suggesting this because there are tons more jobs available overseas. The market seems to be tough everywhere, although a few newly minted MBAs told me they’ve had a bit more luck finding work in Asia recently.

The reason I’m suggesting it has nothing to do with job opportunities.

I was talking to my best friend just yesterday about a young girl we both knew who decided to leave college and study the culinary arts in France. Immediately I thought that young woman was her changing life, for the better. So many people I know who have traveled and lived abroad tend to be more open minded and aware.

And international experiences will only help your career, your brain and your creativity in the long run.

Yes, creativity. New research by international business school INSEAD found that: “living outside one’s home country and adapting to a new culture may enhance creative thinking.”

William Maddux, the study’s lead author and assistant professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD, conducted five studies to look at the impact of living abroad and whether such a course in one’s life was actually linked to creativity.

Maddux and Adam Galinsky, PhD, from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, conducted five studies to test the idea that living abroad and creativity are linked. The findings appear in the May issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association.

In one study, master of business administration students at the Kellogg School were asked to solve the Duncker candle problem, a classic test of creative insight. In this problem, individuals are presented with three objects on a table placed next to a cardboard wall: a candle, a pack of matches and a box of tacks. The task is to attach the candle to the wall so that the candle burns properly and does not drip wax on the table or the floor. The correct solution involves using the box of tacks as a candleholder – one should empty the box of tacks and then tack it to the wall placing the candle inside.

The solution is considered a measure of creative insight because it involves the ability to see objects as performing different functions from what is typical (i.e., the box is not just for the tacks but can also be used as a stand). The results showed that the longer students had spent living abroad, the more likely they were to come up with the creative solution.

In another study, the researchers used a mock negotiation test involving the sale of a gas station. In this negotiation, a deal based solely on sale price was impossible because the minimum price the seller was willing to accept was higher than the buyer’s maximum. However, because the two parties’ underlying interests were compatible, a deal could be reached only through a creative agreement that satisfied both parties’ interests.

Here again, negotiators with experience living abroad were more likely to reach a deal that demanded creative insight. In both studies, time spent travelling abroad did not matter; only living abroad was related to creativity.

The findings don’t seem that surprising, right? Hopefully it will get all of us, parents and children, thinking about expanding our horizons a bit.

It’s scary, I know. Most helicopter parents today don’t want their kids to go around the block by themselves, let alone around the globe.

Sometimes we Americans think the world revolves around us, and that hurts us and society at large.

What’s your take? Have you traveled, worked, studied abroad? How did it help, or hinder?