Where do you get...?

[streety]

Hi Everybody,

I have been reading this website for the past couple of days and have one thing to say- brilliance.

I have been lucky enough in my short (16) life to have flown quite a bit in Australia and the USA including being lucky enough to have a father who was a member of the Qzntas club up until he bought his own business 5 years ago. Thats about when most of the flying stopped!!!

I love every aspect of flying still despite having done it a bit now and I have just one question for you all- Where in God's name do you get jobs that require you to fly so damn much???

Streety

 

[NM]

Hello streety and welcome to AFF.

You may like to read this thread to get an idea of what some members do for a living and why they travel so much:

 

[littl_flier]

Hi streety. Welcome to AFF!

I would say work hard at school and then the world's your oyster. (and I know how many times you must have heard that because I'm not that much older than you) Now I have IMHO one of the world's best jobs that lets me study, travel and do a little bit of work as well.

There's stacks of jobs out there which seem to allow plenty of travel but IT and Finance seem to have their fair share of opportunities.

At the end of the day though, just do something you love so it doesn't feel like you actually have to go to work everyday. And then you can save the money for the real travel!

Cheers,
littl_flier

 

[wallacej]

Hi streety. Welcome to AFF!

Now I have IMHO one of the world's best jobs that lets me study, travel and do a little bit of work as well.

Cheers,
littl_flier

That has to be the quote of the hour.. couldn't agree more....

For some reason, I really love travel, and it seems that most of my employment, either self or not seems to have invovled travel... I think maybe subconciously I may actually seek out these kind of roles, even though I don't think I do....

You can click on this box below to see my stats. You will see a mix of personal and leisure.... and that link does not include everything.. there are chunks of Ansett days data that I don't have....(didn't think I would ever need those paper statements)

​

 

[Dave Noble]

I won't say to work and study hard c'os it would be hypocritical of me to do so; I do IT consultancy and training and it's the training side that primarily provides my business travel

welcome to AFF

Dave

 

[NM]

For work travel, you really need to have some specific skill or experience that is needed in some place other than where you live. For me it took about 10 years of working before I gained the specific skills and experience that now are the catalyst for my business travel.

 

[streety]

Thanks guys,

Yup you were right I've heard the "study hard, world/oyster" thing many times- sadly it is, I feel, extremely true!

Maybe I'll just get finish school and get my degree and put an ad in the paper for "lawyer/fin planner, will travel, a lot" !

 

[NYCguy]

Maybe I'll just get finish school and get my degree and put an ad in the paper for "lawyer/fin planner, will travel, a lot" !

I get the feeling that there are more IT specialists than anything else on this board.

I started my career with a business degree, and have ended up in luxury retailing. When I was a bright-eyed youngster I started studying law, but it was borrrrrrrrrrrinnnnnnnnnng, and I realised that one doesn't need to be overly clever to be a lawyer, one just needs to have a good memory.

 

[simongr]

Just to slightly contradict NM I actually found that more junior people in the accounting industry have greater opportunity to travel. I frequently had teams working for me overseas whilst I hardly moved out of my office in Sydney :'(

I don't think th there is a set job - more generally a set of conditions that might assist in facilitating travel. Firstly a illingnesto do it - some people genuinely dont want to travel, next working for a multi location company is a must (either in terms of where they seel, where they buy or where they make).

When I joined this company I was told there would be 8 weeks of travel a year with two trips to the US and 2 to asia max per year - last yeat I went to the US twice, ASia three times and the UK once. So you really never know what you are going to get

 

[wallacej]

-... some people genuinely dont want to travel ...

NOOO say it isn't so..... (doesn't EVERYONE want to travel)

 

[Alanslegal]

A flexible workplace (and nicer boss) is also an important element if you want to fly and travel often.........even if its business travel and you want an extra few days off to pursue personal / travel / tourist'y things.....

 

[littl_flier]

Just to slightly contradict NM I actually found that more junior people in the accounting industry have greater opportunity to travel. I frequently had teams working for me overseas whilst I hardly moved out of my office in Sydney :'(

With respect to Accounting, I couldn't agree more with Simon. From a Big 4 perspective, the junior staff (ie. below Manager) are the ones who travel week in week out on clients and the managers might come in for a couple of days max. Above manager, it's very rare to see anyone come to site for the actual client work. They just get the occasional sexy job like "gathering" missions around Asia or "SOX" visits to the US for a couple of days.

Then again, at a Manager level, you are managing more than one team so you need to be central to deal with everyone's issues and just have the occassional high level reporting to do.

 

[Commuter]

I have a tip for the OP.

Just get any job that you love doing AND pays well AND gives you sufficient flexibility for you to go travelling in your own time.

Then you get to choose where you go. :mrgreen:

This might sound like a joke but I'm being serious.

The places I went to for work have been mostly places that I wouldn't have chosen to visit, and my opinion about those places haven't changed.

Sometimes places bring you a (pleasant) surprise, but not always, so you might well just like to travel for leisure to the destinations of your choosing.

 

[Evan]

Commuter, your so right, you do tend to end up in the same cities all the time. Atleast some of the places i travel too for work are places i either like to visit or are close to interesting places so can travel on weekends etc.

A lot of travel sounds good but most people don't like it after a while. But some international travel (say between 1 and 4 times a year) seems to keep a lot of people happy.

E

 

[kkutasi]

Commuter, your so right, you do tend to end up in the same cities all the time. Atleast some of the places i travel too for work are places i either like to visit or are close to interesting places so can travel on weekends etc.

A lot of travel sounds good but most people don't like it after a while. But some international travel (say between 1 and 4 times a year) seems to keep a lot of people happy.

E

You are all right. Travelling 20 times a year SYD-MEL-SYD for example is extremely boring... and hey, who likes living out of a suitcase?

i'd take a job that pays more over a job that travels more any day. then you pick where you want to travel to.

the only downside though is not racking up those SC at the same rate on someone else's account!

 

[DTM1]

I realised that one doesn't need to be overly clever to be a lawyer, one just needs to have a good memory.

Heeyyyyyyyyyy !!! no need to pick on us lawyers !!!!

 

[NYCguy]

Heeyyyyyyyyyy !!! no need to pick on us lawyers !!!!

Oh, don't pretend you don't like it!

Some of my best friends are lawyers, BUT...

 

[alien]

I agree also....find a job that pays enough would be the go. Ideally a job that pays and allows you to travel

I only travel domestic for business and may be once or twice a month syd-mel mainly the rest is leisure.

You could always start up your own business ie: a travel agency??? Which I'm thinking of doing.....

 

[BlacKnox]

I have a tip for the OP.

Just get any job that you love doing AND pays well AND gives you sufficient flexibility for you to go travelling in your own time.

If you choose a job that you love doing than often the other parts will follow. It often doesn't pay well at the beginning, but if you're skilled then the money and free-time (to travel, amongst other things) will come.

 

[vt01]

In my 22 years with my current employer, my regular travel didn't start until 1995. This was mainly teaching and consultancy in IT mainframe products - Only 2 products that I teach but both were in high demand in Asia. As Asia is in our backyard, we tend to teach subject matter of which we have knowledge rather than bringing instructors out from the US or Europe. Along with that is my own education which is mainly done in the US where I have spent anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks at least once per year.

Once China started to grow, I've had many trips to support my product areas. The Chinese love outside experts to fly-in to their customers. During one of the project I was going up to Beijing about once every 6 weeks.

Most of my recent travel has been related to only one of the products which has had a lot of focus over the past 5 years. This has helped a lot.

My future DONE4 travel will come because I will spend a few weeks a year with my US team picking up skills in my new role - well half a role - 20 hours per week so I still get to do my old job 20 hours per week.

The other role I and my local team took on about 4 years ago was to support a UK customer. WE are part of a worldwide team made up of people in the UK, Canada and Australia to provide the customer with 24 hour coverage for their problems. Along with this is a customer visit a couple of times per year. The trips are shared so i only get one of these once every couple of years.

One of my friends who also works for the same company worked in the IT system security area for about 15 years with no travel. Suddenly he was offered an auditor position which involves using his skills and has been travelling the world ever since! I think he gets to come home about 3 weeks per year. He spends about 6 weeks in each location before moving to the next. Sydney and Melbourne are 2 of the locations he gets to do audits. I think he's been doing the role for almost 3 years and is already LTS.

The bottom line is that it's sometimes difficult to know if you job will give you travel or not. Their are some in my team you do next to no travel because they either don't want the travel or do not have skills in demand. So when opportunity knocks.. make sure you take it!