| Inspired at Work - Looking For a Free Ride? - Spring 09 |
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| Written by Christine Hart | |||||||
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Find out how these six occupations can keep you on the road. Finding a job that will get you on the move is more complicated than just searching a job bank for "travel" and sifting through the results. But which occupations provide genuine expedition opportunities? And which are hospitality and travel industry roles? In many cases, travel-related jobs are geared towards helping other people travel or providing services on the other end. If you're looking to get out and see the world you'll be more interested in work that gets you going rather than facilitating someone else's adventure. While individual opportunities vary wildly, a few career choices do lend themselves to life on the road. One of the first questions to answer is whether or not you want to temporarily live overseas or stay on the move, seeing somewhere new each time. Will you be satisfied with a certain type of destination? Or do you want to travel to all the continents and corners of the planet? What kind of wage are you looking for? Most importantly, are you qualified to do the work (or could you be trained) and will you enjoy it? Here are a few starting points: Consultants This job title covers a wide variety of professions with a common thread of highly specialized expertise. From call centre efficiency to new farming strategies, a consultant is someone who works with organizations temporarily to analyze their products and procedures. Consultants also help clients explore and/or implement new equipment, ideas, policies, software, or a combination. Naturally, working with a different group for each project means you'll likely have to travel either regionally or nationally, although much work can be done remotely now. The more specialized your area of expertise, the more likely you'll have to travel widely. Photographers Aside from studio and portrait work, photography requires travel on a regular basis. Photographers will often work from a home or commercial studio, travelling to anywhere their professional connections take them. You could be photographing wildlife in Africa, following soldiers in combat, making the rounds on the European fashion circuit, or capturing the lives of a rock band. You will also have to spend many hours doing the more tedious work of perfecting the images you've captured, more with computers than in darkrooms these days.  Photo: Nicolas Garcia, Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-2.5 Trainers & Teachers While these roles sound similar, in practice they do differ somewhat. A professional trainer tends to specialize in a particular skill or product, while a teacher tends to require a broader knowledge base, staying with a group for much longer. As it relates to travel, working as a trainer or a teacher can mean the difference between location hopping and an immersion lifestyle. A trainer is likely to spend anywhere from an afternoon to a week with a group, travelling to boardrooms and auditoriums as needed. A teacher can spend up to a year in another country, often relocating to teach English. Certification for both types of work is usually required. Tour Guides The array of jobs under this category is broad; it can be the difference between leading a group of hikers into the Andes and driving a busload of tourists around Vancouver. Guides can find work ranging from deep sea diving, kayak excursions, and multi-day hikes to chaperoning students, singles, retirees, and other groups on bus or rail tours. Opportunities to travel depend on the scope of your business or employer's service area. Sales Representatives Like consultants, sales roles appear in virtually every industry. However, the knowledge base to do the job needs to be supplemented by personal qualities conducive to persuasion and relationship building. To find a sales role that involves travel, you'll need to look beyond retail positions to companies specializing in wholesale or distribution. Travel Writers If you're writing about travel, you have to have first-hand knowledge right? And the paper or magazine pays? Not necessarily on both points. Most travel-related articles are written by consulting sources, from a desk, in a home or office. Still, major magazines like Conde Nast Traveller and National Geographic or ubiquitous guide books like Frommer's and Lonely Planet do require concrete, hands-on travel experience as source material. So while some of today's travel writers do get to travel, unless they're employed by a big name, they often pay their own way for personal trips, funding themselves whenever possible after the fact. Although the above occupations are a good place to start, this list is by no means a complete overview. Use your imagination as you search for the right job or business opportunity. At interview time, don't be shy and let your prospective employer know that you're looking for opportunities to travel. Or tell your potential clients that you're interested in more than remote work. You'll be better served by frank communication upfront so you can avoid having to extract yourself from the wrong job and start again. While it seems glamorous at first, make sure being on the road, after the novelty of new places wears off, is actually a good fit for you. Especially if you have family to care for, extra-curricular commitments, or other factors that will have you missing home before you can say "boarding pass." For More Information: Plawin, Paul. Careers for Travel Buffs & Other Restless Types. Chicago: VGM Career Horizons, 1992. College and Other Vocational Instructors http://www.jobfutures.ca/noc/titles/4131.shtml Consultants http://www.jobfutures.ca/noc/4163.shtml Photographers http://www.jobfutures.ca/noc/5221.shtml Sales Representative http://www.jobfutures.ca/noc/titles/6411.shtml http://www.jobfutures.ca/noc/titles/6221.shtml http://workabroadtravel.suite101.com/article.cfm/get_paid_to_travel http://www.jobfutures.ca Comments (0)
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