Travel Jobs that encourage/allow/rely on travel?

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Silent Alarm

sack Lyon
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Jul 9, 2010
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Was on the train this afternoon and some woman was annoying everyone trying to get flights for these three codgers who had been boozing on with dinner too late and missed their first ones.

Then thought, jeez, I wouldn't mind one of those gigs. You break up the boring work week with a paid flight to see some pillocks from Sydney. Throw in an average hotel and a $50 dinner voucher there and I'd be happy with the outcome.

Then read ozbargain then and some guy was talking about a chicken shop in Canberra and all the regional chicken chains and their pros and cons. I thought 'this bloke is probably a 120 kilo truckie but that doesn't sound like bad knowledge to have.'

So, aside from driving a truck around or owning a mega corp, any idea on average jobs that allow for travel?

Or, ever had one?
 

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I'm an account manager , just do metro travel these days but for a few years it statewide and interstate

Initially its pretty good but the novelty can wear thin quickly and was pretty happy to move on from that role
 
I travel extensively for work and while its great in your 20s and 30s it sucks when you are older. Its like having a weird second life without any actual benefits. Its better than FIFO though.

I do about 8-10 weeks a year international.

Upsides:
- I never buy anything in Australia anymore. Electronics, clothes, pharmaceuticals (non PBS) etc are better bought elsewhere
- Food. Food is significantly better in Asia and Southern Europe than in Australia.
- Points. Family travel is occasionally achieved with points.
- Jagging the occasional activity like a major league game, a concert etc
- Watching the occasional movie on your phone

Downsides
- Family.
- Food. Food is significantly worse in the US and most of northern Europe than in Australia.
- Exhaustion
- Weight gain. Hotel breakfasts are the main culprit.
- Keep a lid on arising job issues in between flights, different time zones and meetings.
- All the admin like expenses, visa processes
- Getting sick on the road
- Waiting. Waiting for security, waiting to board, waiting to take off, waiting for the flight to end, waiting to get through immigration, waiting to get to your hotel, waiting to fall asleep in an odd timezone.

What helps? Netflix, melatonin, lounge access (for showers - its all about showers, hardly any have decent food these days), alcohol, roaming data, reading material, avoiding hotel breakfasts, friends in other ports, a packet of nuts or shortbread in your hand luggage and a quality hardwearing hard shell suitcase (zipperless only).

Plenty of people shouldn't do it. People:
- with no discipline
- who don't make changes according to other cultures
- who can't adjust their English according to the speaking level of who they are with
- who think all languages are just codes and translation fixes everything
- who whinge about expenses and minor travel disruptions
- who can't eat local food / or follow fad diets / or have extensive dislikes
- who can't work tired
 
basashi do you work a 'good' / well paying job? Sounds like you go all over the place.

I'd be pretty happy going to Canberra on a Sunday night and returning Wednesday morning once a fortnight, or going to Auckland a every other week. International travel would be too good to be true.

Agree on American food though. About three weeks into my trip to the states I felt really really sick, incredibly dry and biscuity inside my stomach. Remember going to a 'café' sort of thing and struggling to get a juice. Had to live off overpriced açai bowls which cost a heap and is just another type of sugar really. I could not live there because I'm someone who needs the 'feel' of healthiness more than anything else. I remember walking around Copenhagen and Stockholm wondering where to get some decent food... mall-level Asian was essentially street food there and the only thing I could find. Amazing how well Australia does food – all price ranges, accessible, basically every cuisine, sit down, sit in the park, whatever.
 
Get a job on a superyacht and get paid to cruise around the Caribbean 3 months of the year, get paid very well plus tips, take 3 months off then work on the Mediterranean for 3 months a year, get paid well plus tips, take 3 months off or work in the Alps while skiing/snowboarding for 5 hours a day,, rinse, repeat for 4 years then buy a house in Australia with cash from all your winning.
 
Don't know. Have worked interstate a couple of times before but in terms of travelling for work I think I have been interstate twice.

Hard to know what jobs are where you travel a lot.

Anything in management I guess for a company with overseas/interstate offices. International cricketer.

But for regular jobs where you travel like the poster above I'd be guessing:
Sales, Buyers for retail chain, IT development, HR and training for stuff like IT where stuff is outsourced/training foreign workers, A Public Service job in Canberra (travel interstate a lot with some departments), Flight attendant/Pilot obviously etc.

Honestly besides the occasional trip there are few jobs like it.

Personally I can see it as a pain in the arse living out of suitcases and under time pressure deadlines and don't see the point. Honestly if you're just working as soon as you setp off the plane until you get back on there is no point.

On the other hand if it is just go interstate to work a week or so in an office than hotel/night out wouldn't mind it to break up routine. Or play Test Cricket and experience new cultures etc. But as above those jobs are rare. No company is realistically going to send you overseas/interstate unless a) You are doing a very specialised job no one else can
b) A job needs doing urgently. So you are on the cheapest flight at the cheapest hotel possible to work your arse off before coming back to home base ASAP (With results)
 
I think there are a lot more jobs with travel than you realise.

If you really want to travel your best bet is to:

(1) explore a career in either sales, very senior management or a discipline that works in discrete project intervals. Sales and senior management doesn't need any explanation. By discrete project intervals i mean something that does evaluations, design projects, audits, reviews, IT implementations, rollouts of training ... that sort of pattern. The things that limit travel are the opposite - jobs were you are responsible for a particular thing in a particular place - such as running a particular machine, processing loan applications, looking after patients in a particular place etc etc.

(2)look for a company that is very widely distributed around the world. Think pharmaceuticals, engineering, tobacco (yikes!), electronics, fmcg, major finance and so on.

If you are a design engineer, IT manager, auditor etc at a global company with a couple of hundred sites... and any of those sites are smallish... then you are going to have fairly regular international travel.

You don't have to work only for an Australian company.
 
Loss adjusting.

Those campaigners travel all the time. I love travelling for work...just not for long periods of time
 

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I work in Real Estate investment and travel every week (throughout USA and globally, mostly Latin America).

Being away from family is your biggest issue. If being with family and being at important events (birthdays, holidays, anniversaries) is an issue, traveling is not for you.

I traveled 300,000 Miles last year. All those points come in handy with family holidays which makes up some of the pain of not being with family.

Bit harsh on the USA food I have to say. Sure, there is some shit food places around. But same as in Australia or anywhere else. If your want to find a nice restaurant they are everywhere.
 
Aussie Joe said:
I work in Real Estate investment and travel every week (throughout USA and globally, mostly Latin America).

Being away from family is your biggest issue. If being with family and being at important events (birthdays, holidays, anniversaries) is an issue, traveling is not for you.

I traveled 300,000 Miles last year. All those points come in handy with family holidays which makes up some of the pain of not being with family.

Bit harsh on the USA food I have to say. Sure, there is some shit food places around. But same as in Australia or anywhere else. If your want to find a nice restaurant they are everywhere.
Click to expand...

Hey - I will say that you CAN get good food in the US. But its more difficult than here because the food that predominates is there pretty poor. Turn up 9pm at a Four Points, a Ramada, a Courtyard Marriott, Garden Inn, Doubletree.... etc etc Go to your standard US shopping areas... try eating seafood almost anywhere.

I would take the food in the comparable Australian scenarios any day of the week. But Yes, if you are on holidays, can do some research and get your self across town then there IS good food around (but less of it).
 
Aussie Joe said:
I traveled 300,000 Miles last year. All those points come in handy with family holidays which makes up some of the pain of not being with family.
.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of that movie Up in the Air. The guy basically travelled non stop going around firing people the managers didn't have the stones to. Could do something like that.
 
Run n Spread said:
Reminds me of that movie Up in the Air. The guy basically travelled non stop going around firing people the managers didn't have the stones to. Could do something like that.
Click to expand...
Love that move and can relate to some parts. I basically only fly United Airlines. So although many people don’t get treated well and hate them, they treat me like a king!
 
I travel (mostly) domestically for work. Managed to rack up 540 Qantas status credits since it refreshed in December so I travel pretty regularly. I work in Business Intelligence in the health industry

Negatives
1. Typically your away flight is early so you'll be up around 4:30 - 5:00 to catch a 7am flight if you don't fly up the night before
2. Flights are boring, especially in the morning
3. Unless you are very senior/exec chances are you will be flying economy for domestic travel
4. Up and back in a day can be rather tiring after 2-3 a week
5. If you are staying overnight you usually spend most of your time in your hotel room working
6. Fitness schedule/diet can/will take a hit

Positives
1. See more of Australia
2. Company pays for Qantas Club
3. Accumulate a lot of FF points

It isn't a glamorous as you might think and the novelty of flying wears off pretty quickly. And as basashi mentioned, you spend a lot of your time just waiting around
 
find international companies. best way to get international travel.

I usually travel overseas 6-14 weeks a year. Been to standard places and places I would never ever go on holidays. It has its pros and cons. More pros if you are single and without kids. The cons are ofcourse airplanes, missing family and having to give up regular weekend sport.
 
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Best way to travel for work is to get a job in management where travelling for conferences / professional development is part of the contract or expected. I normally go interstate once a year or so for a conference or whatevs.

I traveled to Japan earlier this year for a local government exchange program. Was rad. Lots of meetings, activities, work during the day, but plenty of time for food and drinks and karaoke and onsens in the evenings and we had a home-stay that was awesome too.

But yes, if you had to travel domestically all the time for work, especially from Perth, that would suck.
 
Cruise ship entertainer. You get all your food and accom so you make good money. You buy all the alcohol they don't sell in international waters (no tax).

Down side would be you have to actually have a skill(s) and the contracts are 6-12 months.

Oh and the super-gastro potential.
 
Management consultants travel a lot. I had a meeting with a partner from McKinsey in Melbourne and had to arrange for 2 months out, not because he was busy already here, but that was when he was next in Melbourne after visiting ~5 countries from here to Japan
 

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