travelling professions (1 Viewer)

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zeetes

zeetes

carouser
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question regarding 50-80% travel for work.

do you really enjoy the job, or do you honestly like the travel?

i have spent a year and a half traveling for one of the 'big four' accounting firms, though as a cybersecurity consultant. i am specialized in a small, but highly in demand, field.

the actual job, i love. i love my company. the 12-16 hours a week travel is really forking with me, and this has been ongoing for months. customers don't bother me. i deal with mostly fortune 100 corporations. crazy how some of these value IT as a third or fourth level of importance.

i just don'r care anymore regarding anything beyond me. i have met several people who agree
 
well since you didn't exclude it, i will include international dance touring as a 'travelling profession'
i am very nostalgic for it now, but when it was coming to an end i was ready for it to be over
the nostalgia is mostly bc most of my 20s was spent in europe and a bit of south america and japan, but there's been hardly any travel since
i was more fortunate than a lot of touring acts, bc we often 'sat' for weeks - 6 weeks in buenos aires, 3 weeks in amsterdam, 3 weeks in madrid, etc
if it was mostly domestic 'bus & trucks' (one night or weekend stands), i would have probably hated it much more

the work was very physically demanding so burn out was common, but the crow/receptions were nuts, and that can give a LOT of energy (just dead tired at the beginning of a show and hyped by the end)
this, of course, led to a LOT of drinking - finish a show at 10pm (sometimes even midnight) and you're just jacked with adrenaline - we mostly performed in wine loving cultures. so we'd just down bottles and bottles just to take the edge off

the best part about 'sitting' was getting to know the tech guys at the theatre and they would take us to very local, often 'underground' places - we go to see parts of cities no tourists (and not that many locals) would ever see

eventually we started going back to the same cities and after doing the same show 100+ times, the grind just got too much
to say nothing of the fact that, while we were paid well compared to our contemporaries. it was still pretty much hand to mouth existence - and i knew that i wanted to be positioned to have a family and we all know what Journey says about
the road and starting a family

anyway...what was the question?
 
I’ve traveled a lot for work over the years; since I cant sing or dance, i work in sales.. Mostly healthcare sales, and i’ve actually really enjoyed the travel.. My travel hasn’t been nearly as exotic as Guido’s (though i did once have to work in Australia), but mostly covering a few different states in the Southeast US.

To the OP, what type of travel are you referring to? For me, the enjoyment level depends on a few things.. first and foremost , are we talking air travel or driving? I detest flying, just the inconvenience and hassle of it.. Fortunately most of my work travel has been via automobile.. i love road trips and driving, also eating on an expense report/per diem is fricking amazing.. also i was single for a lot of years, so that helped.

I think the main factor though is: Are you in control of your schedule , or is someone else? For me, i controlled my calendar- i’d set up a week in a certain city a couple months ahead of time to see clients, then leave whenever i wanted, take as long as i wanted, as long as i made the appts i had scheduled.. I’d think that if i had to drop everything to take off on a trip on short notice, the enjoyment factor would have been greatly reduced.
 
I've had various stints with lots of travel. When I was younger and single I loved it. My first job was like 90% travel, and I went all over the world - it was great. Then I got married and I wanted to stay married so I rolled off that into something that only traveled a couple of times a year.

When I started having kids, I hated travel. It's too stressful on the family, and I miss them.
 
Mr. Blue Sky said:
Forgot to mention , my favorite part about work travel is accumulating hotel points.. Enables you to travel all sorts of places in your off time for free.
Click to expand...

I got to have a total luxury honeymoon to Hawai'i completely for free, and several vacations after that were completely free. Spoiled us.
 
Any bets on zeetes doesn't show back up for a day or two?

I would have lost last time but I'm confident he's gone for a while.

Just a feeling.
 
UndeadSnoopy said:
It gets old and I've come to hate it.

Hotel rooms used to be a fun thing.

Usually it's once a month but lately it's been every week.

My internets wife has started to complain.
Click to expand...
i did find the notion of 'home' a bit ambiguous
even when we weren't on the road, the company rehearsed in connecticut
my gf at the time and i had a place in brooklyn
soon after i started touring, she got a job teaching in Rotterdam
to say i was rootless would be an understatement
 
Mr. Blue Sky said:
Forgot to mention , my favorite part about work travel is accumulating hotel points.. Enables you to travel all sorts of places in your off time for free.

But yeah, traveling every single week would get old.
Click to expand...
ha plenty of travel points
we also had sprint (pre-cell phone) - if my gf and i wanted to talk (say, i was in argentina and she was in rotterdam) we'd have to 'patch' it through the brooklyn apt
so 2 international calls in one - we would have monster phone bills
but the points let us fly to Rome together so..ciao
 
guidomerkinsrules said:
i did find the notion of 'home' a bit ambiguous
even when we weren't on the road, the company rehearsed in connecticut
my gf at the time and i had a place in brooklyn
soon after i started touring, she got a job teaching in Rotterdam
to say i was rootless would be an understatement
Click to expand...

When I was younger, it was fun. Exploring different places. Feeling like I could conquer the world.

Then somewhere along the line I realized people are pretty much the same everywhere you go.

I'm getting older and sometimes I just want to be home eating a sandwich.
 
I have been traveling for about 10 years now, the first 4 years was 100% leave on Sunday come back home on Thursday. The past 6 years have been above 50% travel, 2 weeks out of the month, leave on a Monday come back home on Thursday or maybe leave on a Tuesday and back home on Thursday.

I work as a IT Technical Implementation Project Manager in the healthcare industry for a software company. I actually love to travel still doesn't bother me after all these years. I mostly work in very rural locations averaging 1-3 hour drives from the airport so I have gotten to see many places in this nation that you wouldn't ordinary get to see. With that being said you do end up in some BFE towns, and I am very picky about hotels, so sometimes I will have to drive an hour plus back to a major chain hotel. Been married for 17 years, family is well adjusted, only problem is when I get home I get blamed for taking over the house. Funny story: My wife was talking to my sons teacher and happened to get embarrassed when one of the kids who was very young at the time and told the teacher with my wife standing there that his daddy came home for the weekend and spent the night.
 

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