Dave8481

Hello,

I am a recent college grad...My dad travelled a lot while I was growing up and he would have loved this website...Anyway I have had the good fortune of travelling alot throughout my life for vacation and I love air travel...I love airports...I love being there...I love planes...Many people have told me I am not a well person, but I can't help it...I get a total high when I am at the airport and sometimes when I go there for something other than actually flying I get sad knowing I am not going through security and getting onto a flight...Anyway to my point...I have a BA in finance, want to get an MBA and complete the CFA exams, but for now I would love a job that I had to travel anywhere from 25% to 75% of the time...are there any jobs sites out there that anyone knows of that specialize in these types of jobs that require travelling...there seem to be so many different job search websites out there I thought there might be something like this out there, but have not found anything by searching on my own and thought I would put myself at the mercy of the flyertalk community and their vast and superior knowledge...If this thread belongs in a different area or isn't appropriate to the site I apologize. Thank you.

David

dbuckho

Submit your resume to any/all of the big and medium consulting companies (Deloitte, E&Y, PWC, etc). They will be happy to keep you on the road until you go back for your MBA.

Also, have you tried entering 'travel required' as your search criteria on monster.com and other job sites? You will be surprised how many listing come back. A lot of them may be more senior - looking for road warriors to build up a sales organization as an example - but that will also give you a feel for the types of jobs that require a lot of travel.

party_boy

I read an article years back stating that the profession that required the most travel was suprisingly accounting. I wonder if that still holds true?

AllanJ

You can try to find a good time to ask the question, "Does this job require travel". After the interviewer or the person on the phone responds, you not too vigorously add that you don't mind travel as a majority of the job requirement. But be careful what you ask for. You could be on the road almost all of the time and not have time to prepare expense reports except by burning th e midnight oil.

With the poor quality control of just about all aspects of travel (rental cars, airlines, hotels) also keep in mind that you cannot allow fighting with the providers to interfere with your job duties.

Travel tips:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/travel.htm

I "will accept travel" but for many years had been apprehensive about going down in a plane crash. Currently I estimate that the chances of the latter are about equal as the chances of not coming out of general anesthesia in an operation.

WRCSolberg

That's true. Hence why the "Big 4" accounting firms all have consulting divisions. Consulting is traditionally very travel intensive.

Karter

I currently still at university but will be graduating with my BA in May 2007. I too assumed that I would go down the consulting route but everyone who's done it tells me that these companies do not allow to you have any life whatsoever aside from the job. I want to be travelling, maybe 20% of the time, but not much more than that. I would like some sort of home.

swag

I've had travel-heavy positions doing both Consulting and Sales. On the Consulting side, travel is typically week-long (Mon-Fri), to the same location, for several weeks in a row. On the Sales side, most trips were overnighters, with the occasional 2 nighters or day trip thrown in; and you rarely went the same place twice in a row.

From your post, your love of travel seems to be airplane and airport related, which would make the latter type of travel much more desirable. I'd bet several months of 4 nights in a nondescript business hotel for the excitement of a couple of short flights to get there and home might start to wear you down.

So definitely inquire not only the total amount of travel, but the type of travel as well.

PHLisOK

I'm two years out of undergrad, consulting for a big-four spin-off. Generally, our projects run in the 6-12 month range, with you flying out Monday morning and flying home Thursday night, working from home on Friday (typically getting caught up on admin stuff and conference calls).

I don't mind traveling, although typically I see new consultants that haven't traveled before begin very enthusiastically while flying, staying in a hotel, having a corporate card etc. is a novelty, but quickly become less excited about it after six months to a year (only seeing friends on weekends, working 50-60 hours weeks Mon-Thu, losing daily contact with significant others etc). It's certainly a lifestyle change if you haven't traveled before, but if you're going to try it, the time to do it is now, when you don't have a family, mortgage, kids to pick up from soccer practice, a lawn to mow etc.

At any rate, good luck. Joining a Big 4 firm is a great way to continue building your skills after graduating.

Karter

I hope I don't sound too clueless, but generally is "corporate" sales very different from other sales jobs? Before I went to uni I did a couple of sales jobs and hated them. I can deal with selling a product that I believe in to a customer that wants it, but I hated trying to force people to buy things they didn't want, didn't need or couldn't afford, especially when I knew the product wasn't the best and the price was over-inflated. I'm sure that the sort of sales jobs that require travel are a bit better, more honest, less dependent on psychological manipulation... where do I find out about this stuff? My careers advisers at uni are useless!

uproared

I also had a similar criteria when seeking employment. I'm in my final year of a BCOM with a major in finance and have recently landed a graduate position at PWC that will commence in 2007. From what I've heard, there are a number of 'smaller' (read: domestic) travel opportunities in the first 24 months and then the international opportunities come into play once you become a more senior associate...Either way I hope to be on secondment to NY after 2 years at the firm.

At every interview I had I questioned them about travel patterns and opportunities . You and I sound quite alike, we'll probably meet each other in a lounge at some point in our respective careers!

Of course, it's probably different in the states.

uproared

Exactly.

Good to hear.

silverthief2

Er, maybe you should look into another industry.

On a serious note, to the OP and to you, it's not easy to find a position that matches what you want in terms of travel simply because that's not the primary purpose of most jobs. Maybe you should consider something within the travel industry. If you can get a gig as some type of travel writer/critic, you would actually be doing your job by traveling. Or some type of job where you work in an airport. These are the sorts of things I'll be looking for eventually.

ShopAround

Have you thought about working as a Tour Director? I own a travel business and escort my own tours but also work freelance as a Tour Director for other companies. Unlike a job that requires travel, that's a job that's about travel. It's not the most lucrative gig (although you can do well if the tips are good), and it's a lot of work, but you're basically being paid to travel. You need to be patient as a saint, organized, know your destinations (or at least research them well), able to improvise (like when a recent boat ride got cancelled and I had to come up with an alternate activity). You're the first one up in the morning and the last to go to sleep. Some passengers are a pleasure and some just don't seem to be capable of having a good time, and you can't let that get to you. But there have been quite a few times when I'm in the middle of a great tour and think, "I can't believe I get paid for this."

Hiring season is early spring for the summer tour season. Depending on where you live, there might be local companies that operate tours in your area, which would be a good way to get experience if the big tour operators won't hire a newbie.

Good luck!

Echo

Go the consulting route.

I'm a software consultant where I've traveled off and on for the last 9 years. Sometimes it's more travel than I'd like, sometimes less. But on balance, I'm traveling about 70% of the time and it works out great.

Plus, the money is great. Make bank, travel, get tired of it, take your money and points and have a nice vacation. Repeat.

KMHT FF

True dat.

You will never get rich working for someone else.