txflyer77

That's what convincing your employer to pay for you to speak at conferences is for.

Taoyuan

That would definitely be nice if it suits you. We have some remote people who get to fly up to the office every once in a while. Not sure we have anything else besides that, as far as travel goes.

The BNA Gentleman

I think the best way to sum it up is, the more you are specialized - the further you'll travel out.

I'm a consultant dealing with wireless design for various industries and I've been everywhere and back including living in Germany and Saudi at a point. I'm at about 75-80% travel right now.

Being a consultant and the lone wolf on the road is the way to go - if you know what you are doing, you are the one who sets the schedules and bookings and don't have to worry about Sunday Night till Friday night red-eye flights. You can easily fly out late Monday - do some hussle and be done by Thursday afternoon with enough hours onsite to cover your week and be home by Thursday night.

I think the other factor is - who is booking your travel, how you schedule your travel and how well do you know the expenses agreement between yourself and the contract/customer.

PAX_fips

Another section where internationality is a given: cloud providers (Amazon AWS, Rackspace, ..) - yet I'd guess that the only ones there travelling is mgmt and IT-architects.

I work for a niche version of that and this puts me on a plane trip 3-4/year. I'd like to add more destinations and maybe 6-8 a year but then it'd be enough :-). Manchester next week...

Oh and yes, conferences, either speaking or gaining knowledge.

Long Train Runnin

I just reentered the tech world after stepping away to work in the energy industry. The job that lured me away came with the prospects of 1 to 2 trips a month. A lot of what is said here is very accurate. I took on the title of technical consultant, so visiting our customers is a large part of my role. The other factor that sold me on going to work for this company is it's based in the EU, so while I only look after North/Central America and the Caribbean I still get to visit HQ in Europe once a year. I think I made the right decision I don't see myself becoming some kind of hard core road warrior with this position, but it is nice to travel every few weeks.

MasterGeek

Hello,

Which jobs involve frequent air travel ? Which companies provide business and first class seats for their employees that are traveling for work ?

I am asking because I want to find a job that lets me easily become elite and accumulate lots of points with airlines and hotels.


Thanks!

DavidDTW

The general rule of thumb for a lot of companies (with exceptions as always) is domestic travel is in economy and J is allowed for long haul international flights.

Probably not a question you want to ask in an interview!

gfunkdave

This again?

You should find a job you enjoy doing because you will spend relatively little time traveling vs actually working.

Positions that require a lot of travel are rarely in premium cabins except for senior executives.

If you do something you enjoy, the perks will come - whether you travel for work or just do well enough at your job that you can afford to buy first class tickets on vacation. Finding a job based on travel parameters is like deciding to run a marathon because they give out water bottles.

Productivity

A giant stash of miles and status isn't worth all that much when the last thing you want to do is jump on another plane because it feels like that's all you do.

But if you are serious about it, what skills and background do you have??

Mr. Vker

I love airports. I enjoy having the miles and points to leverage for leisure travel. However, IMHO, those who believe work travel is wonderful and glamorous have never done it. Sitting in an airport on a Sunday night gives great perspective. Don't get me wrong. There are great perks, but keep everything in balance.

As another poster said, find a job you love first.

JY1024

As this topic comes fairly often, we've merged this into our master thread for the topic. Thanks for your understanding. /Moderator

Annalisa12

Fully agree with you that travel loses the excitement after a while. I travel for pleasure and I am thinking that now.

LupineChemist

You can't get status, but you can get far more miles from credit cards and various promotions than butt in seat miles unless you are flying a hell of a lot.

But I'll agree that it's one of those things that seems glamorous for about a month until it gets old fast. Lounges are nice and all, but they are still just airport waiting rooms. The nicest F-seat still has you stuck in a metal fart-tube with a couple hundred other people.

As an example, last week I flew from MAD to ORD for roughly 40 hours on the ground, that was a very leisurely pace. Tomorrow I'm going to MCT to spend about 16 hours on the ground. I don't even have time for a hotel. I don't care how good your seat is, no airplane seat is better than a real bed.

darthbimmer

These questions come up a lot. My brief advice echoes what others have said above: Get a job that you enjoy and which pays well; save your money to travel on your own.

The sad truth of job travel is that it's nowhere near as glamorous as often portrayed in popular culture. As a person traveling for work you'll spend many long hours stuck in transit, feeling like a sardine packed in a can with dozens of other sardines. You'll spend nights away from your family and weekends away from your friends. Your destinations are more likely to be suburban office parks or remote factories than hip, exciting cities. And even when you are in/near those hip, exciting cities you'll be working long hours that make opportunities for real enjoyment rare. Don't get me wrong; good times do happen. They're just rare. People interested in the glamor and excitement of travel generally will be better off saving up and pursuing it on their own.

mandolino

The other thing is that when you travel for work, the meter is running.

You can't just stretch a trip out because you feel like it (OK, I've done it, but ...)
You're not on your own dime or time.

You travelling to achieve something, get a result, and then get back to base while keeping costs under control.

People used to accuse me of selfishness for not taking my wife.

She came with me a couple of times and then realise I really do spend most of my time n work and she was on her won during the day and often having to tolerate business talk with contacts in the evenings.

I do go to some nice places so I scope them out for possible leisure trips later on.