corporate666

I'm the CEO of an electronics company. I fly mostly to schmooze with our customers, attent sales conferences, do deals, and sometimes to meet with suppliers. I don't fly all that much but the good part is I get to pick and choose what jobs I want to do myself.

Jaimito Cartero

I skip work a lot.

nd_eric_77

FWIW, I also have the option of doing monday morning travel, but I just don't care for waking up at ~4 am in order to rush off somewhere. Also, arriving late Sunday night allows for me to work a full day on Monday, so theres less pressure on Tuesday and Wednesday. ymmv.

drat19

Ah yes, the joys of having to get those 40 billable hours in every week. Ain't consulting grand?

RichMSN

I'm principal consultant for a small software company. Most of my focus is presales, so I do a lot of short trips and my time isn't billable except on well-defined, short projects.

Enough traffic to be top tier on one airline and one hotel chain, but not enough to make me want to find something else.

swei0009

Software sales. Specifically, I am the geek who follows the rep and says "He said it does what???" Or, if we are both at the same meeting, he says "Here's my SE....."

But it lets me make metro money while living in the mountains. And I am senior enough that I usually only travel 2-3 days a week, max 3 weeks in a row.

Fraser

Although I'm not travelling much with my firm (large brokerage company) we have a small group of traveller who spend Mon-Fri each week out on the road. We are pioneering a new form of financial planning and so they visit our various branches informing the financial advisors of how it all works. We have a couple of guys based on the east coast and one lady who lives in Phoenix.

My father has worked in software for as long as I can remember and has travelled far, wide and fairly often. Living in the UK he used to spend one week on, one week off, splitting his time between Orange County, CA and the UK. On his weeks back in the UK he used to spend perhaps a couple of those in Europe. Now he co-ordinates a team spread across the Benelux countries, France & Spain. Flies about two days a week.

gradvmedusa

I'm interested in what those who travel often internationaly on business do. I'm also an undergrad.

RustyC

A side question: Is it easier or harder to recruit for the high-travel jobs vs. the ones that aren't?

bensyd

The company I work for designs and makes furniture alot of my travel is to Asia where some of our production is handled and where we source alot of componentry, and also to Europe where we buy some higher end parts. Also goto a few trade shows in US/Europe/Asia. I would say 90% of my travel is international I only make 6 or 7 domestic flights/year. Unfortunaley for me our travel policy is Y only

I am here until Friday then I'm on holidays before moving to London and no idea what I will do. I'm thinking though there will be a fairly large reduction in my travelling miles so I may have to join the ranks of the mileage runners to maintain status

bensyd

I would say its easier to recruit grads who dont have much experience, as they like the glamour of having to travel for work, but harder to recruit more experienced people as they will more likely have families and know the seperation that a travelling job requires.

uproared

I've just finished university and I'm hoping to travel for business. Next year I'll be working in a business assurance role for one of the big 4 accountancy firms, so I doubt I'll have much of an opportunity to travel (at least not internationally) for the first couple of years

pattas

I work in the apparel industry. headoffice is based in LA, where I go 10-12 times a year. production is based in the far east, which is another 6 trips. trips within europe usually one every two weeks.

Skillet

For the newly minted engineers who want to travel

Domestic travel - field engineer (takes $%&*)

International travel - supplier quality engineer or sourcing specialist (gives $%*&)

swag

I have done heavy travel both doing sales and consulting. The travel was different.

In my case, it was almost all US & Canada in both roles.

As a consultant, most travel is week-long, and often to the same destination for weeks or months at a time. You have the time to fully explore your destination city, but you can also easily get bored of it. And if you're stuck in a less-desirable location, well, you're stuck. I've had gigs in Chicago and New York, but also Rochester MN, Camp Hill PA, and Kalamazoo MI.

On the sales side, most travel was in the form of a one night stay, sometimes 2 nights, and occasionally day trips. Sometimes 1 trip a week, sometimes 2 or 3. You get the "excitement" of travel, the chance to briefly see what the destination city looks like, a nice dinner out, and are quickly back home in the comfort of your own bed. But you rarely have time to properly explore your destination city.

In my industry (software), sales trips were rarely solo. It was usually a pairing of the Sales Guy and the Techie. So there was usually company for both the flight and for dinner. As a consultant, many gigs are solo, which can get lonely at times.

As a consultant, the week-long stays meant that hotel points piled up quick, but that top-tier airline status is unreachable. Doing sales, the opposite is true. The more frequent trips with shorter stays mean the miles come quicker than the nights.