HomerJ

..now as a recent grad I'd say the sales aspect is more realistic. The upside is you get to see the world...the downside is recent grads dont get to fly in J....so expect some pretty long boring cramped flights to get to where you are going. You can also take a foriegn posting (thats what i did) where you cover a certain portion of the world (mine was based out of HK and TPE) and thats a plus cuz you get a housing and transportation suplement. The if you get posted to places like the phillipines or indonesia you get really nice digs
(for safety) and you get staff...usually a housekeeper/cook and a driver. it helps if you have secondary language skills.

cattle

That was my first job selling cat litter. My boss sent me to Des Moines Iowa in January (or some other nasty month) for 6 days. When I asked him why he laughed and told me "no reason, just remember if you step out of line I can do it again"

He was an awesome boss despite that little lesson

back seat

Change a few things and you are describing my job

yycguy2

Don't lie!!!!!

miserablewithAC

Pantywaists! The OP was looking for jobs with lots of travel, not travel AND comfort!

If he wants lots of travel to a wide variety of warm dryish places he should submit to a frontal lobotomy (already done, in my case) and join the Army. Of course, the beaches may well be mined, the hotel might consist of dozens of sandbagged tents behind a HESCO bastion and the locals armed and with murderous intent.

Your modes of travel won't earn you much in the way of AE points however.

Maybe that was what you really meant?

Seriously, I can't think of a better way to (1) pay off your student loans, (2) learn actual practial leadership skills (as opposed to 'management' skills) and (3) find out that most of the rest of the world doesn't live like us and the little bit of improvement that we (Canadians) are able to bring to their lives is deeply appreciated.

cheers, MWAC

airbus320

...been there, done that...even picked up a t-shirt or two on the journey... and then moved on to the Air Force.

What was that recruiting jingle ?...there is no life like it.

miserablewithAC

I imagine that the OP was thinking of the type of job where travel involved conferences, golfing and drinks at the hotel bar......like the Air Force!

cheers, MWAC

Seat13F_AC_CRJ

Dear OP -- as my fellow posters have attested, there are many careers with a travel element... even for business grads. I had barely been on a plane by the time I left university. Ottawa and Boston were the furthest I had ever ventured from home in NB. Advance the clock a few years -- I have lived and worked in Asia and Europe, visited close to 50 countries and haven't tired of it yet. The experiences are varied and absolutely unimaginable until you experience it first hand. So how do you make it all happen...

Focus on something. Become an expert. Build a solid knowledge base as a foundation for other things. It could be in procurement, a new marketing technique, transfer pricing (for masochists only), Asian languages (Foreign Affairs is a good place for this), or an obscure technical field. Kate Canuck mentioned her early career -- I've seen this work for others.

For summer jobs, if finances are not a big concern, look for internships. Some don't pay well, and others don't pay at all, but they can be in interesting places.

Good luck! Bonne chance! Buona fortuna! Buena suerte!
--
13F

bobsyouruncle

Another option, once you become an "expert", is to join a couple of standards committees (ANSI, ISO, IEC, UL, etc) for that field. Most active standards committees will meet a few times a year for a couple of days and if you join the right ones you will be able to hit most of the major North American cities within a couple of years. Some of the international standards (ISO) will take you to Asia and Europe on a yearly basis. Of course the price will be that you have to sit through some fairly boring meetings for a couple of days and you may get work assigned to you that will consume your weekends.

But the main point is to focus hard on some field and gain all the knowledge you can. Then there will be many avenues open to you.

YYC-YYJ

I'm not on student loans and am making major sacrifices to be able to go to school full time. As such, I definitely intend to get a job in the private sector. The problem is that my main source of potential jobs is through my university's career centre. This means either public practice accounting or oil & gas. Somebody save me!

Honestly though, are there not jobs out there where people would jump at the chance to land someone willing to travel, be paid little, who had experience and a solid education?

It doesn't feel like there is. Anyway, I'm off to an interview at a small accounting firm here in town.

How'd you all land your jobs?

KB

Seat13F_AC_CRJ

My first job was in the public service. I was recruited -- or rather I applied to the Public Service Commission -- right out of school. Began my gainful employment in Ottawa at the stratospheric starting salary of $22,885 per annum. Isn't it amazing how some numbers stick with you forever!
--
13F

After Burner

From my perspective, as an employer, the answer is yes. If such people exist, I sure can't find them. Employees who have experience usually want to avoid travel. Only the inexperienced seem to want travel. And the inexperienced aren't the ones I'd want to send on out-of-town missions. Catch-22.

Lornag

I don't know that it's so easy to get a job with lots of foreign travel upfront. I do agree that if you specialize, you're more likely to travel sooner rather than later. People don't usually hire generalists and give them the glamorous life....hah hah

Some government departments do have a travel mandate, and do hire grads, but then you have to work for the government, and that's probably not for everyone. You could work for an international NGO, they won't pay much and some would probably appreciate some harder skills, but stay away from those that think you have to have lived in the trenches or gone to church to be hired.

I think the idea of an internship is also good. If you have the luxury of working for close to nothing. You never know where those will take you.

My own experience has been more luck than planning. Right place, right time, right set of skills.

Lorna

YOWkid

What's wrong with the public sector or even NGOs?

The problem these days (and I am admittedly a contributor to this problem, but most young people are, I think), fresh uni grads believe in instant gratification. In other words, we think we should be put in good positions making good money immediately out of uni because we are well educated (and it's even worse with those with graduate degrees, such as myself).

Unfortunately, the world doesn't work that way. Most B.Com students are told that they will come out and manage. This is BS. Most are told that they will come out and make good money. Again, BS. It's not impossible, but not very likely.

So, I guess what I am saying is that you shouldn't close your doors to other areas. There are very interesting jobs in all sectors that involve good travel and different pay scales. (Look at AC for example, if you're a FA starting off, you don't get a very good salary -- UA is only offering somewhere around 20k USD a year!!!)

Well, time for you to surf the web and start cold calling. It sucks, but that's how things work sometimes. It's sometimes embarassing etc., but it's a very humbling experience. Very humbling.

An flight attendant. Again, UA example. There is a lot of supply -- and that's why airlines can offer to pay so little.

Good luck!

Being in the right place at the right time asking the right questions to the right people at the right moment in the right situation. There is also a large element of luck.

Word advice: Good things come to good people who are willing to wait.

I believe in that as I am about to start my dream job at the beginning of December.

YOWkid

Travel seems to be mostly done by all the senior folks.

And if they like to travel, they still nonetheless usually take all the good destinations and leave the less desired for the more junior staff.