I hope this is an appropriate forum for this post. If it's not, please accept my apologies in advance and please don't flame me.

I know there were a few threads a while back about what kind of jobs FTers have that require so much travel. That discussion was interesting, but I want to expand it just a bit.

I have recently decided to officially enter the job market. (Yeah, I know the economy is not doing so great, but I figure it's easier to find a job when you already have one!) My background is almost exclusively in the non-profit sector and I am currently CEO or my organization (with a short stint as a DL res agent!). But, I've decided to make a career change and hope to dive into corporate America.

I am tied to no specific geographic region. I have no wife or kids, so the travel is no problem. In fact, I want a job that requires a fair amount of travel.

So, my question is: How did you break into your current job? Did it require travel immediately or did you have to go through the ranks first? How do you find jobs that naturally require a lot of travel?

I am NOT fishing for a job here on FT. Just looking for some discussion on careers that might fit FTers well. Thanks for your input!

I work for a company that does consulting in a specific niche to governments, national, state, local. We don't put people on-site full time because of the nature of our projects. I found that I didn't start travelling heavily until I became a project manager taking care of 2-4 current and 3-5 prospective clients at a time. Now, I am supposed to travel 40% on average but probably travel closer to 50% - enough to make second-tier elite on one airline. I travel for fun with all my vacation time, and that gets me up to top-tier.

I work as a sales agent for a major Scandinavian Airline, guess which one If you work for an airline you could often fly pretty cheap on standby basis but you dont earn any miles on those tickets Normally I try to find the cheapest ticket on a * carrier and then buy that one instead and get the miles and be sure I will be at my destination when I choose to.

My job required an immense deal of travel last year and almost none this year. I'm an e-business project manager... I didn't get into it for the travel, I got it into it for the money. If I make enough money I can travel on my own dime.


[This message has been edited by pitflyer (edited 05-14-2001).]

I am a consulting criminologist (private probation reports and intensive supervision) and owner of a small to mid-size (55 staff, 200 inmates) private, for-profit correctional agency contracted by the California Dept. of Corrections and Federal Bureau of Prisons. While I travel for conferences, trade associations, to testify, and to bid new facilities, the lion�s share of my points and miles comes from running urine testing and other company expenses through partner credit cards. However, every blue moon, I am enticed to go on a massive mileage run, i.e., LatinPass.

Just make sure your new job has full benefits.

Who woulda thought that chexfan would ever use that "Short Term Disability" thing that they rambled about after the number of vacation days but before the Life Insurance???

Six weeks of full pay to get "better"

I work for a (well, we call ourselves this) "Full-Service Marketing Company." Started out as a food broker, but we do many other things, including package design, merchandising, training, market research, etc. Found the job in the newspaper. There are 16 of us spread around the country, so travel is manditory. Most drive. Currently, I am the only one who flies exclusively. We have an open territory in Denver that they are holding open, but that position flies every week.

I'm based in the LAX/SNA/LGB/ONT area, and flew around 60-70k last year.

Now, if any FTers in the area are interested, I am being transferred to Dallas, so my position will be open. Great job for a recent college grad. E-mail me off line if anybody wants more info.

I started a consulting company in Houston in late 1999 using contacts that I'd made in the industry as a senior level employee/"owner" at the company that I had recently left.

That, of course, required significant travel on a daily basis.

I work for a company that manufactures very sophisticated and very precise navigation systems for ships. My job is to travel the world to install, maintain, and repair these systems, and to provide training to ship's crews. Currently my primary responsibility is the US Coast Guard, who use our systems to precisely position buoys that other ships use to safely navigate. So if you've ever sailed in US waters, I've made your trip a little safer.

I found out about the firm and its products from a fellow member of a non-profit community service organization that I belong to. When he showed me the equipment he helped develop, I was so taken that I asked, only partly jokingly, if they were looking for anybody. I was told "Yeah, a field technician. But you don't want that -- it's nothing but travel." I promptly took a massive pay cut, and have been travelling ever since. My #2 motto is "Between planes and ships, my feet never touch the ground." (My #1 motto is "I'd rather be late than hungry.")

I'm "in the field" about 90% of the time, and I am often gone for such extended periods that when I return to the office, I am continually asked "May I help you?" by new staff as I walk the hallways. My "No thanks, I work here" is usually met with stunned silence.

Two weeks is a short trip, 4 weeks is common, 6 weeks is not uncommon, and occaisionally I'm away for 8 weeks at a time. The cool thing is that I bank so much time in the field that when I'm home I'm pretty much on perpetual vacation. But I usually stay home for a treat.

Unlike many FTers who seem to wear suits and ties or other business apparel, I usually wear steel toed boots, jeans, a company T-shirt, safety glasses, hearing protectors and a hard hat to work. I've ridden all manner of aircraft including hovercraft and helicopters, and all kinds of vessels from aircraft carriers to small inflatable rescue craft used to ferry me miles out to sea in blizzard conditions and 8 ft seas so that I can scramble up a rope ladder to board a destroyer. I frequent steel mills, military bases, cement plants, coast guard stations, ship yards, and airport lounges.

And I love every minute of it.

hAAmer;

Sounds like a GREAT job! Sometimes it gets to the point that my wife will ask me when I'm taking another trip. She's gonna hate it when I'm home more...