CMK10

I have a B.A. in History and English Literature so can I make funny comments about the OP's Major?

tebfunk

My undergrad degree was in Political Science, and I would second the Foreign Service. The Foreign Service is a great option for someone who doesn't know exactly what they want to do, as there is so much variety. It is, however, very competitive, although your military experience would expedite that process.

You could also look into NGOs, although without a graduate degree that might be more difficult. I have colleagues who have interned overseas with MercyCorps, Catholic Charities, etc. and now have paid positions within those organizations that require extensive travel. My classmate who works for MercyCorp, for example, volunteered with them in Africa, then was hired for a role in program administration at their home office, where she spent two years (averaging 2-3 trips "to the field" a year) and is currently on a 2 year rotation to the Middle East. Something like that might be interesting to you as well.

I would *not* recommend the Peace Corps for you. My stepsister spent three years hitchhiking around Guatemala, procuring grants to build stoves that the locals dismantled and traded for livestock. She had a great (albeit unfulfilling, and financially unproductive) time, but it doesn't sound like you're at the point in your life where you would enjoy that.

Mr H

I met a guy once who calibrated scanners at border posts. He got to travel to very obscure frontiers around the world. I met him on a flight out of Yerevan where he had been down to the Iranian border - his new passport also had a Tajik visa and he said he needed two passports so that he could travel on one whilst applying for visas in the other.

Ancien Maestro

Unique jobs posted here..

What comes of travel.. chicken or the egg.. Do you seek out jobs requiring travel.. or get jobs on its merit, whether or not travel is involved?

joejones

I got my BA in poli sci a few years ago. I ended up interning on a presidential primary campaign (in the US) during the summer between junior and senior year, and then working full-time on a Senate campaign after graduation.

There can be a lot of travel in that kind of job depending on the position and the scale of the campaign. Obviously, if you're working for a mayor or an urban congressional candidate, you probably won't leave your city. On the other hand, if you get in on a presidential campaign or a Senate campaign in a large state, there can be quite a bit of travel to different fundraisers, speeches, events, etc. A co-worker of mine ended up as a close fundraising aide to Ted Kennedy and was traveling all the time for different events.

As a bonus, many campaign workers end up becoming senior government employees if the candidate actually wins. Certain other friends of mine went to work for Obama's campaign in 2008 and are now working in (or close to) the White House. Of course, if your candidate loses (or wins and cannot hire you at their new office) you have to go back to the drawing board -- but there are always campaigns going on somewhere.

Besides the campaigns themselves, there are various national political organizations (on both sides of the aisle) that will dispatch employees to help out with campaigns in various parts of the country. This includes the campaign committees of the main political parties as well as a number of non-aligned issue-specific organizations. There are also consultancies that deal with political issues, though they are more likely to hire experienced campaign staffers.

No international travel in any of these jobs, though. The foreign service is probably a better bet for that.

andy007

Hi guys.
As newly joined flyertalker, I was wondering what kind of people fly 130,000 miles a year or more just like Ryan Bingham from Up in the air. I think time isn't so great for business travels and was wondering any corporate jobs would make people flying for business. I know this is lame question but just wanted to know. I'm a bit mileage obsessed too.
Let me know

Sweet Willie

Hello andy007,

There have been a few threads in Travelbuzz about your question, so I'll transfer your thread there.

Welcome to Flyertalk,

Willie
co-moderator of Community Buzz

mikeef

Pilot, FA, etc.

Seriously, it could be everything from a traveling salesperson to a consultant. There are a bunch of threads and I'm thinking this one is going to be combined into a different one, so I'll tell you what most others will end up telling you:

Worry about a job you will love, not one that gets you miles. You can fly on vacation and there are plenty of opportunities to earn miles without flying.

Business travel isn't as glamorous as many of us make it out to be. Do you really want to be the consultant who has a two year stint in Wichita? No offense to Wichita.

You want a job where you control the travel, not the other way around (which is too many of the high-travel jobs). You don't want to be missing family events because you're getting sent to Duluth. No offense to Duluth.

Mike

RobbieRunner

Secret Agent, of course. 007's have to be worldwide at a moment's notice to double-knot spy on people.

Seriously, you'd need a traveling job. One that spans states or countries. One that requires you to fly to meet with customers/clients/accounts. As stated, this can be a Salesperson, an Engineer, or even a Welding Inspector (which happens to be a much sought after career at present). Some Government jobs also require flying. Anyone whom needs to be in multiple states or countries needs to fly. Some positions, although they require travel, do nor require flying. Pharmaceutical Representative usually would not give you a lot of flying because you'd have a territory that would span only "Counties" in the US and you'd drive to your accounts.

You have three basic choices.
-GET a job with someone that requires travel and pays you for your travel expenses.
-GET a job with someone that pays you commission or salary but does NOT pay your expenses (ouch), or ...
-CREATE a job for yourself that requires travel. That's what I ended up doing many moons ago - after trying the first two options.

Good luck!

Science Goy

^ to this.

I love that I get to travel for work, but I would never take a job I didn't like solely because it involved lots of travel.

N965VJ

I'm not sure of the OP's age (now post # 67 after the thread merge), but one thing to consider at some point down the road of life they may want to start a family, so you may want to build in some flexibility if you want to spend more time at home while the kids are growing up.

Of course, if you're like me, your significant other may not mind if you're gone a lot. One time the girlfriend said "Pack your bag, I'm taking you to the airport."

I replied, "But I don't need to be anywhere."

"I don't care, you're getting on my nerves." was her response.

Ocn Vw 1K

andy007, welcome to FlyerTalk! I combined your new thread today with one of a number on this subject. Also note that on page one of the thread you'll see some links to even more threads on this same subject. So have a look upthread and at some of the other threads cited and you should have a good answer to your question. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator.

slawecki

two of the people my wife worked with at xerox caught the am am from iad to palo alto. made some kind of report and flew back on the red eye. did the whole thing on a friday. no comp time, but over 300k/year(think i got that mileage right). they rode in the back of the plane. nobody lasted much more than a year in that job.

GloverParker

I fly about 120K for business and last year another 60k or so for pleasure. Basically, I travel so my teams don't have to -- one's in DC and one's in Dallas -- and I regularly speak on behalf of my company to large conferences around the country. If you saw my job description, you'd never guess that I travel as much as I do -- but it works for me and my employer and I guess that's what counts. I love my job -- I'd love it with or without the travel -- but the business travel also accommodates my endless need for cool vacations!

I realize that this isn't terribly helpful in terms of "what kind of job" but I've found that in almost all cases two things must apply:

1. An indicated willingness to travel (lots of folks don't want to)
2. Having something to say that other want/need to hear -- be it training, consulting, sales, or something else.

Doug_1970

I concur completely.

Having travelled for business regularly since 1995, and averaging hotel 120 nights a year, I can say that it definitely loses appeal. Everyone at home thinks I'm having a jet set lifestyle, but the reality is that I'm spending most of my time in airports, hotels and client sites. Luckily I have a very interesting job, which makes the travel bearable.

A career should be picked based on something you enjoy doing, not on the possible perks of that career (other than salary of course).